Nina M. Yancy, Inaugural fellow, McKinsey Center for the Future of Work

Nina M. Yancy holds a doctorate in Politics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar.

"It takes work to maintain the centuries-old racial hierarchy in the United States. In How the Color Line Bends, through a sophisticated analysis of a school district secession effort in Baton Rouge, Nina Yancy shows us how White people, including progressives, do this work. The book has as much to teach us about the critical reflection needed of dominant social science practices and assumptions as of White identity and its political implications." - Katherine Cramer, Virginia Sapiro Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"How the Color Line Bends is compelling. Yancy provides a well-written, deeply theoretical, and passionate examination of the ways in which Whites' racial identity shapes their understanding of local geography and racialized policies. This project is both methodologically broad and informed by a nuanced understanding of the historical context of national, regional, and local politics. I strongly recommend this timely and important book." - Vincent Hutchings, Hanes Walton Jr. Collegiate Professor in Political Science and Afroamerican and African Studies, University of Michigan

"How the Color Line Bends is a masterpiece of theory, method, and insight into White people's perspectives on segregation, the safety net, and affirmative action. Yancy goes deep into Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and broadly to metropolitan areas across the country to illustrate the importance and consequence of the advantaged perch from which White people form their policy preferences and politics. This book will fundamentally reorient the research on White racial attitudes." - Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Northwestern University, and author of Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City