Derrick Darby, "A Realistic Blacktopia: Why We Must Unite to Fight" (Oxford UP, 2022)
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What is the episode’s introduction and who are the hosts and sponsors?
Hi everyone, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the founder of the New Books Network and I'm also a historian. I used to be a history professor and I love maps, so I'm especially happy to tell you that this episode is sponsored by What's Your Map, which was the winner of the Best Education Podcast at the 2025 British Podcast Awards. What's Your Map is hosted by historian and prize-winning author Professor Jerry Broughton. In each episode, he invites a guest to share a map close to their heart and unfurl the ideas, inspirations, and stories behind it. I can tell you I've listened and it's fascinating. The podcast is in its sixth series and is enjoyed by audiences around the globe. You can explore all the maps in the podcast online.
at oculi-mundi.com while you listen. Jerry's guests include Zakiya Suwel, who's an English broadcaster and writer on Finding Albion, Jo Schmidt, who's the head of maps at the Zurich Central Library, Pat Seed, a U.S. historian on Ptolemy's World Map, John Romero, who's a legendary video game producer on The Doom Game Creator, Elif Sharak, a well-known Turkish-British novelist, and Chet Van Duser, Welcome to the New Books Network.
Hello, and thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figter, Malcolm Keating, and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Derek Darby. Derek is Henry Rutger's Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His research is focused in contemporary social and political philosophy, where he works on rights, egalitarianism, and democracy. His latest book has just been published with Oxford University Press. It is titled A Realistic Blacktopia, Why We Must Unite to Fight. In the United States, unjust disparities in things like income, opportunity, health, safety, and education tightly track racial categorizations of the U.S.
population. Now, an intuitive approach to social justice calls for us to look at the sites of the greatest disadvantage and then take measures aimed to relieve them. This approach favors race-specific policies for pursuing justice. However, as anyone following recent jurisprudence in the United States will no doubt have noticed, that kind of rationale is increasingly vulnerable in a country that's largely convinced that it has achieved a post-racial condition. The remaining disparities therefore remain, but they get explained away by appeals to alleged faults on the part of those who suffer under them. Now, in a realistic blacktopia, Derek Darby defends a different approach. According to Darby, the psychological and social realities of the United States suggest that we need to adopt non-race specific social justice agendas.
Agendas that explicitly tie our efforts to mitigate unjust inequalities that track racial categorization to big tent initiatives to broaden and deepen democratic inclusion for citizens as such. Now, there's a lot to talk about as there normally is. So we'll begin where we normally do, and that is with our guest. Hello, Derek.
Hello, Bob. How are you?
I'm doing great. How are you today?
I'm doing fantastic, Bob.
That's great to hear. You know, we start with the author. Can you tell us a bit about yourself, Derek?
sure will uh before before i say something though i i love that intro you gave me uh too bad i didn't call you to write the blurb for my book uh because you would have done a better job i'm gonna make a little middle note right now call bob for the next part of the book man that was beautiful i appreciate it so uh so bob um yeah man and how i how i got into philosophy uh you know i you know i We could have another show about that question. Some years ago, I did a TEDx talk, and I talked about growing up in New York City, Queensbridge Public Housing Project, and then talked about really how I discovered my love for philosophy growing up in my neighborhood. and the influence that hip hop had on me in making that discovery.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introduction and who are the hosts and sponsors?
0:00–10:23
2
How does Derek Darby describe his personal background and path to philosophy?
10:23–17:06
3
What is the central argument of *A Realistic Blacktopia* and how does it differ from race‑specific policies?
17:06–25:55
4
How does Darby distinguish between ‘small‑tent’ and ‘big‑tent’ approaches to social justice?
25:55–36:03
5
What role do the Shelby County‑Holder decision and the Voting Rights Act play in his analysis?
36:03–45:30
6
How does Darby use Rawls, King, and Du Bois to build a non‑race‑specific case for voting rights?
45:30–55:04
7
What are Darby’s views on the future of his trilogy and the next book, *Boxed In*?
55:04–1:03:47
8
What final takeaways does the host emphasize for listeners interested in the book?
1:03:47–1:16:01
Speakers
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Daniel Cohnitz and Jussi Haukioja, "Foundations for Metasemantics" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Philippe Huneman, "When Metaphysics Meets Biology: Kantian Approaches to the Concept of An Organism" (Routledge, 2026)
Rivka Weinberg, "The Meaning of It All: Ultimate Meaning, Everyday Meaning, Cosmic Meaning, Death, and Time" (Oxford UP, 2026)
PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)