Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action

Recent events have turned the spotlight on the issue of race in modern America, and the current cultural climate calls out for more research, education, dialogue, and understanding. Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action focuses on a provocative social science experiment with the potential to address these needs. Through an analysis grounded in the perspectives of developmental psychology, adaptive leadership, and complex systems theory, the inquiry at the heart of this book illuminates dynamics of race and social change in surprising and important ways. Author Max Klau explains how his own quest for insight into these matters led to the empirical study at the heart of this book, and he presents the results of years of research that integrate findings at the individual, group, and whole system levels of analysis. It's an effort to explore one of the most controversial and deeply divisive subjects in American civic life using the tools of social science and empiricism. Readers will:

• Review a long tradition of classic, provocative social science experiments and learn how the study presented here extends that tradition into new and unexplored territory
• Engage with findings from years of research that reveal insights into dynamics of race and social change unfolding simultaneously at the individual, group, and whole systems levels
• Encounter a call to action with implications for our own personal journeys and for national policy at this critical moment in American civic life

At a moment when our nation is once again bitterly divided around matters at the heart of American civic life, Race and Social Change: A Quest, A Study, A Call to Action seeks to push our collective journey forward with insights that promise to promote understanding and healing.

A POWERFUL STUDY ILLUMINATES OUR NATION'S COLLECTIVE CIVIC FAULT LINES

"Unique in its combination of personal exploration and rigorous empirical research, Max Klau brilliantly helps us to understand racial privilege and inequity from an interrelated systems perspective. This is a must read for everyone who has a passion to learn, to converse and connect with each other, and for the personal and systemic leadership required for social change for the betterment of self, others and society."
—Cynthia Cherrey, president and CEO, International Leadership Association

"In this timely and remarkable book, Max Klau offers unique and important insights that compel leaders to think differently as they seek to address social and civic challenges in a more thoughtful and humanistic way. Must reading for social entrepreneurs."
—Robert L. Gordon III, social entrepreneur and Cross Sector leader

"This book itself is a learning journey and a jewel for all those folks seeking to build community, bring diverse and different people together for a common goal, and anyone who craves unity and harmony in our divided and challenged world. Max Klau presents a personal and a national call to action that needs to be heard."
—Charlie Rose, Senior Vice President and Dean, City Year

"With provocative and deeply reflective insight into his own journey as a White man in America, Max Klau's research illuminates personal and systemic paths forward towards racial equality in America. Articulate and wise, Klau inspires because he provides both a sober analysis of the complexity of race relations, and provides a practical way forward."
—Ronald Heifetz, co-founder, Center for Public Leadership, Harvard Kennedy School