Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life
By Sergio C. Muñoz at Intelatin, LLC
My name is Sergio Muñoz and I was able to produce a thoughtful radio series on Racecraft in my 30s. In my attempt to archive the series for public benefit, I am going to tell the entire origination story through this note. Buy Racecraft from Verso Books
There is a semi-famous man in my county. His name is Rueben. If I had to guess, he became semi-famous because of his association with Sandra Cisneros. The way I heard it, Sandra was touring The House on Mango Street and it was not going well. She was suffering every ‘ism’ that you can imagine. Then she stumbled onto/into a bookstore in Santa Ana, CA and met the owner of the bookstore, Rueben. Born in Arizona, he was a rough, handsome, charismatic barber and his story of superación made an impact on people. To prudently cut a long and complex story short, when Sandra was now able to nominate somebody for the MacArthur Genius Award, she nominated Rueben. And, he won.
I worked for Rueben briefly as the Executive Director for his literacy nonprofit, LEAP. While I was there, LEAP had a board member named, Teresa Mercado Cota. She was an administrator at Santa Ana College and she asked me to attend a weekly community group called Los Amigos of Orange County. I did as I was told. The leader of Los Amigos was a Mexican man named, Amín David. I went to this weekly group at a German restaurant on Ball Street in Anaheim for years and Amín and I became very close friends.
Amín was probably in his 70s at the time and he was grooming an academic named Dr José Moreno to take over as the leader of Los Amigos. So, I became close with José as well and as it happened, José, a professor of Chicano Studies at Cal State Long Beach was offered a radio show on-campus for K-Beach. José told the head of the radio station that he did not have time to dedicate to hosting a radio show but referred me as a suitable alternative. I met with this man and proposed a show called The Intelatin Cloudcast, he accepted and I was given a (volunteer) weekly radio show.
There were several cats at K-Beach that helped me understand how to produce a radio show, including Joe Kay of Soulection. I also took a certificate course on Broadcasting at UC Irvine. Once I was fully fluent on how to handle the audio board, I had to decide what it was that I was going to produce on-air.
I produced a beautiful show on an entrepreneur named Abigail Wald of The Yes Bar. What made this show so fantastic was that in addition to her incredible life story, Abigail was/is an actor that does voice-overs and so she was able to record her parts in pristine storyteller mode. Very, very few people on Earth could pull this off.
I produced another beautiful show with a guru named Simon Karta Ballard of 7 Directions Alchemy. What made this show so fantastic was that Simon was able to be in the studio with me using the advanced sound equipment. This was not possible for everybody that I talked to nationwide.
So, I believed that getting to this level of audio expertise was going to be really difficult. I needed a new path. At the time, my father, a journalist at the Los Angeles Times, was receiving a catalog from Verso Books. I looked through it and I found this book called Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life. I called Verso and asked the publicist, Jessica Turner, to send me the book.
Sidenote: I was sitting in my godmother’s kitchen in Atherton. She was married to a very successful executive named, Steve Goldby. They had an enviable life for a variety of reasons. Steve, being incredibly smart, was/is also incredibly invested in life. One of the ways that he showcased this was through the books that he read. Steve and Florence lived near Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park where they were regulars. I imagine that he found this one particular book there and one night, in their kitchen, he began telling me about it. The book is called The Story of B by Daniel Quinn. He said to me the following:
There are certain books that cause you to assess your life as: The way you were before you read the book and the way you are after you read the book.
This intellectual phenomenon happened to me when I read Racecraft. I couldn’t tell myself exactly what it was or why but something about the idea of the book spoke to me in a unique way. I called Jessica at Verso and I asked if she could introduce me to Dr Karen Fields so that I could learn more. Karen and I spoke at length several times and I asked her if she would like to co-host a radio program with me about her book. My proposal was for Karen, José and I to educate the majority Latino student body at Cal State Long Beach on why Racecraft mattered. I summed up the value proposition of Racecraft for myself:
All of my institutional dissatisfaction was defined for me when I met Dr. Karen Fields. It marked a dramatic turning point in my life. It was the moment when US history was accurately put to a word called Racecraft. Conceptualized by Dr Karen Fields and her sister, Dr Barbara Fields, and explained to me by, among others, Dr Karen Fields, Dr Craig Wilder, Dr Sandy Darity, Dr Joe Graves and Dr Kim TallBear, there’s a feeling of enlightenment that one has when the purposeful obfuscation of white supremacy in the US is defined and revealed in direct terms that cannot be denied. I felt vindicated because I had spent so long feeling it but unable to understand it. Unable to give it a name. It changed my identity.
For twelve months, I dedicated myself to the task of learning about Racecraft. I would leave my office at the bank and drive for an hour to K-Beach on-campus at Cal State Long Beach and produce this hour long show with Karen, José and an invited guest from academia. It became a branding exercise for myself when I was in my most ambitious state:
Sergio is the Mexican banker who is thoughtfully producing an important radio show about Racecraft for an audience of young (undocumented) Latinos at Cal State Long Beach. The 14th largest university system in the United States. I thought: Somebody is going to listen to my work and they are going to provide me with a fellowship to make this a real educational effort.
When we completed the radio series, Karen and I kept on communicating by telephone. She was living in Virginia and she had a family home in DC that she shared with her sister, Barbara. It was during that time that I realized that “somebody” was not going to listen to my work and offer me a fellowship to do this right. It was just me. I called my godmother again and I asked her if she would introduce me to the community affairs person at Kepler’s Books. She did so and I proposed an evening of Racecraft to Jean Forstner who willingly accepted. Karen and I traveled to Silicon Valley to speak at Kepler’s on Wednesday March 26, 2014 -- at 7:30pm. We were able to bond for a few days at my godmother’s house in Atherton as the conclusion of spending twelve hours producing radio together. It was a memorable educational experience for me. In the best way possible, Dr Karen Fields changed my intellectual life for the better. I am very grateful for her presence in my life.
On February 14, 2025, one of the few individuals that engaged with the radio show contacted me to ask about my archive. His name is Rodman Williams. He told me that Karen had passed away in 2024 and he wanted to access the shows. I told him that I would dedicate time and effort to making the archive available for public benefit.
Episode 1: 53MB: The pilot episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr José Moreno and Sergio C. Muñoz. November 01, 2012. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Stevie Wonder (I Never Thought You’d Leave in Summer; Stay Gold)
Episode 2: 51MB: The second episode with Dr Karen Fields, Theodore Shaw, Dr José Moreno and Sergio C. Muñoz. December 13, 2012. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by the Jimi Hendrix Experience (Castles Made of Sand; Little Wing)
Episode 3: 55MB: The third episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr José Moreno, Dr Craig Wilder and Sergio C. Muñoz. February 07, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Taj Mahal & the Hula Blues Band (The Calypsonians; No Na Mamo)
Episode 4: 63MB: The fourth episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Dr José Moreno and Sergio C. Muñoz. March 28, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Cassandra Wilson (Closer to You; Passion) Special featurette with Thandie Newton shot & recorded at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills.
Episode 5: 53MB: The fifth episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Natalie Byfield, Tony Sampiero and Sergio C. Muñoz. April 25, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Bob Marley & the Wailers and Ziggy Marley (War; Drive)
Episode 6: 56MB: The sixth episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Willene Johnson and Sergio C. Muñoz. May 30, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Nina Simone (My Father; Pirate Jenny)
Episode 7: 77MB: The seventh episode with Dr Karen Fields, María Bustillos and Sergio C. Muñoz. June 27, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Paul Robeson (No More Auction Block; Swing Low Sweet Chariot)
Sidenote: María Bustillos published this review of Racecraft in the LARB on my referral.
“RACECRAFT: THE SOUL OF INEQUALITY IN AMERICAN LIFE is the first book I’ve read on the subject of race that speaks accurately to my lived experience. The average writer on race, whether his subject is sociology, politics, or cooking, is liable to draw a line around one kind of people, and base all his reasoning on matters relating to what is inside versus what is outside of that line. By contrast, the authors of Racecraft, Karen E. Fields and Barbara J. Fields (who are academics, and sisters — Barbara a historian, and Karen a sociologist) have undertaken a great untangling of how the chimerical concepts of race are pervasively and continuously reinvented and reemployed in this country, all without drawing a single circle themselves. Instead, they describe the circles drawn by others, you might say, and patiently erase each one. “Racism is first and foremost a social practice […] an action and a rationale for action,” the Fieldses write. Though the concept of race has no genetic or scientific basis, the hierarchical structures we’ve built using this false idea are alive and well, and we’re all complicit in their persistence.”
Episode 8: 57MB: The eighth episode with Dr Joseph Graves and Sergio C. Muñoz. July 25, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Wynton Marsalis (The Seductress; In the Court of King Oliver)
Episode 9: 65MB: The ninth episode with Dr Asia Leeds, Miz and Sergio C. Muñoz. August 22, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Sade (Immigrant; Every Word) Special interpolation by Immortal Technique from The Martyr.
Episode 10: 60MB: The tenth episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Adolph Reed Jr and Sergio C. Muñoz. September 26, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Valerie June & Dr John (You Can’t Be Told; Walk on Gilded Splinters)
Episode 11: 62MB: The eleventh episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Gilman Whiting and Sergio C. Muñoz. October 23, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Arthur Brown & Screamin Jay Hawkins (Sunrise; Make Me Happy)
Episode 12: 46MB: The final episode with Dr Karen Fields, Dr Barbara Fields and Sergio C. Muñoz. December 19, 2013. Financed & Produced by Intelatin, LLC. Broadcasted on K-Beach Global Radio and KKJZ 88.1FM. Protected by ASCAP 751987 & 7519873. Music by Ibrahim Ferrer (Silencio; ¿Cómo Fue?)
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