John Lovchik

John Lovchik has been an anti-racism activist for more than twenty years as a member of a number of white collectives and organizations led by people of color. He has been a member of the Seattle Race Conference Planning Committee and has been a trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Lovchik was beginning high school when the Supreme Court decided the Brown v. Board of Education case and reached adulthood during the following decades when desegregation in the South and urban unrest throughout the rest of the country dominated news reporting. No one in the country during that time could ignore racism. But the steady flow of images and reporting on the effects of racism did not lead to an understanding of what racism is all about. This becomes obvious when we consider that we are still dealing with the issue and are going through very similar times today.

After a lifetime of being puzzled by racism, Lovchik found that learning the extensive history of racism provided the context that helped eliminate the confusion. His book, Racism: Reality Built on a Myth, is a concise summary of that history, intended to make it accessible to readers who do not have the time to read the dozens of books that are cited. It is intended to give readers, particularly white readers who may be experiencing the same confusion Lovchik had, a better understanding of where we are regarding racism by looking honestly at how we got here. It is his first book.