02: Donovan Ramsey on Black identity, history of policing and the need for racial equity

As a friend and accomplished journalist focusing on the topic of black identity, politics and patterns of power in America, Farnoosh catches up with Donovan Ramsey to discuss his upcoming book, When Crack Was King, which chronicles the 1980’s and 1990’s epidemic, its misperceptions and the way policing changed during those years, as well as Donovan’s own experiences with racial discrimination in graduate school and beyond. Also, they discuss the truth about what publishing pays. Donovan and Farnoosh disclose their book advances.

More about Donovan: He is called “an indispensable voice on issues of racial identity, politics, and patterns of power in America,” by American culture critic Rich Benjamin. Donovan’s commentary on racial politics during the Obama era has been featured in The New York Times and his reporting and commentary on the criminal justice system have appeared in outlets including WSJ Magazine, The Atlantic, GQ, Gawker, BuzzFeed, Vice, and Ebony, among others.

Donovan served most recently as the commentary editor at The Marshall Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning news organization dedicated to the U.S. criminal legal system. Before The Marshall Project, he worked as an editor and writer at a number of outlets including Complex, NewsOne, and NBC’s theGrio.com.

Donovan holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Morehouse College. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and is currently completing his first book, a history of the crack cocaine epidemic for One World—an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher.

You can learn about Donovan on his website www.donovanxramsey.com and follow him on Twitter @iDXR.