He is the author of Paint The White House Black: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Race in America (Stanford University Press, 2013) and Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop (University of Chicago Press, 2011). He has published over 30 essays and works of criticism in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and The Boston Globe, and is a regular contributor on both television and radio at Boston’s public broadcasting station, WGBH. His most recent book is, Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in Comedy (Stanford University Press, 2017).