In this innovative, thoughtful, and groundbreaking book, James R. Jones convincingly argues that the most powerful legislature in the United States is plagued by racism. Part of the explanation lies in the fact that, unlike other entities, Congress is not subject to the employment discrimination laws that it passes. Consequently, each lawmaker has immense power to hire and fire their staff, and a clear pattern emerges: few Black people work as congressional staff, and to the extent they do, they tend to work for Black lawmakers. Although the number of Black members of Congress has increased dramatically in the past 30 years, Congressional Hill staffers are still overwhelmingly White.

Jones devotes an entire chapter to studying the importance of social networks for whether Black people can attain congressional staff positions (Chapter 2). Being connected to a Hill insider plays an outsized role in whether a Black person can attain a staff position. Jones also shows the importance of class within the Black community. In brief, poorer Black people are much less likely to be able to work as unpaid interns, a common entry-level position, and thus are unlikely to make the needed connections to eventually land a staff position on the Hill.

Jones devotes an entire chapter to studying “the nod,” and it may be the most creative chapter in this exce