“Play the Game is a wise, generous book that recognizes that you have more power than you may think to set your own rules and create your own change. An intellectually provocative and emotionally useful book for our times.”
—DEVAL PATRICK, 71st governor of Massachusetts
About Robert Livingston
Robert Livingston is a race scholar who serves on the faculty of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He is the author of The Conversation, selected as a Financial Times Best Book of 2021 and nominated for a 2022 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Achievement. His research has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and Harvard Business Review. For over two decades, he has been a diversity consultant to more than a hundred Fortune 500 companies, public-sector agencies, and non-profit organizations.
About Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game.
Instead of waiting for White people to change, Black people must prioritize their own prosperity, power, and self-determination by navigating, challenging, and exiting racist systems—a radical argument from a Harvard behavioral scientist. Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game.is a bold, groundbreaking proposition that empowers readers to make the leap from being played to creating their own game plan.
Consulting
Dr. Livingston has worked with over a hundred organizations across a broad array of sectors and industries in the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe, Asia, and South America
Technology • Legal • Health Care • Banking/Finance • Professional Services • Manufacturing • Insurance • Higher Education
Telecommunications • Municipal • Federal • Non-Profit/NGO • Pharmaceutical • Fashion and Beauty • Travel and Hospitality
Microsoft
American Express
ADP
P&G
Wyndham
Bates
AirBnB
JP Morgan Chase
Cardinal Health
Williams College
SunLife
Fish
Deloitte
ADL
NHS
Takeda
John Hancock
Hubspot
Nationwide
Beth Israel Lahey
Credit Suisse
NOAA
Dow
City of Boston
Under Amour
Bayer
Obama Foundation
L'Oreal
Root Insurance
BT
Academic
Dr. Livingston is currently on the faculty of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has worked as a teacher and researcher at various universities in the U.S. and abroad, serving as Assistant Professor of Psychology and Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the University of Sussex, where he also served as Head of the Organizational Behaviour Area and Director of the Centre for Leadership, Ethics, and Diversity (LEAD). He has also held sabbatical visiting professorships at Princeton University and Carnegie Mellon University. His research on implicit bias, the dynamics of social hierarchy, and the intersection of racial/gender identity and power has been published in leading scientific journals and has been featured in numerous prominent media outlets.
Testimonials for Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game
“Written with a keen understanding of the complexities of race and identity, this book is an uplifting message that marginalized groups are both mighty and resourceful. A timely reminder for those who feel lost during these difficult times.”
—Kimberlé Crenshaw, distinguished professor of law at UCLA and faculty director of the Center for Intersectionality and Social Policy Studies, Columbia University
“Play the Game. Change the Game. Leave the Game is a compelling exploration of resilience and change. There’s so much in this world over which we have no control, but Livingston reminds us of just how much control we do have. I think this will be the biggest book about race and careers in a generation.”
—Dr. David A. Thomas, 12th president of Morehouse College (2018-2025)
“In this groundbreaking work, Robert Livingston blends pragmatic advice with rigorous research to teach us how to navigate, confront, or exit our stubborn institutions. At a trying and testing time, this book is a restorative that shows us—once again—that its author is a national treasure.”
—Kenji Yoshino, author of Covering and Say the Right Thing; professor at NYU; and faculty director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
“With uncommon clarity and conviction, Robert Livingston offers a compelling roadmap for so many Black Americans who are working to make sense of the state of our nation and world. His is an insightful and illuminating work—filled with advice and role models whose journeys will inspire you on your own.”
—Anthony Foxx, United States Secretary of Transportation (2013-2017)
Also by Robert Livingston
“Livingston’s book, just like his live presentations, is one of the most compelling articulations of the problems of racism and discrimination that I have encountered.”
—Laura W. Murphy, civil rights activist, consultant, and former director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office
