it's become something of a subgenre for coastal elites to travel around the country and send back dispatches from red states or the heartland or Trump country. Rich Benjamin's "Searching for Whitopia" is a kind of comic companion to "Strangers in Our Land." Benjamin, who is black, travels to some of the whitest communities in the country, from Idaho to Georgia to New York City. While Benjamin has a clear agenda, he approaches his subject with a sense of humor and keen intelligence, and he listens to what his subjects have to say, even if he doesn't always agree with their views on race, immigration, and community. This came out shortly after Obama's election, but what it has to say is still very relevant and compelling.