Color, Class, Identity
Subtitle: The New Politics of Race
Contributors: John Arthur (Editor); Amy Shapiro (Editor)
Edition: Reissue edition
Publisher: Westview Press
Published: September 1, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780813331157
Subjects: Black studies; Ethnography; Multicultural studies; POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Social issues; United States; Pluralism (Social sciences); Discrimination & Racism; Social Science; Sociology; Politics/International Relations; USA; Anthropology - Cultural; Minority Studies - Race Relations; Social Science-Anthropology - Cultural; Urban poor; African Americans; Economic conditions; Race relations
First sentence: "Every day, in every way, we are getting meta and meta," the philosopher John Wisdom used to say, venturing a cultural counterpart to Emile Coue's famous mantra of self-improvement.
Description: Three recent and dramatic national events have shattered the complacency of many people about progress, however fitful, in race relations in America. The Clarence Thomas - Anita Hill hearings, the O. J. Simpson trial, and the Million Man March of Louis Farrakhan have forced reconsideration of assumptions about race and racial relations.

The Thomas-Hill hearings exposed the complexity and volatility of perceptions about race and gender. The sight of jubilant blacks and despondent whites reacting to the O. J. Simpson verdict shook our confidence in shared assumptions about equal protection under the law. The image of hundreds of thousands of black men gathering in Washington in defense of their racial and cultural identity angered millions of whites and exposed divisions within the black community.

These events were unfolding at a time when there seemed to be considerable progress in fighting racial discrimination. On the legal side, discrimination has been eliminated in more and more arenas, in theory if not always in practice. Economically, more and more blacks have moved into the middle class, albeit while larger numbers have slipped further back into poverty. Intellectually, figures like Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Patricia J.

Williams are playing a central role as public intellectuals. Color - Class - Identity furthers these debates, showing that the racial question is far more complex than it used to be; it is no longer a simple matter of black versus white and racial mistrust. A landmark anthology that will help advance understanding of the present unease, not just between black and white but within each community, this book will be useful in a broad range of courses on contemporary U.S. society.