This volume brings together some of the clearest and most incisive recent scholarship on race and ethnicity, with a focus on key policy issues. The first half of the book focuses on the dismantling of anti-racist policies in the post-civil rights era, beginning with a general assessment of "race" in America thirty years after the historic Kerner Commission Report. Examinations follow of affirmative action, school desegregation, housing discrimination, and racial districting - four areas where policies enacted during the civil rights era have been blunted or reversed. Part Two sees the focus of the book move to ethnicity. How have immigration and shifting demographics affected the construction of nationality? Will new immigrants follow in the footsteps of old immigrants when it comes to socioeconomic mobility and cultural assimilation? Further readings examine specific policy issues: immigration, multiculturalism, bilingualism, ethnic self-segregation on college campuses, and the debate over "identity politics."

Written by leading scholars in the field, all of the readings clearly and thoughtfully explore the intersections among the academy, public policy, and popular understandings of race and ethnicity. The format is ideal for examining these hotly debated issues: two readings cover each topic, thus offering contrasting viewpoints that encourage thought and discussion.

Stephen Steinberg is Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College and a Professor of Sociology at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York. His previous books include The Ethnic Myth: Race, Ethnicity, and Class in America and Turning Back: The Retreat from Racial Justice in American Thought and Policy which received the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for Distinguished Anti-Racist Scholarship. In addition to his academic work, he has published articles in The Nation, Reconstruction, and New Politics.