Race is only one of the prisms through which to examine the political and social life of Americans, but it is one in which there has been insufficient determination of contemporary dynamics. For this discussion, the most important issue is the debate within the black community regarding the nature and causes of the crisis facing African Americans and the pathways toward solutions. The essays in this book explore manifestations of contemporary racial politics and the ways in which race crisscrosses and unites the span of society. The following essays are included: (1) "Globalization's Impact on Race Relations"; (2) "If I Were a Rich Man: Race, Gender, and Poverty" (welfare reform); (3) "California Scheming" (affirmative action, race, and politics in California); (4) "To Be or Not To Be? Race, Class, and Ebonics"; (5) "O. J. and the Symbolic Use of Racial Exceptions"; (6) "Thug Life: The Rap on Capitalism" (black cultural exchange); (7) "Globalizing the Black Image"; (8) "How Cracked Is the CIA-Contra Drug Connection?"; (9) "The Souls of White Folk" (whiteness and the ideology of color blindness); (10) "Old Stories from the New South" ; (11) "Of Louis Farrakhan and Others"; and (12) "Beyond Patriarchy and Conservative Nationalism" (the Million Man March). (Contains 82 references.) (SLD)