The Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist for the Chicago Tribune presents a series of essays examining the central questions of race, gender, and ethnic identity that have emerged since the civil rights reforms of the mid-1960s. The essays address such topics as how racism still acts to keep nonwhites in subordinate political, economic, and social status; how the hip-hop generation has turned -black is beautiful" on its head; and the volatile relationship between blacks and Jews. Page reflects on changes in the racial landscape since the 1960s and reconnects the increasingly abstract political debates about black conservatives, affirmative action, and the race card to the people for whom these words mean something more than just votes.