Leading thinkers and activists discuss the intersection of race and poverty. The essays are organized around seven key topics including: affirmative action; the "permanence of racism" thesis; the use and utility of racial and ethnic categories; multiculturalism; and the "underclass" debate.

Chester Hartman, Bill Bradley, Julian Bond

Introduction; Is Racism Permanent?; Put on a Happy Face; The New International Dynamics of Race; Racial/Ethnic Categories; One Drop of Blood; The Limitations of Directive 15; The Error of the Third Type; Categories Count; At the Races; Accurate Racial/Ethnic Data Should Drive Category Review; A Single Census Question to Measure Race, Spanish Origin, and Ancestry; On the Census Race and Ethnic Categories; Who Thought of Dropping Racial Categories, and Why?; Immigration; An International Perspective on Migration; Changing Relations; Commentary; Immigration and the Civil Rights Movement; Job Competition Between Immigrants and African Americans; Latino Immigrants in Los Angeles; The Immigration Quiz; "The Underclass"; American Apartheid; Fighting the Biases Embedded in Social Concepts of the Poor; The Welfare Quiz; The Income and Jobs Quiz; Multiculturalism; Racism and Multicultural Democracy; The Debate on Multiculturalism; Social History; Affirmative Action; Affirmative Action; Racism Has Its Privileges; Scapegoating; Affirmative Action; The Presumption of Stupidity; Reaffirm the Affirmative; Affirmative Action; Affirmative Action, R.I.P.; The Affirmative Action Quiz; Reparations; Democracy/Equality; Race, Wealth, and Inequality in America; Respect!; Reuniting City and Suburb; Commentaries; The Economic Inequality Quiz