In the post-Civil Rights era, there is a temptation to assume that racism is no longer the pressing social concern in the United States that it once was. The contributors show that racism has not fallen from the forefront of American society, but is manifest in a different way. According to the authors in this volume, in 21st century, skin color has come to replace race as an important cause of discrimination. This is evidenced in the increasing usage of the term “people of color” to encompass people of a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds.


The editor has compiled a diverse group of contributors to examine racism from an interdisciplinary perspective. Contributions range from the science of racism, from its perceived biological basis at the end of the 19th century, to sociological studies its new forms in the 21st century. The result is a work that will be invaluable to understanding the challenges of confronting Racism in the 21st Century.