The election Barack Obama ushered in a litany of controversial perspectives about the contemporary state of race relations. Through insightful essays, The New Black challenges contemporary images of black families, defies accepted notions of what black' means, transforms ideas about political power of people of colour and challenges the boundaries of debates over race. In this incisive volume, celebrated and original thinkers re-examine the familiar framework of the Civil Rights Movement with an eye to overhauling the world's understanding of the politics of race.'