Race

This is a truly excellent compilation of essays. Some of these contributors have subsequently amplified their essays into monographs (Karen Brodkin's superb essay "How the Jews Became White Folks" being one of the most noteworthy). Nevertheless, this collection is one of the highest quality edited volumes on this subject that I have had the pleasure of reading.Despite the volume's title, the scope of almost all the essays is race in the United States, with a single foray into the Caribbean (Michel-Rolph Trouillot's well-historicized discussion of class and color in Haiti). That said, the theoretical sophistication of nearly almost the analyses presented here makes this monograph required reading for anyone interested in the topic from an anthropological perspective.I will only briefly mention the essays which I personally found most useful, but I think it would be fair to say that there is nary a dud among them. The essays by Michael Blakey, Ruth Frankenburg and Brodkin on the issues of whiteness and privilege within US racial discourses illuminate the extent to which history and ideology combine with the personal political stances of members of what Noel Ignatiev and the other contributers to 'Race Traitor' label "the white race". Annette Jaimes provides a wonderfully pointed discussion of the role of the Federal government in the legal definition of Indianness while Clara Rodriguez and Patricia Zavella engage with similar issues with respect to the Puerto Rican and Chicana communities.Some of the most interesting essays in the book deal with the ways in which institutions are (or are not)meeting the challenge of the terrains of privilege which race inscribes in this country. The discussions by Evelyn Hu-deHart and Roberto Alvarez regarding the academy's responses to multiculturalism and minority activist academics are particularly useful in this respect. Finally, Brett Williams and John Attinasi provide acute analyses of the discourses surrounding the 'welfare under-class'and ebonics respectively.The final chapter by Gregory illustrates the ways in which anthropological analysis can be integrated with community activism and at least to some extent, repatriated to urban and embattled communities. An altogether absorbing and inspiring example of scholarship, practical analysis and community-centered anthropology.This title should be read by anyone interested in race, identity or urban anthropology. Students who question the relevance of scholarship to larger social issues will gain a renewal of faith from this book.