Color-Blind: Seeing Beyond Race in a Race-Obsessed World

More than 100 years after the end of slavery, more than 40 years after the end of legal segregation, race remains a powerfully divisive force in American life. Can we ever get past it? Ellis Cose is guardedly optimistic that we can, though he cautions that we won't be able to move from race-relations hell to race-relations heaven without first passing through a kind of purgatory where confusion and misunderstandings abound. In this provocative and challenging analysis, Cose looks at Latin America, the Caribbean, and South Africa, all of which have had similar, but different experiences of race. He concludes with a chapter where he recommends "12 steps towards a race-neutral nation."