Real Love: In Pursuit of Cultural Justice

Andrew Ross, the director of the graduate program in American studies at New York University, is one of the most entertaining cultural critics in America, presenting incisive political analysis in a prose style that conveys erudition and personality with equal effectiveness. In this collection of essays, Ross discusses a wide variety of topics, ranging from the treatment of "genetics" in accounts of the O.J. Simpson murder trial to RuPaul's relationship to a continuum of images of black masculinity, from the "token" inclusion of women and ethnic minorities in the New York art world to the new media industry's blind spot on labor issues. All of this is connected to the boarder theme of "cultural justice," particularly with regard to how culture is a set of symptoms of socioeconomic conditions.