The story of race and ethnicity in the US today is one not of discrete racial groups and categories, but is instead a broader story of inequalities and challenges that cross all categories. The traditional "group-by-group" approach to teaching this course does not accurately reflect this story. It can make it a challenge to teach about intersectionality, which is inextricably linked to racial inequality, and it is an approach that does not reflect the lived experience of most students. Students come into this course thinking they "understand" racial inequality, but rarely have an understanding of how the definition of race has changed over time. They also can come away from the course feeling overwhelmed by the amount and depth of racism and inequality that is built into US society. Golash-Boza and Martinez-Cola address these teaching issues and challenges head-on by taking a topical, critical, and contemporary approach that focuses on how and when the idea of race was created and how it developed and changed over time; how structural racism has worked historically to reproduce inequality; how race, class, and gender work together to create inequality and identities; and how racial justice could be imagined and realized.
