The topic of race has turned so toxic that most Americans, black or white, are afraid to broach it—whites back away from racial issues because blacks seem "so sensitive"; blacks blow off racial discussion because they think whites "will never understand." Yet with talk-show vitriol now passing for social discourse and racial anger mounting in proportion to the insecurities of a downsized America, the need to communicate is more urgent than ever.

Bruce Jacobs’s Race Mannersshows how we can begin conversation: by looking at what happens around us each and every day. On a crowded bus, a solitary black man seethes while boarding passengers take every seat except the one next to his; in a cafeteria, whites wonder why blacks congregate at the same table during lunch; in front of a store, a white woman clutches her purse when a black man passes nearby; at a cocktail party, a black woman snubs a white woman who has arrived with a black escort. Each scenario reveals how we act toward and react to one another.

Americans are mired in racial assumptions, misunderstandings, biases--about everything from Ebonics to Elvis, O.J. Simpson to affirmative action, ethnic jokes to interracial sex. Race Mannersshows us how we can confront them, not by offering lofty abstractions, sterile policy statements, or a saccharine celebration of multicultural relativism, but instead by giving us practical, sane, intelligent, and heart-felt advice. Yet with talk-show vitriol now passing for social discourse and racial anger mounting in the wake of September 11 and corporate downsizings, the need to communicate is more urgent than ever.