A call for a new way of imagining race in America. For the first time in U.S. history, the black-white dichotomy that has historically defined race and ethnicity is being challenged, not by a small minority, but by the fastest-growing and arguably most vocal segment of the increasingly diverse American population 'Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians, Arabs, and many more' who are breaking down and recreating the very definitions of race. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of Americans who don't fit conventional black/white categories, the author invites us to empathize with these 'doubles' and to understand why they may represent our best chance to throw off the strictures of the black/white dichotomy.

Ronald Fernandez is Professor of Sociology in the Criminal Justice Department at Central Connecticut State University.