American race relations have changed dramatically since this book was originally published in 1977. A number of important new sociological cards have been dealt to the American people during the intervening fifteen years:

“Hate” crimes have increased. Not only in Bensonhurst and Howard Beach, New York, or Forsythe County, Georgia, and Castro Valley, California, but also on major American university campuses. “In the last three years,” one reporter observes, “there have been episodes of racist graffiti, jokes, anonymous hate notes or brawls at 175 campuses, including top private schools like Smith College, Brown University and Colby College as well as big public universities like Michigan and Wisconsin” (Berger, 1989). Racism in the 1980s has been much more malevolent and overt than it was in the 1970s.

A significant black middle class has emerged. Largely as a result of 1960s civil rights activities, economic well-being was achieved by a sizeable portion of the black community throughout the 1970s and 1980s. By 1981, the proportion of black Americans who enjoyed an income that supports a middle-class life-style exceeded 40 percent (Business-Higher Education Forum, 1990: 22). As a consequence, some sociologists (Wilson, 1987) argue that class forces and economic factors are more important variables than white racism for explaining the social location of African Americans. The significance of racism, according to this view, has declined in the last two decades.