Widely known for his fiction and poetry, Reed here presents 17 nonfiction essays, book reviews, and profiles. Taking extreme exception to the idea that race is no longer important in American society, Reed targets right-wing "public intellectuals," profiles the ideas of Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. DuBois, draws links between the ideas of slavery supporter John C. Calhoun and William Pierce's white supremacist to the ideas of commentators for the and National Public Radio, takes on the issue of the racial profiling of Arabs, and reports on the "culture wars" at the 110th annual convention of the Modern Language Association. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)