Part of the Longman Topic Series, this brief reader encourages an examination of diversity in America, in order to understand what both enriches and threatens the country's core values "of liberty and justice for all." This collection of readings  provides opportunities for students to examine the impact "racial" and "ethnic" identity have on diverse groups, some of them challenging the notion of race as a meaningful category for thinking about human identity. Authors included in this collection write about the personal and political aspects of racial and ethnic identity in a variety of ways including describing experiences of exclusion, satirizing stereotyping, analyzing the sources of alienation, and arguing for changes that will ensure inclusion.