They and We

The first edition of They and We was published shortly after the March on Washington in August 1963, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his memorable “I Have a Dream” speech, and just before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress. Now read by tens of thousands, this book has been updated and expanded seven times since then as it continues to provide a basic grounding in the sociological study of the dilemmas of diversity in America, focusing on prejudice, discrimination, minority status, marginality, nativism, pluralism, and other core concepts and ideologies in straightforward, jargon-free prose.

In this Eighth Edition of They and We, Peter I. Rose addresses recent social and political developments in racial and ethnic relations in the United States and offers further perspectives on demographic trends, class conflicts, culture wars, and serious challenges to democracy itself. Among the critical matters discussed are the resurgence of and backlash against xenophobic nationalism and the related scapegoating—and deportation—of racially profiled migrants; the pros and cons of using the conflated term “Black-and-Brown” in policy discourse; the roots and significance of Islamophobia; the re-emergence of blatant anti-Semitism and of “replacement theory”; concerted attacks on affirmative action, “wokeness,” critical race theory, and books and programs fostering diversity, equity, and inclusion; and the increasing populist-oriented exploitation of anxiety among the so-called “once hads”—sometimes self-styled legacy Americans—led to feel neglected, even abandoned, dramatically intensifying partisan polarization. A final chapter compares the status of intergroup relations in this country to that in several others, and an online Teaching Guide provides instructors with a chapter-by-chapter guide through the main themes of the book as well as with classroom discussions.