Blurring the Color Line

“This is a gutsy book, one that few scholars would have dared to write and one that even fewer are sufficiently knowledgeable to undertake. Although critics can nitpick, Blurring the Color Line is essential reading for scholars, students, activists, and pundits in the field of race and ethnicity, and anyone interested in the promise of social science to inform the policy agenda.”—Charles Hirschman, Population and Development Review

“Blurring the Color Line is a groundbreaking, original, and important work which greatly advances and broadens the debate on the future makeup of American society. In doing so, it also marshals a great deal of demographic and statistical evidence to back up the incisive arguments made by the author… Blurring the Color Line is a brilliant and lucid analysis with very important implications that need to be carefully thought through. As such, it is mandatory reading for all those interested in policy analysis, and especially for leaders responsible for shaping and implementing it.”—William Helmreich, Society

“When it comes to understanding racial change and integration in the United States, Richard Alba is a groundbreaker… Alba’s detailed narrative shows how public education can make the difference between significant, rapid social change with respect to race, and slow, more piecemeal blurring. One might read this book as another argument for why public education needs to be ramped up, especially in urban areas, but the implications, I believe, go further… Blurring the Color Line presents an impressive amount of evidence to support Alba’s sophisticated arguments, and he presents all sides of the complex arguments of the book. Impressive in its lucidity, in addition to quantitative analysis the book is rich with details about complex sociological research related to the topics of the book… A theory as overarching as Alba’s is impressive in its detail, its reach, and its ability to explain the past and hypothesize about the future.”—Natasha Kumar Warikoo, Teachers College Record

“Blurring the Color Line offers a primer on how to make assimilation happen in the 21st century.”—Douglas S. Massey, Princeton University, editor of New Faces in New Places: The New Geography of American Immigration

“Blurring the Color Line has the potential to be an instant classic. It demonstrates through a rigorous analysis of demographic, economic, and social data that the successful integration of American minority groups is very possible in the coming decades.”—Mary C. Waters, Harvard University, co-author of Inheriting the City: The Children of Immigrants Come of Age