If affirmative action and other ethnicity-based social programs are justified,
then J. Angelo Corlett believes it is important to come to an adequate
understanding of the nature of ethnicity in general and ethnic group membership
in particular. In Race, Racism, and Reparations, Corlett reconceptualizes
traditional ideas of race in terms of ethnicity. As he makes clear, the answers
to the questions "What is a Native American"? or "What is a Latino/a"? have
important implications for public policy, especially for those programs designed
to address historic injustices and economic and social imbalances among
different groups in our society. Having supplanted "race" with a well-defined
concept of ethnicity, the author