What are the conditions needed for folks to bridge cultural and racial divides? By "writing beyond race," noted cultural critic bell hooks attempts to model the constructive ways scholars, activists, and readers can challenge and change systems of domination. In the spirit of previous classics like Outlaw Cultureand Reel to Real, this collection of brand new essays interrogates contemporary cultural notions of race, gender, and class. From the films Precious and Crash to recent biographies of Malcolm X and Henrietta Lacks, hooks holds forth on the way race is being talked about in this "post-racial" era.