Xolela Mangcu is now based at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. He is Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington D.C.Xolela Mangcu is now based at the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town. He is Non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, Washington D.C.Nina G. Jablonski is the Evan Pugh Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cape Town.Dennis L. Krebs is Chair and Professor of Psychology at Simon Fraser University. Lawrence A. Blum is Professor of Philosophy and Women's studies at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. M Zuzanna Smolenska is Assistant Professor, Polish Academy of Science. Steven Friedman is Research Professor associated with the Department of Politics in the Humanities Faculty, University of Johannesburg. He is a political scientist who specialises in the study of democracy; a public commentator; newspaper columnist and a former trade unionist.

• Foreword by David Scott; Acknowledgements and preface; What moving beyond race can actually mean: Towards a joint culture Xolela Mangcu; The colour of our past and present: The evolution of human skin pigmentation Nina G. Jablonski; Races, racialised groups and racial identity: Perspectives from South Africa and the United States Larry Blum; The Janus face of the past: Preserving and resisting South African path dependence Steven Friedman; How black is the future of green in South Africa's urban future? Mark Swilling; Inequality in democratic South Africa Vusi Gumede; Interrogating the concept and dynamics of race in public policy Joel Netshitenzhe; Why I am no longer a non-racialist: Identity, and difference Suren Pillay; Interrogating transformation in South African higher education Crain Soudien; The black interpreters and the arch of history Hlonipha Mokoena; Acronyms and abbreviations; Index.

The colour of our future is a timely book. The individual chapters clearly show that questions of race have not withered away with the installation of a progressive constitution intended to create a nonracial society. That there might be good reason for understanding and accepting racial identities that are not only imposed or accepted for the purpose of resistance, but can, properly understood, be part of a positive future, is to be welcomed - Paul Graham, former executive director of IDASA.