"This volume provides links between ideas and events within Southern history to those of the Southwest. In their various chapters, the seven contributors illustrate that elites' common (and inaccurate) use of dichotomous categories to describe social relationships - not only black and white, but also male and female, slave and free, dependent and independent - have shored up white power in both regions. Together they illustrate multilevel social diversity and demonstrate that acceptance then and now of simple binaries has impeded efforts by groups outside those categories to claim recognition, rights, and privileges on their own terms." "All those interested in race and public policy as well as social activism concerned with racial, ethnic, and gender issues will find in these thought-provoking analyses a doorway to deeper understanding."--BOOK JACKET.