Amazon.com description: Product Description: Why have racist attitudes persisted in America despite tremendous changes in education and socialization during the last four decades? In this book, Thomas Powell explains the patterns of beliefs, attitudes, and values that have supported these views. In a broad exploration that analyzes the values expressed by Western thinkers from the Enlightenment to contemporary thought, Powell reaches the controversial conclusion that racism is linked to many of our most cherished social, political, and religious values.