Racial conflict in America is widespread. No attempt to homogenize American political culture out of an amalgam of egalitarian values can mask its occasionally virulent manifestations. Despite the introduction of large numbers of new immigrant groups in the decades after 1965' and the new profiles of intergroup conflict that have emerged, the dominant image of racial conflict in the United States remains the one that takes place between African Americans and whites.2 For example, the Los Angeles riot of 1992 contained a rich subtext of conflict between blacks and Koreans, blacks and Hispanics, and Hispanics and whites. These examples of the dark side of cultural diversity were obscured by the visceral images of blacks beating a white truck driver senseless in the street. Thus, what Gadlin calls the culture of racism, "[the] constellation of commonality, conflict, and difference"3 is signatured by the persistent and sometimes violent interactions between blacks and whites. Racism is not a black problem, or a white problem, but rather an interactive dynamic, woven onto a tapestry of history and events that envelop the two groups.