Rodriguez introduces and expounds on various theoretical notions that make for new visions of the world and ultimately new ways of being the world--specifically addressing ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and race.

Building on concepts from his 2003 book, Diversity As Liberation (II): Introducing A New Understanding of Diversity (Hampton; Cresskill, NJ), Rodríguez explores color beyond categories, offering a new racial understanding by examining "brown" as an ideology that circumvents boundaries. He argues that identity politics shift attention away from the structural forces that undergird modern society and make for domination and oppression. He also contends that identity politics trivializes our understanding of diversity and of what being human means, and in so doing, blocks the evolution of any new politics that possibly transcends notions of domination and exploitation. He advocates for a new politics of union and communion, and discusses the discursive, communicative, and performative practices that come with this new politics. No subject index. The author's credentials are not stated. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

This book is about the hope that resides in brown, the color of creation. It defines brown ideologically rather than racially. That is, brown is about peoples who are increasingly defying the borders of ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and race that limit imagination and possibility through various anxieties, insecurities, and paranoia that make us afraid of the world's ambiguity, mystery, and complexity and, in so doing, make us afraid of our differences. It is about peoples who are of borderlands-conceptual, communicational, relational, communal, theoretical, and cultural spaces, such as Spanglish and Ozomatli, which are devoted to possibility. Thus in a world where too many believe in a coming clash of civilizations and that Latino immigration poses the most serious threat to the prosperity of the U.S., this book introduces and expounds on various theoretical notions that make for new visions of the world and ultimately new ways of being the world.