Race Critical Theories brings together many of the key contributors to critical theorizing about race and racism over the past twenty years. Each previously published text is accompanied by a fresh statement - in most cases written by the authors themselves - regarding the political context, implications and effects of the original contribution.

Philomena Essed is Senior Researcher at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Research Institute for Global Issues and Development Studies, and Visiting Professor at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of Everyday Racism (1990), Understanding Everyday Racism (1991), and Diversity: Gender, Color and Culture (1996).

David Theo Goldberg is Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute and Professor of African American Studies and Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of Racist Culture: Philosophy and the Politics of Meaning (1993); Racial Subjects: Writing on Race in America (1997); and Ethical Theory and Social Issues (second edition, 1995). He co-edits Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture.