As our social and political environment becomes more polarized during this election campaign, one thing has become clearer to me. This election is about the politics of race and xenophobia. The backlash that is described as Republican enthusiasm -- grounded in the theme of the Tea Party to "Take back America" -- is a cancer that is eating away at the fabric of our republic. Interestingly, President Obama -- our Black President with a funny name -- is a poster child for both of these irrational fears. So, this election has boiled down to -- "defeat anyone associated with the policies of Obama, and watch out for those Muslims."

Recently, I have been reading a fascinating book that addresses these issues and proposes solutions to get us beyond the fears that threaten to destroy us. Uncommon Common Ground challenges us all to consider the future of race relations in America, and proposes a way forward.

 Here is an excerpt from the first chapter -- Are We Postracial Yet?

"The presidency of Barack Obama defies simple analyses of racial progress in America. At precisely the same moment that a black man leads the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, African Americans and Latinos are grappling with their greatest loss of wealth in modern U.S. history. With ties to Islam and the Ivy League, Obama, the son of an immigrant Kenyan father and midwestern white mother, is the unquestioned and popular leader of a broad-based multiethnic coalition. And as we reflect on his historic electoral victory, we can't help but wonder what Martin Luther King Jr., would have thought of an America that elects a black man to lead it but still fails to graduate over one-quarter of its young black men from high school.

"So what is to be made of this conundrum? Was "the last racial barrier in American politics" swept away by Obama's election as some pundits have suggested, ushering in, finally, the nation's long-overdue post racial phase? Or, have Americans merely watched one remarkably gifted and fortunate person of color vault spectacularly over a wall, and concluded, mistakenly, that the wall is no longer there? And, just as important, what does a black man's success have to do with the growing Latino and Asian Pacific communities, particularly at a time when immigration has emerged as a preeminent civil rights issue and is fueling a stark demographic transformation that by the year 2042 will result in a new American majority in which people of color outnumber whites?"

 Join a virtual book club discussion to address this and other issues raised by this book co-authored by one of the foremost thought leaders in matters of equity -- Angela Glover Blackwell, founder and Chief Executive Officer of PolicyLink. Under Blackwell's leadership, PolicyLink has become a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, education, and infrastructure. This book proposes an "equity framework" that helps us to go beyond "racial equality" to become more effective advocates for "racial equity."

This book welcomes those of good will to engage in a conversation about the future of America.