This transnational study probes the abiding inclination to ""blacken"" riots. It unravels the connection between racial violence - both the white and the ""raced"" - in the United States and South Africa,as well as the social dynamics that this connection sustains.

In a bold work that cuts across racial, ethnic, cultural, and national boundaries, Sheila Smith McKoy reveals how race colors the idea of violence in the United States and in South Africa--two countries inevitably and inextricably linked by the central role of skin color in personal and national identity. 192.