156 REVIEWS

that many have considered themselves "sons of the Yellow Emperor,"
based on the belief that the Yellow Emperor, Huang Ti, was the progeni-
tor of the Chinese race. In the discussion of Africa, Alleyne dispels taken-
for-granted myths concerning the Atlantic Slave Trade. He proves that
it was the moral and social character of Europeans, not skin color, that
determined how various groups of Africans initially described them.
 Describing the wider Caribbean, Chapter Five contains a general
discussion of colonial racism, slavery, and their aftermath. As many
readers know, the fact that a large number of peoples (indigenous
peoples, Europeans and Africans of different ethnicities and nationali-
ties, Indians, Chinese, Arabs, Jews, and Japanese) came together in
the Caribbean distinguishes individual islands, as well as the region,
from more racially homogenous parts of the world. However, empha-
sizing only pluralism can obscure similarities at the macro level. Ac-
cordingly, Alleyne does not seek or offer a global view of this history.
Instead, his theoretical approach espouses "unity in diversity" (84).
"Unity" refers to common regional features and "diversity" accounts
for manifestations of race and ethnicity in particular subgroupings.
This fifth chapter sets the stage for the remainder of the text. By this
point in the book the reader is familiar with Alleyne's methodology
and the scholarly concerns outlined above. For this reason and due to
limitations of space, this review does not detail sections on Puerto
Rico, Jamaica, and Martinique (Chapters 6, 7, and 8, respectively).
 The concluding section, Chapter Nine, provides an overview of the
process of racialization, describing it in terms of issues of class and glo-
balization. The author also makes a number of provocative remarks
concerning the future. Among these, three stand out. First, Alleyne notes
that "the new current direction is towards a return to the non-racial
character of social status" with "no change in the racial character of low
social status" (243). Second, he predicts that the Caribbean-type colour/
phenotypical continuum will emerge in other societies in which there is
considerable racial mixing. Finally, Alleyne anticipates that analyses
centered on notions of stratification and class may fall short of adequately
describing the societies of tomorrow. He continues, "in response we
will have to construct models that describe and account for social mo-
bility, in other words, models which identify the factors and that pro-
mote or inhibit movement and determine their relative weighting" (249).
 Nuanced explanations of contemporary social situations and insights
into the use of language are two outstanding strengths of this volume.
They make it a text suitable for undergraduate courses focused on the