Racism: A Short History

I just put in four hours reading in the library, which were relatively painless given that this particular book was informative and readable (sadly, I can't say that about some of the other texts). The following quote is on the last page of the epilogue and I liked it enough to post it here:

p. 150 [Regarding whether the "color line" of the past will be replaced with religion]

"Grasping for one's identity in a world that threatens to reduce everyone who is not part of the elite to a low-paid worker or a consumer of cheap, mass-produced commodities creates a hunger for meaning and a sense of self-worth that can most easily be satisfied by consciousness of race or religion. Race offers less of a haven to the alienated and disenchanted than it once did, because of the worldwide campaign against it that was one of the great achievements of the twentieth century. But absolutist religion retains its appeal, and to the extent that it becomes militant and politicized, it has the potential to become the twenty-first century's principal source of intergroup conflict and aggression."