Gibbs and Bankhead examine the history and current situation in California as it struggles to deal with the ethnic and racial change that will make it the first American state to have a non-white majority in the first decade of the 21st century. From shock and denial, to bargaining to change the outcome, they analyze the impact in California and what this may mean for the rest of the country.

They begin by tracing the major historical, social, economic and political events of the past 50 years that laid the foundation for the impetus of such ethnically and racially divisive initiatives...