A four-part exploration of the world in which a new generation of Americans now find ourselves.  Three years in production, Matters of Race allows its stories to unfold and the communities it explores to change in an unprecedented, sometimes uncomfortably intimate way. 

Combining the very best aspects of the explosive "reality TV" trend with the thoughtfulness and scholarship that is the hallmark of our public television system, Matters of Race challenges our conventional ideas about reace, about power, about our society.  From New York to Los Angeles and Honolulu, Hawaii to the Whiteriver Apache Reservation in Arizona, the stories at the core of the films are about the personal relationships as well as the structures and institutions that shape, maintain and challenge the reality of race in America. 

Race, culture, power, and identity are the four themes at the center of each episode.  Each program is thematically, rather than chronologically, organized and uses personal stories if American writers as the centerpiece.  The experiences and observations of the authors provide the window to larger issues of race, culture and power in the United States.