The beating of Rodney King, the killing of Amadou Diallo, and the LAPD Rampart Scandal: these events have been interpreted by the courts, the media and the public in dramatically conflicting ways. Critical Race Narratives examines what is at stake in these conflicts and, in so doing, rethinks racial strife in the United States as a highly-charged struggle over different methods of reading and writing. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore copies of Critical Race Narratives will be available for purchase and signing at this event.

Carl Gutierrez-Jones is an Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the author of Rethinking the Borderlands: Between Chicano Culture and Legal Discourse.