Anderson, Elijah, Code of the Street: Decency, Violence, and the Moral Life of the Inner City, Norton, 2000.

Sociologist Elijah Anderson details how crime in the inner city stems from a complex set of social mores or codes, which are ultimately self-defeating for the individuals who live by them.

Boykin, Keith, One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America, Doubleday, 1996.

Boykin, a gay black man who served as a special media assistant to President Clinton from 1993 to 1994 and as a liaison with both the homosexual and African American communities, examines the interactions between the black gay community and the white gay and black straight communities. He examines issues such as the black community's failure to address AIDS-related problems and discrimination within the gay community.

Cohen, Cathy, The Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics, University of Chicago Press, 1999.

Cohen explores why...