The Future of White Men and Other Diversity Dilemmas

by Joan Steinau Lester

Nationally known diversity expert Dr. Lester guides us through a rapidly changing social obstacle course. She provides a new and refreshing outlook on the diversity dilemmas we confront every day, and she addresses the discomfort heterosexual white men often feel about these changes.

164 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1994

About the author

Joan Steinau Lester, Ed.D., is the author of six books exploring race, family, identity, and social change. Her memoir Loving Before Loving: A Marriage in Black and White won the PEN Oakland–Josephine Miles Literary Award. A paperback edition with a new afterword will be published on December 8, 2026. Her books also include the novels Mama’s Child and Black, White, Other.

As a member of a biracial family, Joan has spent much of her life asking how the idea of race came to shape American life and intimate relationships. That question runs through her fiction, nonfiction, commentary, and work as an educator. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other outlets.

Joan holds a doctorate in multicultural education from the University of Massachusetts. In 1981, she co-founded the Equity Institute, where she helped develop education programs addressing discrimination. She lives with her wife in Northern California.