why was Through the Fire: Surviving Race and Place in America written?

Answer 1

First of all, the title is "Coming through the fire : surviving race and place in America"
You can get some information as to why it was written from the notes about the book at the www.amazon.com site

http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Through-Fire-Surviving-America/dp/0822317362/sr=8-1/qid=1166548405/ref=sr_1_1/002-3712102-2488866?ie=UTF8&s=books.

From what I gather, for many years the author had kept notes about race relations. These notes were destroyed in a fire. So, the book may be the author's try at summarizing his recollections of his notes.

Answer 2

Doubtless to teach us that racism is alive and well in America.