This book examines the racist and sexist assault on today's youth which is being played out in the realms of popular and children's culture. The book interrogates the aesthetic of violence in a number of public arenas--talk radio, Disney animation, and in such films as "Pulp Fiction,""Kids,""Slackers," and "Juice,"--and challenges cultural workers and other progressives to help reverse the attack on those who are most powerless in American society, children and adolescents. The book, while affirming that many groups of youth in this country are at risk, aims to reclaim the importance of critical pedagogy as an eminently political discourse and practice. Pointing out that cultural studies is one of the few fields that provides an interdisciplinary approach to youth cultures and popular culture, the book argues for making cultural studies a primary area through which to analyze how youth as a social category is constructed within various contexts and spheres of popular culture. Chapters in the book are as follows: (1) "Race, Violence, and Children's Culture"; (2) "Public Intellectuals and Populist Persuasions"; and (3) "The Way Things Ought Not to Be: Race and National Identity." (NKA)