Kingsley DeSilva is Executive Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

As scholar, Kingsley DeSilva of Sri Lanka states at the outset of this conversation, ethnicity has become the most ubiquitous and problematic subject in the world today. For all the attention it gets ethnicity is still a murky subject rooted in a people's ideal vision of themselves and their histories. What it lacks in scientific precision is compensated by the romantic, almost tribal appeal of its expression. De Silva analyzes problems of ethnicity in several societies and concludes with encouraging observations about American society.