Spanning the last fifty years and set largely in Los Angeles, this is a revealing and impressive look at the changes in the way black Americans have been perceived by white Americans -- and by themselves as well. Using the filter of the cosmetics industry -- what better vantage point than an industry devoted to image? -- Campbell tells a compelling tale of a black-white friendship that began in hardship and was destroyed by fear and greed -- and of the fallout from this betrayal as it unwound over fifty years. But this is also a wonderful look at the way Big Cosmetics operates to lure women into buying new products -- and the way big white-owned conglomerates have changed their hiring practices to grab a new market share -- black women with their newly won purchasing power. In the end, however, it is a story of love -- love found, betrayed, lost, and renewed; love between parent and child, men and women, and yes, blacks and whites. As in everything Campbell writes, there is a liberating spirit of reconciliation and redemption in What You Owe Me.