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Rating: 
Summary: This book is up and down with an absolutely bizarre middle.
Review: As you may know, I taught for 7 years in an inner-city middle school. The issue of race in America came up daily, and some days it was an ever-present feature. I was forced to think about it all of the time and all I know is that I don't know enough to solve the issues and no one ever will. Nevertheless, on ocassion I am moved to visit these issues again. This book seemed to be as good a place as any.
Tony Brown is a Black man (he prefers that term) who has hosted a PBS discussion show called "Tony Brown's Journal" for years. He also hosts a Saturday talk show on WLS 890 AM out of Chicago that can be heard throughout the midwest thanks to their high wattage broadcast strength.
He is an interesting man and a good discussion leader on his shows. His views were fairly consistent with my own, although I think that his preceptions of white america are a little off, just as he would undoubtedly think that my views of black America are off. The first 1/3 and the last 1/3 are full of pretty good thoughts, observations and ideas, except for their repitiveness.
The middle 1/3 is a bit bizarre. It concerns AIDS and his denial that it even exists. He claims that AIDS is not real because there are 30+ diseases that are associated with it. He wonders how certain types of cancers and certain types of fungal infections and viruses can all be from the same disease. He misunderstands that these diseases are presumed to be symptoms of AIDS since they are rare and usually are only present to people with depressed immune systems - which happens to people with AIDS (thus its name). He also touts a theory that claims that AIDS was started accidentally by using viruses from Monkeys to create a Smallpox vaccine that was used in Africa in the 1970s. After doing a google search I can tell you that he is not alone with this belief, but most others who share it assume that it was a racist plot by the US government in an effort to control population.
I was disappointed by "Black Lies, White Lies" because I like Brown's TV & radio shows. I give this book '2 stars' for its repitive nature and the bizarre middle of the book.
As an addendum, I thought I would add these conclusions that were gleaned from a poll and interviews by the "Washington Post" of black students and their beliefs concerning education that he quoted. I thought the poll pretty much encapsulated the attitudes of black students (as a whole) that I had in the Indianapolis Public Schools:
*Black students are poor and stay poor because they are dumber than Whites.
*Black kids who do their homework and behave must want to be white. White kids who do poorly or dress cool want to be Black.
*Black people don't want to work hard.
*Blacks don't need to work hard because it won't matter in the end.
*Blacks have to be bad so they can fight and defend themselves from other Blacks.
*Blacks see their badness as natural.
*Black men make women pregnant and leave.
*Black boys expect to die unnaturally.
*White people are smart and have money.
In my experience, the poll-takers nailed these attitudes dead on. I fought against these feelings for years, but to be honest, I got wore out and left the Indianapolis Public Schools partially because I couldn't turn it around
Rating:
Summary: review part 1
Review: Black Leaders and White Liberals Throughout history, black leaders in the United States have worked hard
trying to bridge the economic gap between black and white communities in
this country. They have made it one of their main goals to express their
anger to the United States government to seriously address this problem and
make an honest effort to reduce the growing unemployment rate among Black
Americans. Even though some progress has been made, with special programs
targeting minorities, we are still tailing far behind the white majority.
I will talk briefly about these so called programs later on in this report.
Getting back to the issue at hand, I think it is absurd for a black man in
this country to talk out against our great black leaders who have worked so
hard to achieve the little advantages that we have gained. In a book that I
recently read "Black Lies, White Lies - According to Tony Brown," Mr. Brown
expressed his opinion about the Black leaders and White liberals that are
doing something close to nothing for the minorities in this country. In
this essay I will argue that Mr. Brown's argument for this conclusion is
weak. Tony Brown's basic argument can be summarized as follows: Black leaders first failed Black Americans when they embraced integration
rather than economic equality as the solution to the problem of inequality.
The last great leader was "Martin Luther King, Jr."
America's Black leadership sees its primary function as blaming whites for
the dire problems of the black community and demanding more government
intervention as the sole solution to this predicament.
Black economic development and social equality have, in part, been subverted
by the very black leaders who pointed their fingers at whites.
Our failed black leaders and their misguided white liberal "allies" are
responsible for the sad fact that blacks are the only ethnic or racial group
in this country that has never become a serious player in the economy.
The failure of Blacks to harness economic power has resulted in the great
social and economic divide that still separates their community from the
rest of the nation.
Mr. Brown calls many of the white liberal allies of the Black community
"racists" because they have demonstrated their belief in the inferiority of
Blacks by enacting policies that place Blacks at the mercy of welfare and
other socialistic entitlement programs for the middle class as well as the
poor.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and refreshing
Review: I have always been impressed with the thoughts of Tony Brown. So I read his book and deeply enjoyed it. The most interesting aspect of his book was his discussion regarding the so-called "AIDS" epidemic. If you want to be enlightened and challenged in your thinking, than this book is for you. It is refreshing to hear an African-American question both black and white leadership with courage and honesty. For me all of his arguments are logical and if you weigh the facts, it all makes sense. As a young person(age 25)I am encouraged by Mr.Brown's entreprenural spirit and vision.
Rating:
Summary: Tony Brown Presents An Interesting Point of View
Review: In his book, Tony Brown is only interested in presenting the truth to the reader. He exposes the problems with Black America in the past and in modern times. He believes that America should come together and fight the issue of racism head on. He is a strong Republican and offers many views on how blacks can overcome being marginalized in American society. He covers economic and political issues that I was very uninformed about. Probably one of the more interesting parts of the book were the chapters on AIDS. He presentd many theories that otherwise I would have never heard about. Even though I do not agreee with many of his views I have a huge amount of respect for Tony. He cares not only about certain blacks but for the advancement of the black masses and his solution is his text.
Rating:
Summary: review part 2
Review: Many of the problems that Blacks face today-material poverty, dysfunctional
families, illiteracy, and so on-can be traced back directly to the
organization of the Black protest movement by whites, many of whom were
socialists.
White leaders instilled socialism and its "where's mine?" mind-set in
Blacks, rather than capitalism and its "I'll get my own" attitude. Mr. Brown's book point out some interesting issues, but nonetheless, there
are a great number of flaws with this book. For instance, Mr. Brown's argument in statement one fails to explain the
real reason why black leaders fought for integration. In this part of his
argument, Mr. Brown seems to be arguing for two things: first, that
integration is a novel form of liberal racism, and second, Black leaders
embraced integration rather than economic equality because they believed
that they needed to be integrated with whites to survive. Both of these
claims misrepresent what Black leaders had been arguing.
The basic underlying assumption of the Black integrationist (Black leaders)
position is that American institutions can be designed so that blacks can
enjoy, along with whites, economic, political, and social security as well
as self-respect. Black leaders and white liberals also believe that
segregation is immoral because it stresses the human differences rather than
their similarities. Nowhere in Mr. Brown's book did he consider that
segregation could possibly cultivate more racism in this country. Instead,
he believes that we can be separate at home and at school and then come
together as a country when needed.
Mr. Brown also contradicted himself in statement two: he says that Martin
Luther King, Jr. was the last great leader. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a
Black leader and integrationist. Some of Mr. Brown's arguments are shaky on
other grounds as well. Let's examine some of these arguments: In statement
three, he says that Blacks are demanding more government intervention and
believe this is the sole solution for their predicament. In statement four,
he tells us that the Black economic development and social equality has been
subverted by black leaders. In statement five, six, seven, eight and nine-
he wants us to believe that the Black leaders and white liberals have
misguided the Blacks in this country to be dependent on the government.
These arguments are weak because, again, Mr. Brown is making statements that
don't represent the full truth. Black leaders have never suggested that
government programs will solely solve the Black problems in this country,
like Mr. Brown wants his readers to believe. But they do express that Blacks
are victims of persistent racism in this country, and that is why fingers
are being pointed at the whites. Blacks need government's intervention to
help bridge the economic and social gap between Black and white Americans.
Black leaders and some white liberal goals are not guided to make Blacks
dependent on government programs but are guided to make the programs work
for Blacks. Given the history of this country, it is a virtual certainty
that without programs like affirmative action, racial discrimination would
cover our society like a bad storm.
Furthermore, Mr. Brown's argument against affirmative action is also flawed.
According to Mr. Brown, affirmative action has not made a major impact on
poverty and it is a failed racial remedy. It has provided greater advantages
toward the middle-class Blacks, and white females.
The essential reason for affirmative action is this:
To prohibit discrimination and improve the employment opportunities for
minorities and women.
To prohibit discrimination in educational institutions.
And to prohibit discrimination in housing.
Affirmative action was not implemented to solve poverty in this country, but
to eliminate further discrimination toward special groups.
Nowhere in Mr. Brown's book did he explain affirmative action to his
readers; instead, he gave his readers a negative view of affirmative action
and used that explanation to support why the program was a failure.
In summary, Mr. Brown offers a very weak argument for his conclusion.
Several of his arguments against Black leaders and white liberals were
misleading. He gave his readers false information and contradicted himself
throughout his book. The affirmative action argument is also faulty because
it poses weak explanations about the program. It should be noted that many
books have been written about the racial issues in this country and some
very convincing, but Mr. Brown's argument against Black leaders and
preferential treatment was weak and not persuasive.
Rating:
Summary: Lacking balance
Review: Thoroughly enjoyable book written from the heart. Take the time to read this book. Only drawback is Mr Brown's tendency to namecall and to repeat other people's lies. Although written in 1995 so perhaps some truths hadn't 'outed' then?
I regret can't get the PBS broadcast out here but will definately be reading more by him.
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