Black and Right

Rating:
Summary: This book will ENRICH you- whatever your color.
Review:

Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America
Edited by Stan Faryna, Brad Stetson, and Joseph G. Conti
Praeger Publishing, May 1997
ISBN # 0-275-95342-4

For the first time in a book of academic value and easy accessibility, several black conservative voices now disclose their experience, their history, and their vision for tomorrow. Essays by Gary Franks, Glenn Loury, and Justice Clarence Thomas are just a few of the prominent writings featured in this timely and supreme line-up of writings by the new black leadership and other experts. These essays can be found in the paradigm-shattering pages of Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America.

Anticipating America's renewed fascination with the heritage, future, and voice of black America, Black and Right promises to be a significant contribution without equal for American studies, thought, and political life. "Black and Right is one bold, giant step in the noble undertaking that will impress an inspired understanding of black America upon the minds of all Americans," explains George Mason University Law School Professor Joseph Broadus, a contributor to Black and Right.

"This important collection of essays presents the emerging leaders of a new epoch in the saga of African-American Liberation. For too long, the Left beat the dominant publicity drum, while in its heart the black community has marched rightward. Now, new voices articulate those old dreams in a tone no longer muted by the protective coloration of political correctness," said Professor Broadus.

Edited by Stan Faryna, Brad Stetson, and Joseph G. Conti, Black and Right tells the unheard story of the devastating impact that dependency and group thinking have had upon the black community. As Dr. Walter Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics at George Mason University, argues: "If one deliberately set out to sabotage black socio-economic progress, he could not have found a more effective means than many of the government policies started in the sixties and seventies."

"Black and Right is the long overdue antidote to the harmful conventional wisdom that formed the justification for those policies," claims Dr. Williams. Indeed, this book is not just a cry in the wilderness. "It discloses concrete solutions that illuminate the road to the Promised Land," says Stan Faryna, co-editor of Black and Right and Director of Research for the New Coalition of Economic and Social Change, an Afro American think tank in Chicago. Black and Right recommends a high moral road of unlimited opportunity for all Americans.

Diann E. Cameron, C.S.W., Director of Counseling Programs at The Albert G. Oliver Program, Inc. and contributor, comments: "Black and Right brings an important viewpoint to the public square. It is a viewpoint that was once ignored in the mainstream media. These voices reflect a common sense and intelligence that is shared by black Americans across the country."

"Though the elites of popular culture imagine that blacks do not believe in strong families, less bureaucracy, lower taxes, more choices in education, and personal responsibility, these are precious beliefs that come from the fabric of the black community - a fabric that is centuries old," Cameron explains.

A story of black America has been long told by the Left; however, the full story has been eclipsed by their loud and terrifying rhetoric. Black and Right invites the thinking person to know black America in a refreshingly thoughtful manner.

Last month, Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) reintroduced a bill to establish a Black American museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C. as part of the Smithsonian Institution. The Congressman said he was reintroducing this bill to highlight the significance, urgency, and importance of such a museum. "The story of black people in America has yet to be told in its entirety," he said.

Contributors and editors of Black and Right could not agree more with the spirit of the honorable John Lewis' remark. The full story of black America must now be told.

Rating:
Summary: A must-read book for the well-read and those-in-the-know!
Review: Get Rep. J. C. Watts on the phone and ask him why he doesn't have an essay in "Black and Right!" This book is an outstanding collection of essays. Powerful, intelligent, and compelling voices remind us to look up and move forward.

Though strong and exciting recommendations, the advance praise by famous columnists (Cal Thomas, Walter Williams, Father Neuhaus, et al.) is surprisingly modest. This book is an important contribution to American thought and political life. I salute the contributors and editors of "Black and Right." The analysis, confession, drama, heritage, reflection, and story of these thoughtful black Americans puts this book on my top 100 book list.

Call the Washington Post! Let them know that American politics will never be the same again. Heritage Foundation's Adam Meyerson is mistaken: "Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America" is not a tremor; it is a major earthquake registering 10 on my Richter scale.

This fantastic book will rescue a civilization that was going down in flames. It tears down the wall of racial division, it puts faith and reason back into the Culture and Constitution, and it gathers us all together as we finally advance in making the Dream true!

Rating:
Summary: Invisible Conservatives
Review: It has always struck me as odd that blacks would drift in such large numbers to the Democratic Party. That party has simply bought them off through government favors and undermined their efforts through destructive policies. While pretending to be an absolute champion of tolerance and free speech, the press has revealed its one-sided bias by repeatedly trying to tear down any black who emerges from the Right. The decadent, crime-ridden lives of rappers and pro athletes are presented as admirable, but any black Republican who runs for office is certain to be called an Uncle Tom.

All of this is odd, not merely because liberal efforts run counter to the reality of a diverse America, and not merely because the squelching of black conservatives is done in the name of freedom and equality, but because blacks originally voted Republican. Lincoln, the great emancipator and founder of the Republican Party, earned the respect of blacks for generations. In whatever people can do for themselves, Lincoln wrote, the government ought not to interfere. Over the years, however, the utopian promises of Wilson, FDR, and LBJ lured away many blacks -- and whites -- despite the fact that many of the virtues traditionally cherished by blacks (localism, community, neighborhood, independence) have always been more in line with traditional conservatism.

Unfortunately, most of the essays in this collection are too brief to account for the gap between what blacks want and what representatives say they want. The list of contributors, too, is missing some important names, such as Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Alan Keyes, John McWhorter, Deroy Murdock, Armstrong Williams, and J. C. Watts. Missing, too, are Wynton Marsalis and Stanley Crouch, despite the fact that they addressed jazz the way Eliot addressed poetry -- as an art that relies on tradition and individual talent. I could also mention the early work of Ralph Ellison and the scorn Zora Neale Hurston heaped onto the New Deal.

This is not the say that the current volume has little to offer. Robert George provides an alternative to the existential duality of the black American that was raised by W. E. B. Dubois. Lee Walker, Brian Jones, and Stan Faryna resurrect the ideas of Booker T. Washington. Shelby Steele again demonstrates thoughtful and nuanced prose. Justice Clarence Thomas gives a brief history of the black conservative's uneasy relationship with the two major parties, reminding all conservatives that they must assert their principles rather than merely criticize their enemies.

This book proves that blacks are much more diverse in their views than most people realize. The Democratic Party continues to take them for granted, treating them as a special interest group to which promises are made but rarely kept. With its emphasis on excessive federal power, conformity through law, and personal license, The American Left has little to offer blacks. I hope that future volumes by black conservatives will be forthcoming even if there are powerful forces working against it.

Rating:
Summary: POWERFUL, Truthful, Enlightening, Dares to challenge !
Review: One of the most insightful, daring, challenging book wriiten on how the Democratic party has dimantled the Black American Family.

We learn the truths of how Al Gore and Democrats fought vigorously to find their place in the black community and how LBJ's new society pumped billions of dollars and despair into one time stable communities.

It tears away at the stereotypes of republicans, conservatives, religious leaders and takes a clear look at the problems and what solutions are needed in the Black Communities!

It exposes the negative side of governments programs and what effects Great Society economics, abortion, drugs, alcohol have had on the black community.

These Black writers are to be applauded for standing up for their beliefs and challenging the liberal power structure!

Rating:
Summary: Nice try, but ill-executed!
Review: The flaws of this book are numerous. I wanted to like it, and I found that I agreed with some of the opinions, but this book failed on many fronts.

The antagonistic tone of many of the essays was, to say the least, unsettling. One author complained that a Democrat once said that those against Affirmative Action were racist or ignorant. Ironically enough, many other authors whose works appear in B&R take the same stance when it comes to individuals who disagree with their conservative ideology. Many essays include phrases like, "...intelligent people realize...", "...logical thought dictates...", "...any reasonable person can see...", "..empirical data proves...". It seems the essayists refuse to consider any ideas but their own, and denigrate anyone who disagrees.

Another flaw was the repeated use of flawed logic. Often, an essay would open with a listing of facts, problems, and ambiguous solutions. However, invariably, the author would make some obtuse leap of faith to an erronious conclusion. For instance: the increase of fatherless families is bad, and welfare helps single destitute women provide for their children; therefore, end welfare immediately and the problem of fatherless families will be eradicated. Say what?!?!?

This book has some good things to say, but the positives are mired in a sea of flawed thinking and confrontational rhetoric. Is there no middle ground for an open-minded, clear thinking, middle-of-the-road minority?

Rating:
Summary: Every Black Person Should Have This Book!
Review: This is an excellent collection of essays from black conservative scholars, activists, public servants, writers and students who refuse to be sucked into modern-day black groupthink. Upon reading this book I felt encouraged and invigorated in my own newfound conservative beliefs as a black man in America. What is particularly refreshing about this book is its non-conformist tone: the essayists are strong-willed people who do not need the "acceptance" of their liberal black peers - or the black community as a whole for that matter! - and who are not afraid to openly challenge today's black so-called "leadership." Furthermore, they have logic, objectivity, erudtion and empirical facts on their side, something most black liberals are sorely lacking.

This is a great piece of work, and I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Every Black Person Should Have This Book!
Review: This is an excellent collection of essays from black conservative scholars, activists, public servants, writers and students who refuse to be sucked into modern-day black groupthink. Upon reading this book I felt encouraged and invigorated in my own newfound conservative beliefs as a black man in America. What is particularly refreshing about this book is its non-conformist tone: the essayists are strong-willed people who do not need the "acceptance" of their liberal black peers - or the black community as a whole for that matter! - and who are not afraid to openly challenge today's black so-called "leadership." Furthermore, they have logic, objectivity, erudtion and empirical facts on their side, something most black liberals are sorely lacking.

This is a great piece of work, and I highly recommend it.