AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE: One Nation, Indivisible

Rating:
Summary: importanat to understanding race relations
Review: America in black and white is important because it helps to give a good background on the history of race in this country. It deals with problems surrouding race in the past and how race relations have improved vastly in the last half century. Race relations have improved through things like the civil rights movements and through people's attitudes changing to be more accepting of people of different races. The book also deals with contemporary race problems relating to things like affirmative action, racial quotas and a chapter called the "racial climate" dealing with subjects like the O.J simpson trial, voting rights and inter-racial marriages/dating. The book ends with chapter "one nation, indivisible" shows helps to show how much people's attidutes have changed through time and that America's attitudes towards minority groups is actually far better then European country's attidutudes to minority groups.

Rating:
Summary: "character is what you do when no one is looking"
Review: As usual the grand "moralists" of the right are shown to be hypocrites.

In re Jewett:

In March, the Commission filed a complaint against Eugene Jewett alleging that he acted as an unregistered FCM when soliciting funds to trade commodity futures and options on behalf of customers. In May, the ALJ issued an Initial Decision on Default, finding that Jewett had acted as a FCM without being registered with the Commission by soliciting and accepting over $30,000 from customers to open accounts to trade commodity futures and options on the customers' behalf. The ALJ also found Jewett liable for commingling customer funds and failing to provide customers with separate written risk disclosure statements and written monthly account statements. The ALJ ordered Jewett to cease and desist various violations of the Act and to pay a total of $30,500 in restitution to three customers. The ALJ also prohibited Jewett from trading on any contract market for a period of ten years or until he has made full restitution to each of the customers, whichever is longer. In re Jewett, CFTC Docket No. 97-7 (filed Mar. 19, 1997).

Rating:
Summary: A very important book for the always hot topic of race.
Review: I was impressed by the honesty of this book. The use of vast statistical data was both helpful and annoying. The authors did not question the sometimes obvious shortcomings of self-reports on racial attitudes. Though Abigail and Stephan rightly pointed out the negative implications of crime in the black community and unwed mothers, their "solution" seemed so insensitive and rather optimistic. However, I was very disturbed by the authors failure to note how public policies can have both salutary and adverse effects. To argue that black economic progress took place prior to affirmative action programs does not clear govt and society of its responsibility for having created conditions of black poverty. The Thernstroms are so adamant about their belief in limited govt that they hardly see any public policies that have helped blacks in the last 30 years. Furthermore, the title is mistaken. The contents of the book undermine the notion of a unified and inseparable nation. In fact, the Thernstroms are simply mistaken in their belief in America's (i.e., the American people) will to deal with its most enduring sin--race. But I do commend them for being candid enough to air our dirty laundry. We are in desperate need of solutions!

Rating:
Summary: No gray areas?
Review: In contrast to the title of the book - AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE, it is rare that the subject of race relations can be discussed in such black and white terms. There is definitely a gray area on most issues.

The Thernstroms however, argue otherwise. On one hand are their views and on the other is the opinion of the "chattering classes." Whites who are in favor of affirmative action, in their view, support "policies built on deference to black victimization through which they can display their racial virtue." The book however is not vitriol, and it does have a central argument. Two of the main points developed on are:

(1) Black progress has been substantial; progress began post WWII, long before the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement therefore, has been given too much credit for the progress blacks have made in this century.

(2) Affirmative action is a mistake and it is "manifestly absurb" that these programs have improved conditions for blacks.

The Thernstroms use a wealth of polling data to support their points, and seemingly present a solid case for progress. For instance:

> "In 1958, 44% of whites said they would move if a black family became their next door neighbor; today, the figure is 1%"

> By 1997, "a Gallup Poll found 83% of whites aged 18 to 34 approved of interracial marriage. (The figure for blacks in the same bracket was 86%)."

Yet, there are other data sets that show conflicting views. How do we reconcile data from AMERICAN APARTHEID by Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton with that of this book? Massey and Denton show that there is a high degree of residential segregation still existing with whites having "little tolerance" for residential racial mixture beyond 20% black. Other studies, using data in Stanley Lieberson's and Mary Waters' FROM MANY STRANDS go beyond calculating residential segregation to indicating marital isolation. Orlando Patterson has calculated that the odds that an African-American woman will marry an African-American man are 27,444 times greater than that a non African-American woman will marry an African-American man. Lastly, a statewide special election was held in Alabama last November. The purpose being overturning the state's anti-miscegnation law which was still on the books. Over 40% of Alabamans voted to keep the ban in place; obviously there are still a lot of people that think blacks and whites should not mix blood.

AMERICA IN BLACK AND WHITE fully endorses the civil rights acts - the quarrel is with affirmative action. However, while stating that "too much remains" of white racism, they contradict themselves when saying that "haters have become a tiny remnant with no influence in any important sphere of American life." Perhaps this ambiguity, and the Thernstroms inability to speak with certainty, only serves to underline the reality that in race relations in general, and policy prescriptions in particular, there remains a vast gray area. Other contributions are needed.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly to the right of center look at race relations
Review: Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's "America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible" charts a different course from many of the scholarly books written about racial relations in the United States today. The authors agree that the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s was a resounding success, opening many doors to African-Americans as a result of the systematic dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the South. This book is necessary, claim the authors, because the ideas that originally drove the civil rights movement have since drifted into dangerous terrain. According to this book, Martin Luther King's message of one nation where all people will be judged by their individual merits and not skin color has become a land where blacks and whites are once again moving into separate camps based on race. The introduction of affirmative action programs and other racial social policies does not solve divisive problems but instead creates new racial barriers. Moreover, media and civil rights proponents today discuss black problems as though that segment of the population has made little progress. The authors insist that there are still nagging difficulties to overcome, but that a "lack of analytic rigor" leads to false perceptions about how far blacks have actually risen in society. Therefore, the authors rely heavily on statistical tables, charts, and polls to prove their arguments.

The first section of "America in Black and White" outlines the history of the odious conditions blacks faced in the American South and the resulting rise of the civil rights movement. The Thernstroms describe southern society in all of its squalor: the crushing poverty faced by both whites and blacks, the lackluster drive towards industrialization that kept many members of the population toiling in fields and small towns, pathetic levels of state spending on education for blacks, and the biases of the criminal justice system. Relying heavily on Gunnar Myrdal's groundbreaking study of race in America, the authors correctly detail the host of social structures aligned against the African-American population. For example, blacks rarely received decent treatment in the legal system because police departments run by whites often failed to protect the black citizenry from criminals. Moreover, the legal system in the South considered crimes committed against blacks secondary to outrages perpetrated against white members of society. Subsequent sections of the book take an in depth look at black progress in various social arenas from the 1970s onward, arenas such as education, politics, law, crime, and many others.

The absence of job opportunities, poor education, lack of protections in the courts, and segregation policies in the South led African-Americans to increasingly move north. The first migration came during World War I. A second, even larger migration occurred in the 1940s and 1950s. Blacks in the North did not have to deal with segregation, but did experience racism in housing and certain sectors of the job market. Better conditions in the northern states led to an increasing drive for an end to Jim Crow in the South. The authors argue that federal legislation destroying segregation in the 1960s also contained the seeds of future divisions. The Thernstroms see a sinister change of direction with the release of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report on the black family in 1965. Moynihan's remedy for the problems faced by black citizens, echoed by Lyndon Johnson in a speech at Howard University the same year, moved beyond providing for equal opportunity to call for "equal results" as well. This argument indirectly endorsed the idea of affirmative action and social entitlement programs based specifically on race. For the authors, the problems inherent in this approach are clear: to formulate policy giving special treatment to one race is just as racist as passing laws subjugating specific races.

Perhaps the most interesting section of "America in Black and White," and probably the most controversial, concerns the authors' claims that African-American social advancement was greatest immediately before the rise of the civil rights movement. During the 1940s and 1950s, the authors write, blacks surged forward in nearly all areas of American society. This growth was far from perfect, but in the arenas of education, economics, politics, and sports blacks saw remarkable gains. Almost half of the African-Americans who lived in poverty moved out of that classification during this period. Education levels for blacks, while lagging behind whites, still grew significantly compared to earlier eras in American history. This period also saw the integration of professional baseball and basketball, opening up an entirely new aspect of society to black advancement. African-Americans showed signs of vigor at the polls, as a court case outlawing white southern primaries and greater movement to the North allowed more blacks to vote than ever before. Obviously, there were still many problems to overcome: black wages still lagged behind white levels, education was still a problem, and the South still practiced vigorous discrimination against its black population. But African-Americans did make progress, and this chapter effectively illustrates that modern day claims about the complete lack of black improvement before the civil rights movements of the 1960s are patently false.

The greatest problem with this analysis of black gains during the 1940s and 1950s is that it undercuts the need and influence of activism as a force for change. If African-Americans were achieving so much, why did the civil rights movement appear on the scene? It may well be a case of a segment of the population finding some success and quickly wanting more, thereby accelerating the growth and scope of that change. But the Thernstroms spend more time discussing the overarching factors-political, economic, and social-that contributed to two decades of growth instead of focusing on what everyday people were doing on a local level to bring about advancement. Following this argument to its logical conclusion makes a reader suspect that twenty years of gradual progress would have toppled Jim Crow laws without the assistance of any sort of social activism.

Rating:
Summary: Slightly to the right of center look at race relations
Review: Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's "America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible" charts a different course from many of the scholarly books written about racial relations in the United States today. The authors agree that the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s was a resounding success, opening many doors to African-Americans as a result of the systematic dismantling of Jim Crow laws in the South. This book is necessary, claim the authors, because the ideas that originally drove the civil rights movement have since drifted into dangerous terrain. According to this book, Martin Luther King's message of one nation where all people will be judged by their individual merits and not skin color has become a land where blacks and whites are once again moving into separate camps based on race. The introduction of affirmative action programs and other racial social policies does not solve divisive problems but instead creates new racial barriers. Moreover, media and civil rights proponents today discuss black problems as though that segment of the population has made little progress. The authors insist that there are still nagging difficulties to overcome, but that a "lack of analytic rigor" leads to false perceptions about how far blacks have actually risen in society. Therefore, the authors rely heavily on statistical tables, charts, and polls to prove their arguments.

The first section of "America in Black and White" outlines the history of the odious conditions blacks faced in the American South and the resulting rise of the civil rights movement. The Thernstroms describe southern society in all of its squalor: the crushing poverty faced by both whites and blacks, the lackluster drive towards industrialization that kept many members of the population toiling in fields and small towns, pathetic levels of state spending on education for blacks, and the biases of the criminal justice system. Relying heavily on Gunnar Myrdal's groundbreaking study of race in America, the authors correctly detail the host of social structures aligned against the African-American population. For example, blacks rarely received decent treatment in the legal system because police departments run by whites often failed to protect the black citizenry from criminals. Moreover, the legal system in the South considered crimes committed against blacks secondary to outrages perpetrated against white members of society. Subsequent sections of the book take an in depth look at black progress in various social arenas from the 1970s onward, arenas such as education, politics, law, crime, and many others.

The absence of job opportunities, poor education, lack of protections in the courts, and segregation policies in the South led African-Americans to increasingly move north. The first migration came during World War I. A second, even larger migration occurred in the 1940s and 1950s. Blacks in the North did not have to deal with segregation, but did experience racism in housing and certain sectors of the job market. Better conditions in the northern states led to an increasing drive for an end to Jim Crow in the South. The authors argue that federal legislation destroying segregation in the 1960s also contained the seeds of future divisions. The Thernstroms see a sinister change of direction with the release of Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report on the black family in 1965. Moynihan's remedy for the problems faced by black citizens, echoed by Lyndon Johnson in a speech at Howard University the same year, moved beyond providing for equal opportunity to call for "equal results" as well. This argument indirectly endorsed the idea of affirmative action and social entitlement programs based specifically on race. For the authors, the problems inherent in this approach are clear: to formulate policy giving special treatment to one race is just as racist as passing laws subjugating specific races.

Perhaps the most interesting section of "America in Black and White," and probably the most controversial, concerns the authors' claims that African-American social advancement was greatest immediately before the rise of the civil rights movement. During the 1940s and 1950s, the authors write, blacks surged forward in nearly all areas of American society. This growth was far from perfect, but in the arenas of education, economics, politics, and sports blacks saw remarkable gains. Almost half of the African-Americans who lived in poverty moved out of that classification during this period. Education levels for blacks, while lagging behind whites, still grew significantly compared to earlier eras in American history. This period also saw the integration of professional baseball and basketball, opening up an entirely new aspect of society to black advancement. African-Americans showed signs of vigor at the polls, as a court case outlawing white southern primaries and greater movement to the North allowed more blacks to vote than ever before. Obviously, there were still many problems to overcome: black wages still lagged behind white levels, education was still a problem, and the South still practiced vigorous discrimination against its black population. But African-Americans did make progress, and this chapter effectively illustrates that modern day claims about the complete lack of black improvement before the civil rights movements of the 1960s are patently false.

The greatest problem with this analysis of black gains during the 1940s and 1950s is that it undercuts the need and influence of activism as a force for change. If African-Americans were achieving so much, why did the civil rights movement appear on the scene? It may well be a case of a segment of the population finding some success and quickly wanting more, thereby accelerating the growth and scope of that change. But the Thernstroms spend more time discussing the overarching factors-political, economic, and social-that contributed to two decades of growth instead of focusing on what everyday people were doing on a local level to bring about advancement. Following this argument to its logical conclusion makes a reader suspect that twenty years of gradual progress would have toppled Jim Crow laws without the assistance of any sort of social activism.

Rating:
Summary: A Comprehensive Analysis of American Race Relations...
Review: Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's book is the most comprehensive survey of American race relations that I have ever read. The authors present important new information about the positive changes and improvements in the lives of African-Americans as a whole. They go on to argue, with tons of statistics to back them up, that the perception of serious racial divisions in our country are outdated, exaggerated, and dangerous. The reason for this, they show, is political: "it nurtures the mix of black anger and white shame and guilt that sustains the race-based social policies implemented since the late 1960s." Proponents of this status quo are afraid that calling attention, for example, to the rapidly-growing black middle class, "... would invite public complacency and undercut support for the affirmative action regime."

I was especially enthralled by the authors' analysis of the "War on Poverty" programs of the 1960's, particularly the expansion of welfare, and their horrifically negative effects on generations of black families since. Not only did the "War on Poverty" make things worse for the poor, but the expansion of welfare to include unwed women and children fostered a lifestyle of dependency and irresponsible behavior, and precipitated the downward trend in two-parent black families, that has left three generations of black Americans in dire straits ever since.

Liberals, especially black liberals, are terrified of books like this, and rightfully so. This book undercuts the blacks-as-perennial-victims/American-society-as-forever-racist rhetoric that keeps the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons, with support from the liberal media, in business. Along with the works of John McWhorter, Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell, this books serves as a much-needed wake-up call on the issue of race; a cold dose of reality that no doubt makes most liberals cringe.

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and important book
Review: The Thernstroms' have done everyone a great favor by thoroughly examining the issue of race in as fair a treatment as any I've ever read.

In todays political world race has become the Democratic partys' favorite topic for demogoguery. Rather than push for a legitimate understanding of issues like slavery and its demise, political leaders on the Left have continued to issue disinformation with the aid of a major media that supports their underlying ideology. In a quiet but understated way the authors have critically examined virtually every assertion and question about race in America and rendered an exceptionally accurate portrayal.

The upshot of their research is that the Black community is better off today than they've ever been in American history. Not only does that situation continue to improve each year, but it leaves in the dust the plight of Blacks in Africa, South America, Central America, and the Carribean, ne everywhere else in the world. Only the intellectually blinkered can ignore this set of inescapable facts. In fact, what so astounds political moderates is the deep and unyielding capacity for self deception shown by the race mongers who should know better. I'm thinking of Mary Francis Berry and John Hope Franklin. For them it's always 1954. As such, they seem mired in an echo chamber with other rabble rousing leaders who in reality have continually sold lower and middle income blacks the proverbial hole-in-the-donut.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the topic of race and the history of the civil rights movement. It's all here.

Rating:
Summary: The moralists of the Right
Review: This book renders a thoughtful and persuasive treatment of the facts of racial divisions in the United States. The problems encountered by the Thernstroms in propounding on this subject can be summed up in what one anti-reveiwer on this page has written in order to smear another reveiwer with whose opinion he apparently disagrees. To wit, the anti-reveiwer does nothing more than cite a case brought by the CFTC against the son of the targeted reveiwer whom he's attempting to marginalize, much as those who don't agree with the Thernstroms' attempt to marginalize them; and with the same type of faulty facts and sloppy research, just as in the instant case I cite.

It's unfortunate that the debate of such momentous and substantive issues, such as the racial problems addressed by the Thernstroms, cannot take place in more temperate tones. It would also be more helpful if reveiwers would focus on and respond to the facts presented in this book, on the merits, rather than opposing them because they affront the complainants belief system.

This book reflects some sobering and instructive work. Let's hope the more emotionally balanced among us can use it to further the goal of racial harmony rather than to continue being divisive.

Rating:
Summary: important
Review: This book should be read by those who are against and for affirmative action.

However, the book neglects the whole premise of race-based admissions: why are those who are against affirmative action so focused on race? Why are they so forceful in their arguments that admissions should be fair for *everyone*, but are oddly silent when it comes to preferential admissions for student-athletes, legacies, or those whose parents make sizable donations?

The focus on race, and neglect of these other areas, shows too clearly where those who are against affirmative action are coming from...