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Beyond the Crisis in Black America
Gotham
January 2007
On Sale: December 28, 2006
448 pages ISBN: 1592402704 EAN: 9781592402700 Paperback
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Non-Fiction
In his first major book on the state of black America since
the New York Times bestseller Losing the Race, John
McWhorter argues that a renewed commitment to achievement
and integration is the only cure for the crisis in the
African-American community.
Winning the Race examines the roots of the serious problems
facing black Americans today—poverty, drugs, and high
incarceration rates—and contends that none of the commonly
accepted reasons can explain the decline of black
communities since the end of segregation in the 1960s.
Instead, McWhorter posits that a sense of victimhood and
alienation that came to the fore during the civil rights
era has persisted to the present day in black culture, even
though most blacks today have never experienced the racism
of the segregation era. McWhorter traces the effects of this disempowering
conception of black identity, from the validation of living
permanently on welfare to gansta rap’s glorification of
irresponsibility and violence as a means of “protest.” He
discusses particularly specious claims of racism, attacks
the destructive posturing of black leaders and the “hip-hop
academics,” and laments that a successful black person must
be faced with charges of “acting white.” While
acknowledging that racism still exists in America today,
McWhorter argues that both blacks and whites must move past
blaming racism for every challenge blacks face, and
outlines the steps necessary for improving the future of
black America.
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