Purchase
Beyond the Crisis in Black America...A provocative new look at the true sources of the social scourges that are holding back black America?and an impassioned manifesto for change
Gotham
December 2005
352 pages
ISBN: 1592401880
Hardcover
Add to Wish List
Non-Fiction
Four decades after the great victories of the Civil Rights
Movement secured equal rights for African-Americans, black
America is
in crisis. Indeed, by most measurable standards, conditions
for many
blacks have grown worse since 1965: desperate poverty
cripples
communities nationwide, incarceration rates have reached
record highs,
teenage pregnancy and out-of- wedlock births are rampant,
and
educational failures are stifling achievement among the next
generation. For years, prominent sociologists and pundits
have blamed
these problems on forces outside the black community, from
lingering
racism, to the explosion of the inner-city drug trade, to
the erosion
of the urban industrial base and the migration of middle-
class blacks
to the suburbs. But now, in an important and broad-ranging
re-envisioning of the post-Civil Rights black American
experience,
acclaimed author John McWhorter tears down these theories
to expose the
true roots of today’s crisis, and to show a new way
forward. In Winning the Race,
McWhorter argues that black America’s current problems
began with an
unintended byproduct of the Civil Rights revolution, a
crippling
mindset of "therapeutic alienation." This wary stance
toward mainstream
American culture, although it is a legacy of racism in the
past,
continues to hold blacks back, and McWhorter traces all the
poisonous
effects of this defeatist attitude. In an in-depth case
study of the
Indianapolis inner city, he analyzes how a vibrant black
neighborhood
declined into slums, despite ample work opportunities in an
American
urban center where manufacturing jobs were plentiful.
McWhorter takes a
hard look at the legacy of the Great Society social
assistance
programs, lamenting their teaching people to live
permanently on
welfare, as well as educational failures, too often
occurring because
of an intellectual climate in which a successful black
person must be
faced with charges of "acting white." He attacks the sorry
state of
black popular culture, where indignation for its own sake
has been
enshrined in everything from the halls of academia to the
deleterious
policy decisions of community leaders to the disaffected
lyrics of
hip-hop, particularly rap’s glorification of
irresponsibility and
violence as "protest." In a stirring conclusion, McWhorter
puts forth a
new vision of black political and intellectual leadership,
arguing that
both blacks and whites must abolish the culture of
victimhood, as this
alone can improve future of black America, and outlines
steps that can
be taken to ensure hope for the future. Powerful
and provocative, Winning the Race combines detailed
research with precise argumentation to present a
compelling new vision for black America.
Comments
No comments posted.
Registered users may leave comments.
Log in or register now!
| 
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy