Volume 39, Number 8 · April 23, 1992
The New Civil War
By Andrew Hacker
Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty, and the Underclass
by Christopher Jencks
Harvard University Press, 280 pp., $27.95
Racism and Justice: The Case for Affirmative Action
by Gertrude Ezorsky
Cornell University Press, 140 pp., $6.95 (paper)
The Black Elite: Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century
by Lois Benjamin
Nelson-Hall, 299 pp., $17.95 (paper)
Race: How Blacks and Whites Think and Feel About the American Obsession
by Studs Terkel
The New Press, 403 pp., $24.95
The great majority of black Americans lead responsible lives, often despite daunting obstacles. They do not take drugs while pregnant; fire pistols in busy streets; or if out of a job, give up the search for work even in the toughest times. Yet the unprecedented incidence of violence, self-destruction, and the neglect of children described in the statistics I have cited show a despair about the very value of life among many members of America's largest minority race. Even if freely chosen, these acts must also be seen as responses to intolerable pressures exerted by the rest of society.
Review, 4512 words
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