America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible [Paperback]

 

 

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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.

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.

The title is apt since bouth authors appear to see the world in black and white with little room for gray area. This is clearly evident in their thesis, "That which brings the races together is good; that which divides us is bad." A grand oversimplificiation, if you ask me.

The questions is: unity at what cost to black Americans? While you cannot argue that black Americans have progressed greatly since the Jim Crow era, I do take issue that "the perception of serious racial divisions in this country is outdated - and dangerous", as the back cover states. Tell that to the unarmed blacks being killed across the country by white police officers and to the many blacks who can't get taxis in New York City.

The Thernstrom's also contradict their own statistical data. They assert that the greatest gains achieved by blacks in the US came during the 1940's-1950's, before the civil rights movement. That may be true, yet thier own data shows that the average income of a black family today is still the same ratio as it was to whites in the early 1950's. Same for the unemployment rates of blacks, which have been around twice those of whites since 1954.

While loading up on charts and graphs, they fail to get to the meat of the problem, which is "the system" (for lack of a better term) itself. The one which rewards blacks that mesh nicely with white culture (i.e. Michael Jordan) and labels outspoken blacks such as Allen Iverson as "bad role models" for our children, simply because he doesn't conform to the white Americans idea of what a black person (or any person) should act like. I'm not trying to say that Iverson is a good role model, but what has Michael Jordan ever done to help the cause of blacks in this country? Selling $... shoes (that cost about $... to make) to kids in the inner city, whose parents are struggling to get by, doesn't exactly qualify. This gets back to the whole unity thing, since the authors point to the Michael Jordan's and Vernon Jordan's of the world as proof of black success. Yet look at how Iverson is treated in the media and by the Philly PD and how Jordan got treated in the media after his gambling scandal and the message is obvious: talk like a white person, act like a white person, dress like a white person and you will be treated well. But the moment you start to act like that black kid from the street....kiss those endorsements goodbye. If you replace clean cut Kobe Bryant from the 'burbs with street tough Allen Iverson from the 'hood in this current rape case and you think the media would be treating this story just a little differently? I rest my case. But I digress.

This book is a dichotomy, since it is interesing and thought provoking at times (especially the first six chapters) yet also flawed, biased, and based on illogical preconceptions. It is very easy for two well paid white professors who live in the mostly rich, white suburb of Lexington to write a 700+ page book essentially telling black America to stop their whining. It's another thing to get me to believe them.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Comprehensive Analysis of American Race Relations...
Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom's book is the most comprehensive survey of American race relations that I have ever read. Read more

Published on July 25 2003 by D. A. Martin

4.0 out of 5 stars gdcanyon@earthlink.net
This was a class text about race in America. It is a careful balance between recognizing past discrimination (which some conservatives ignore) and demonstrating the problems of... Read more

Published on Jan 21 2003 by Anthony Tillman

3.0 out of 5 stars "character is what you do when no one is looking"
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... Read more

Published on Jan 19 2003 by inrejewett

5.0 out of 5 stars A thoughtful and important book
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. Read more

Published on Dec 23 2002 by Eugene A Jewett

5.0 out of 5 stars importanat to understanding race relations
America in black and white is important because it helps to give a good background on the history of race in this country. Read more

Published on Jan 14 2002 by Neel Aroon

4.0 out of 5 stars important
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... Read more

Published on Dec 31 2001 by R Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars No gray areas?
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. Read more

Published on May 3 2001 by michaeleve

5.0 out of 5 stars The Gold Standard
This book is the gold standard against which all other works on affirmative action must be judged. Nowhere else will you you find anywhere near as much hard data on preferential... Read more

Published on May 20 2000 by Nicholas Stix

1.0 out of 5 stars Revisionist history at its best
The Thernstroms have adopted an "historical approach" (if one wishes to call it that) which takes a selective parsing of factual and statistical data and manipulates it... Read more

Published on Jan 21 2000

3.0 out of 5 stars An interesting book.
After reviewing what other readers have said about this book, I feel compelled to provide another view. Read more

Published on Sep 28 1999

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