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America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible, by Stephan Thernstrom Abigail Thernstrom
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Amazon.com Review
Written by a pair of social scientists--Stephan Thernstrom is a professor of history at Harvard; his wife, Abigail, is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute--America in Black and White is a comprehensive look at how much life has changed (and remained the same) for black Americans. The authors conclude that, while much remains to be done, life has gotten measurably better for blacks since the civil rights movement. For example, only a quarter of black families live below the poverty line, as compared with more than three-quarters of black families in 1940; similarly, where 60 percent of working black women were domestics in 1940, today a majority are white-collar workers. In what will likely prove to be the most controversial of their conclusions, the authors argue that, while many problems remain, traditional civil rights remedies, such as affirmative action and racial preferences, will not solve those problems.
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From Library Journal
This is a solid, sweeping account (from a Harvard scholar and a race relations specialist) of race relations in the United States over the last 50-some years, from the days of Jim Crow, through sit-ins, the African American migration from the rural South to the urban North, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act, the affirmative action era, the racially perceptual influence of an "appallingly high" urban black crime level, and the steady growth of a suburban black middle class. The authors assess judicial, educational, political, and social influences on what, despite real continuing problems, has been progress in easing race-related inequities. They see preferential policies as giving credence to the separateness of minorities. On balance, they are optimistic, as long as opportunity is provided for everyone in one nation. Of great breadth and depth, this work is highly recommended for academic and public readership.?Suzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology at AlfredCopyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Product details
Hardcover: 704 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (September 10, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0684809338
ISBN-13: 978-0684809335
Product Dimensions:
6.4 x 1.8 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
3.8 out of 5 stars
19 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#741,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Have four copies to loan out to friends.
Good comparisons.
for SFSU class
It's clear the Thernstroms set out to create a definitive work. Despite the claim that Americans struggle with discussions about race, they argue that race is the focus of our media, entertainment, political discussions, economic policy, education policy, etc. What they believe is missing is the `lack of analytical rigor' applied towards these issues. They believe the discussion has gotten muddled with dogma, clever rhetoric, and unproven assumptions, which has led to tremendous confusion and frustration. Exceptionally well researched and plenty of `analytical rigor', passion and sensitivity, the Thernstroms have produced a work that has cleared the fog on a wide-range of issues including housing, civil rights legislation, education, job discrimination, voting, crime, the black middle class, etc. This work is also highly qualified to stand the test of time.Some may be put off by the authors right of center analysis. They question the merits of affirmative action, proportional representation, and the degree to which racism continues to hinder blacks. This work is less incendiary than Dinesh D'Souza's `The End of Racism' (which is still very good), however, this work is replete with statistics and hard data that are difficult to dismiss.America has gone through extraordinary steps to move beyond the sins of its past. There is little doubt that through this work the Thernstroms have a sincere interest in helping America move towards becoming a genuinely color-blind nation.
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.
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.
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