From: dowdy@tochtli.biochem.nwu.edu (Dowdy Jackson)
Subject: Re: Perceptions, Realities, Perceptions
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 01:16:09 GMT

In article <BtrDI9.HD1@rice.edu> kerryg@stat.rice.edu (Kerry Go) writes:
>In article <1992Aug24.181200.7419@oakhill.sps.mot.com> jpak@manute.sps.mot.com (Kinder and Gentler Jim) writes:
>>In article <5068@dove.nist.gov> hira@cme.nist.gov (Ron Hira) writes:
>>>That professor you're thinking of is Arthur Hacker I believe, who 
>>>recently wrote a book on the subject of racial barriers, etc. He's been
>>>featured on a number of TV shows (I saw him on Tony Brown's journal),
>>>radio shows (NPR), and newspapers. The book apparently is replete with
>>>statistics documenting the differences primarily between african american
>>>and white american society in terms of socieconomic power and opportunity.
>>>It seems to have been quite a provocative book, and is next on my reading
>>>list.
>>
>>Anybody know the name of that book?  It does indeed sound interesting.
>
>It's *Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal* by Andrew
>Hacker.  It was a bestseller (if it still is, Bookstop sells them at 40%
>off).  As you might expect, the book is quite one-sided, but I enjoyed the
>book very much.

I read the book and I really don't think that it is one sided at all. In fact its
the first book about race written by a white man that I agreeed with. Many of
the things he talks about in the book happened to me so I could relate
to what he is saying.

>
>Responding to another post, they show a picture on the cover of a white male;
>I suppose it's a picture of Hacker.  (They don't state whose picture it is,
>but I see no reason why they would put someone else's picture next to
>personal info about the author.)
>
>The parable referred to in another post is:
>
>You will be visited tonight by an official you have never met.  He begins by
>telling you that he is extremely embarrassed.  The organization he represents
>has made a mistake, something that hardly ever happens.
>
>According totheir records, he goes on, you were to have been born black:  to
>another set of parents, far from where you were raised.
>
>However, thr rules being what they are, this error must be rectified, and as
>soon as possible.  So at midnight tonight, you will become black.  And this
>will mean not simply a darker skin, but the bodily and facial features
>associated with African ancestry.  However, inside you will be the person you
>always were.  Your knowledge and ideas will remain intact.  But outwardly you
>will not be recognizable to anyone you now know.
>
>Your visitor emphasizes that being born to the wrong parents was in no way
>your fault.  Consequently, his organization is prepared to offer you some
>reasonable recompense.  Would you, he asks, care to name a sum of money you
>might consider appropriate?  He adds that his group is by no means poor.  It
>can be quite generous when the circumstances warrant, as they seem to in your
>case.  He finishes by saying that their records show you are scheduled to
>live another fifty years--as a black man or woman in America.
>
>How much financial recompense would you request?

The most common response was that they would want 1 million dollars !!!

Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american