Winning the race : beyond the crisis in Black America /
McWhorter, John H.
New York ; London : Gotham Books,
2006.
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, incarceration rates, teenage pregnancy and out-of-wedlock births, and educational failures. For years, pundits have blamed these problems on forces outside the black community. But now, in a broad-ranging re-envisioning of the post-Civil Rights black American experience, author 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 the poisonous effects of this defeatist attitude. McWhorter puts forth a new vision of black leadership, arguing that both blacks and whites must abolish the culture of victimhood.--From publisher description.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 397-420) and index.
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, incarceration rates, teenage pregnancy and out-of-wedlock births, and educational failures. For years, pundits have blamed these problems on forces outside the black community. But now, in a broad-ranging re-envisioning of the post-Civil Rights black American experience, author 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 the poisonous effects of this defeatist attitude. McWhorter puts forth a new vision of black leadership, arguing that both blacks and whites must abolish the culture of victimhood.--From publisher description.
African Americans
African Americans
Alienation (Social psychology)
Inner cities
African Americans