The Rooster's Egg
In a series of ruminative and sometimes trenchant essays, Columbia University law professor Williams (The Alchemy of Race and Rights) reaches beyond legal cases to probe America's obsession with race. The campus crisis over "political correctness," she observes, is a necessary part of our halting attempt to have a serious conversation about race at a time when integration now often means assimilation. Listening to right-wing talk radio, Williams doesn't froth at outrageous comments about race and gender but discerns "a much more general contempt for the world." She deftly deconstructs the media war against Lani Guinier, President Clinton's nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights, noting that demagogic City College professor Leonard Jeffries got a greater chance to have his views aired?again and again. A single mother of an adopted son, Williams dissects myths about single mothers and reveals how race and racism affect the adoption market. These essays, some published in magazines like Ms. and the Nation, are usually interesting; however, they don't gain much as a collection.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.