Description
This title attempts to explain why it has been so difficult to solve America’s racial problems, as the country has moved from what the author describes as a closed caste to an open class society. The author contends that Americans fail to perceive how the legacy of slavery interferes with social mobility and highlights the values that middle-class blacks and whites need to uphold, most prominently the emphasis on freedom as opposed to total equality.Table of Contents: 1. Moral Invisibility.- Moral versus Status Invisibility.- A White Problem.- The Problem Misunderstood.- The Long View.- 2. Moral Enemies.- White Depravity.- Black Innocence.- The Nature of the Morality Game.- Playing the Game.- 3. ?Died of a Theory?.- Taxi Driver.- Stereotypes Exposed.- Harlem.- Whose Ox?.- 4. The American Creed.- Values Under Assault.- Equality for All.- Liberty for All.- An Overdose of Radical Egalitarianism.- 5. The Culture of Slavery: Origins.- Morality and Culture.- A Conceptual Interlude.- Cultural Conservatism in Action.- The Origins of Slave Culture.- 6. The Culture of Slavery: Outcomes.- Transitions.- A Painful Story.- White Culture.- Black Culture.- 7. Racial ?Empowerment?.- The Myth of Empowerment.- Tests of Strength.- A Floating Ceiling.- Situational Immaturity.- 8. Change Strategies.- Four Approaches to Change.- The Moral Model.- The Social Engineering Model.- The Clinical/Educational Model.- The Structural/Cultural Model.- 9. Natural Resocialization.- Cultural Change.- Role Change.- Intrapersonal Cultural Change.- Interpersonal/Intergenerational Cultural Change.- The Role of the Change Agent.- 10. The Black Middle Class.- The Change Process.- Mobility-Friendly Values.- 11. The White Middle Class.- White Enablers.- The Stewardship Role.- Change Among Whites.- A Shared Humanity.- Endnotes.
