Race And Ethnic Conflict: Contending Views On Prejudice, Discrimination, And Ethnoviolence, Second Edition

The previous reviewer's commentary is both biased and flawed, and his words reveal anger and probably latent racist beliefs as well. This book is a nice collection of various viewpoints in social science studies of prejudice, discrimination, and racism in the job market, higher education, and American life in general. Most of the readings are written by sociologists, so there is a heavy reliance on statistics and numbers to support the contributors' arguments. The single best article is written by Bob Blauner and is called "Talking Past Each Other: Black and White Languages of Race." In this article, Blauner deconstructs the VERY type of rhetoric that the previous reviewer employs, rhetoric that is very characteristic of many whites in the post-Civil Rights Era (read the article for more information).

Blauner's article, and the book in general, stress the importance that personal upbringing and experience plays in shaping one's views about race or anything else for that matter. That is the key point. A white multi-millionaire who grew up in a condominium on the shores of Long Island is simply not going to have the same outlook on life as an impoverished black female living in the slums of Chicago's South Side...period. The sooner Americans of all racial backgrounds realize that, and the sooner people accept and understand that their personal experiences have shaped their worldviews - and realize that NO ONE has an "objective" or "unbiased" worldview - that better off we will be.

Books like this emphasize this crucial idea. For some reason, those who find themselves in relatively advantaged positions in society have a very hard time facing this music. This is a great book.

I had to get this book for a class that I am taking this semester. I figured from the title that this book would offer different viewpoints on education, discrimination, ethnoviolence, and all the other topics that are discussed within the cover pages. I was wrong. For every 4 liberal articles saying that everything is messed up, there is 1 conservative article expressing a different point of view. It is extremely one-sided on it's viewpoint and leaves someone who is for meritocracy (working for what you get in life) feeling like a racist even if they don't have a racist bone in their body. Not a good buy, especially if you want CONTENDING viewpoints on the issue.