Bestselling author Alex Kotlowitz is one of this country's foremost writers on the ever explosive issue of race. In this gripping and ultimately profound book, Kotlowitz takes us to two towns in southern Michigan, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, separated by the St. Joseph River. Geographically close, but worlds apart, they are a living metaphor for America's racial divisions: St. Joseph is a prosperous lakeshore community and ninety-five percent white, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and ninety-two percent black. When the body of a black teenaged boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, unhealed wounds and suspicions between the two towns' populations surface as well. The investigation into the young man's death becomes, inevitably, a screen on which each town projects their resentments and fears. The Other Side of the River sensitively portrays the lives and hopes of the towns' citizens as they wrestle with this mystery--and reveals the attitudes and misperceptions that undermine race relations throughout America.
In China, a woman is nothing.
Thus begins the saga of a woman born at the turn of the century to a well-to-do, highly respected Chinese family, a woman who continually defied the expectations of her family and the traditions of her culture. Growing up in the perilous years between the fall of the last emperor and the Communist Revolution, Chang Yu-i's life is marked by a series of rebellions: her refusal as a child to let her mother bind her feet, her scandalous divorce, and her rise to Vice President of China's first women's bank in her later years. In the alternating voices of two generations, this dual memoir brings together a deeply textured portrait of a woman's life in China with the very American story of Yu-i's brilliant and assimilated grandniece, struggling with her own search for identity and belonging. Written in pitch-perfect prose and alive with detail, Bound Feet and Western Dress is the story of independent women struggling to emerge from centuries of customs and duty.
Race is once again a leading issue in American politics. The clock has been turned back on the progress of the 1960s, and again hostility, resentment and racial conflict threaten to divide the nation.
Explores the connection between the United States eugenics program of the the early twentieth-century and the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, citing proof that American scientists attempted to create a master race.
'Uprooting Racism' has sold over 25,000 copies since its first printing. Substantially revised and expanded, this new edition has more tools to help white people understand and stand-up to racism. The book explores the manifestations of racism in politics, work, community, and family life. It moves beyond the definition and unlearning of racism to address the many areas of privilege for white people and suggests ways for individuals and groups to challenge the structures of racism. The book's welcoming style helps readers to look at how we learn racism, what effects it has on our lives, its costs and benefits to white people, and what we can do about it. In addition to updating existing chapters, the new edition explores how entrenched racism has been revealed in the new economy, the 2000 electoral debacle, rising anti-Arab prejudice, and health care policy. Special features include exercises, questions, and suggestions to engage, challenge assumptions, and motivate the reader towards social action. Includes an index and an updated bibliography.
From Fouad Ajami, an acclaimed author and chronicler of Arab politics, comes a compelling account of how a generation of Arab intellectuals tried to introduce cultural renewals in their homelands through the forces of modernity and secularism. Ultimately, they came to face disappointment, exile, and, on occasion, death. Brilliantly weaving together the strands of a tumultuous century in Arab political thought, history, and poetry, Ajami takes us from the ruins of Beirut's once glittering metropolis to the land of Egypt, where struggle rages between a modernist impulse and an Islamist insurgency, from Nasser's pan-Arab nationalist ambitions to the emergence of an uneasy Pax Americana in Arab lands, from the triumphalism of the Gulf War to the continuing anguished debate over the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords.
For anyone who seeks to understand the Middle East, here is an insider's unflinching analysis of the collision between intellectual life and political realities in the Arab world today.
A self-described equal opportunity ass-kicker, Tony Brown attacks white racism, black self-victimization, and the whole concept of integration, which he feels has been disastrous for blacks and the country as a whole. Guaranteed to spark controversy, nonetheless Black Lies, White Lies is certain to be embraced by anyone willing to hear a bold new voice unafraid to speak the truth.
A comparative history of race relations in the U.S. and South Africa seeks to explain the different paths each nation followed
An account of the night of February 8, 1968 when a group of young people were protesting on the campus of South Carolina State College and officers of the law opened fire killing three young men.
