Civil Rights and Race Relations in the Post Reagan-Bush Era

Insightful essays from leading scholars and writers on civil rights and race relations focus on the retrenchment from the ideal of racial equality. A common theme emerges: the new civil rights agenda must embrace radically different perspectives in order to be successful in eradicating racial and ethnic economic inequality. This volume combines insightful essays from leading scholars and writers on civil rights and race relations with provocative discussions by business professionals and community leaders on retrenchment from the ideal of racial equality. It reviews what Americans really think about race and race relations while providing definitive assessments of the status of affirmative action. The writers put forth convincing evidence that white privilege lies at the root of both current racial inequality and opposition to conventional approaches to remedying inequality. The essays provide a backdrop for understanding the reversals in support of remedies to racial and ethnic inequality and for understanding why the new agenda that must be forged will need to account for the changing demographics of the minority population. Essays in the volume also underscore how major demographic shifts and economic transformations have conspired with political reversals to make the agenda of the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movement obsolete. Any new approach to racial and ethnic inequality must account both for the coloring of America and the persistence and entrenchment of white racism. The book's final assessment will be of great interest to opinion leaders and officials as well as researchers and scholars in political science, economics, sociology, and Black Studies.

Table of Contents:
Preface by Samuel L. Myers, Jr. Historical Roots of Contemporary Racial Inequality by Herbert Hill Race, Civil Rights, and the New Immigrants: Nativism and the New World Order by Evelyn Hu-DeHart Fighting White Racism: The Future of Equal Rights in the United States by Joe R. Feagin Affirmative Action Policy Under Executive Order 11246: A Retrospective View by Bernard E. Anderson Racial Differences in Employment Shares: New Evidence from the EEO-1 Files by William M. Rodgers, III Where the Jobs Went in the 1990-1991 Downturn: Varying (Mis)Fortunes or Homogeneous Distress? by M. V. Lee Badgett Foundation Connections to Black Workers and Labor Unions by Richard Magat Diversity in the Workplace: A Dialogue Among Corporate Executives A Local Conversation about Race Hungry Mind Review Questionnaire by Betsy Hubbard, Kathleen Kalina, Rebecca Kelleher-Reeth, Dartrell Lipscomb, Reginald J. Mitchell, Sr., and Michelle Revels "Don't Throw Trash in the Well from Which You Must Drink": Black Demagogues, the Media, and the Pollution of Racial Discourse by Richard M. Benjamin The Political Assault on Affirmative Action: Undermining Forty Years of Progress Toward Equality by The Honorable Gerald W. Heaney Is Affirmative Action a Quota System? by Barbara R. Bergmann Reparations by William A. Darity, Jr. Remedies to Racial Inequality Afterword: The Future of Race Relations and Civil Rights by Samuel L. Myers, Jr.

About the Author :
SAMUEL L. MYERS, JR. is Roy Wilkins Professor of Human Relations and Social Justice at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. He has had a long and distinguished career of government service and teaching. His earlier publications include The Black Underclass: Critical Essays on Race and Unwantedness (with Emmett Carson, William Darity, Jr., and William Sabol) and The Economics of Race and Crime (with Margaret Simms).