Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America

(Hardback)

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Black conservatism is no oxymoron. Recent polls have indicated that an increasing number of black Americans identified themselves as conservatives, favoring smaller government, lower taxes, tougher crime laws, welfare reform, and personal initiative. While applauding the moral and legal victories of the Civil Rights Movement, the conservative spokespeople in this dynamic new collection reject the claims of inequities and what they consider to be the self-serving agenda of the present civil rights establishment. National leaders such as Justice Clarence Thomas and former Representative Gary Franks and writers such as Shelby Steele and Glenn Loury appear either as contributors or as subjects in this volume. They emphasize the grassroots aspects of black conservatism with a reliance on common sense and common humanity. The strength of the black conservative voice lies in the growth of its numbers and social influence. As more African-Americans shift to the right and embrace conservative ideology, they are signalling what may be one of the most politically significant trends in American public life as the 20th century draws to a close. This provocative collection of essays shatters the myth that black Americans are uniformly left of center and that conservatism is an ideology with a white face. Unique in its personal and political portrait of black conservatives in America, this book shows the remarkable diversity of ideas from one of the most talked-about political movements to emerge in recent years.

Reviews

"'Speaking as a black male....' 'Speaking as an African-American woman....' No, no, say the authors in this book. Speak as yourself and for yourself. Race conditions but it does not define. Here are bold, indeed daring, voices that compel us to clear our minds of racial cant and join, black and white together, in a renascence of personal responsibility for what we think and who we are."- Richard John Neuhaus Editor in Chief of First Things
"[This book] is a valuable compendium of essays by articulate black conservatives, not all of whom are household names. These writers forcefully embrace the central value of the culture, which is individual responsibility."- Lawrence M. Mead Professor of Politics New York University author of Beyond Entitlement and The New Politics of Poverty
"If one deliberately set out to sabotage black socio-economic progress, he could not have found a more effective means than many of the government policies started in the sixties and seventies. [This book] is a long overdue antidote to the harmful conventional wisdom that formed the justification for those policies."-Walter E. Williams John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics George Mason University author of The State Against Blacks and Do The Right Thing
"Sometime in the next few years, black America will shift sharply to the right and politics will be rocked to its foundations. For an early tremor of the coming earthquake, read Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America."- Adam Meyerson Editor, Policy Review: The Journal of American Citizenship
"The old racism said that all blacks look alike. The new racism says all blacks are supposed to think alike. The first myth was dealt with in the civil rights movement. The second is exploded by this marvelous book which allows other voices to be heard; voices that are too often censored by the Black Establishment."- Cal Thomas nationally syndicated columnist
"This is a monumentally important book, edited and written by brave, knowledgeable people, black and white. They know, as all of us who have followed the pace of history do, that patronizing blacks with entitlements, welfare and victimhood status will not only place the various governments in deeper debt, but will further enslave black people...."- Rev. John H. Miller C. S. C., Editor, Social Justice Review
The essays in Black and Right contain a power and depth which, frankly, are sometimes missing in the writings of white conservatives....Brimming with uncommon common sense, piercing insight, and hard-won experience, Black and Right is a testament, a testimony, and a road map.-New Oxford Review
This useful collection contains 25 short pieces by 26 conservative African Americans, including Justice Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, and Gary Franks. The contributors include journalists and writers, lawyers, economists, a community organizer, philosophers, a social worker, a teacher, and others.... A major focus is the political centrality of individualism. The pieces are clearly written and maintain a tone that is reasoned and positive.... Highly recommmended for public, college, and university libraries.-Choice
"The essays in Black and Right contain a power and depth which, frankly, are sometimes missing in the writings of white conservatives....Brimming with uncommon common sense, piercing insight, and hard-won experience, Black and Right is a testament, a testimony, and a road map."-New Oxford Review
"This useful collection contains 25 short pieces by 26 conservative African Americans, including Justice Clarence Thomas, Shelby Steele, and Gary Franks. The contributors include journalists and writers, lawyers, economists, a community organizer, philosophers, a social worker, a teacher, and others.... A major focus is the political centrality of individualism. The pieces are clearly written and maintain a tone that is reasoned and positive.... Highly recommmended for public, college, and university libraries."-Choice

Author Bio

STAN FARYNA is Director of Research of the New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, a Chicago-based think tank, and a research associate of The David Institute, a social research group in California. BRAD STETSON is Director of Studies at The David Institute and lecturer in Religious Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He is author of Pluralism and Particularity in Religious Belief (Praeger, 1993), Human Dignity and Contemporary Liberalism (forthcoming from Praeger), coauthor (with Joseph G. Conti) of Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment (Praeger, 1993), and editor of The Silent Subject (Praeger, 1996). JOSEPH G. CONTI is a Research Associate at The David Institute and a Lecturer in philosophy at Kansas Community College. He is coauthor (with Brad Stetson) of Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment (Praeger, 1993).