The Closest of Strangers; Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. 345, [7] pages. Notes. Index. Inscribed and dated by the author on the fep. Jim Sleeper is an American author and journalist. Since 1999 he has also been a lecturer in political science at Yale University, where he has taught undergraduate seminars on American national identity and on journalism, liberalism, and democracy. He currently teaches one interdisciplinary seminar a year at Yale entitled "Journalism, Liberalism, Democracy." He writes primarily on American political culture, racial politics, news, media and higher education. In the 1990s he wrote two books about racial politics, The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York and Liberal Racism. From 1993 through 1995 he was a political columnist for the New York Daily News and an occasional contributor to The New York Times and to The Nation, The New Republic, and other political magazines. From 1988 to 1993, he was an opinion editor and editorial writer for New York Newsday. He has written most recently for The Huffington Post on the Obama Administration, Occupy Wall Street, Yale University's venture to establish an undergraduate college in collaboration with Singapore, and gun control in the United States. Sleeper is also member of the editorial board of the journal Dissent. Derived from a Kirkus review: In this study of race relations in N.Y.C., Sleeper, an editorial writer for New York Newsday, harshly criticizes both black leaders and their liberal supporters for pointing a finger at America's racist society rather than setting concrete goals to overcome inequality. Sleeper chronicles the struggle for racial justice through a series of battles, from the "Don't Buy Where You Can't Work" campaign in Harlem in the 1930's to the recent protests surrounding the Yusuf Hawkins murder in Bensonhurst. He concludes that success has been achieved by popular movements that forged interracial alliances by linking black and white rights in vocal protests, or by making backroom deals between power-brokers like David Dinkins' mentor J. Raymond Jones and white machine politicians. Sleeper is critical of black nationalists like Sonny Carson, who began in the 1960's to disclaim past Jewish participation in the civil-rights movement and to demand rights while encouraging isolation from mainstream America. The author argues that this mistake is being continued by C. Vernon Mason, Alton Maddox, and Rev. Al Sharpton, who encourage poor blacks to demand their rights without taking responsibility for their lives and the society that surrounds them. Sleeper's call for a stronger black leadership that can forge interracial alliances for economic justice is convincing. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Racism, Politics, New York, African-Americans, David Dinkins, Ronald Edmonds, Integration, Jews, Edward Koch, Liberalism, Al Sharpton, Social Engineering, Albert Vann, Jitu Weusi
[Book #80800]
Price: $150.00