American Poison: How Racial Hostility Destroyed Our Promise

New York Times journalist Porter (The Price of Everything) delivers an anguished and incisive treatise on how racism has contributed to 21st-century America’s economic and social decline. According to Porter, white working class voters have undermined their own opportunities for advancement by allowing the social safety net to erode under the false belief that minorities abuse it. He traces the problem to early 20th-century labor disputes, Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, and Ronald Reagan’s deployment of the “welfare queen” trope. Porter describes American communities that have been ravaged by unemployment, poverty, and lack of healthcare, yet elect representatives who attach work requirements to Medicaid and blame immigrants for job losses that were caused by automation. He points out that anti-immigration policies could leave Social Security underfunded just as baby boomers retire en masse, and without enough workers to handle such a large increase in the elderly population. Unless American society is able to heal racial divides and create “social trust,” working-class people of all races will continue to suffer, according to Porter. His pessimism (“I can’t imagine much boundary-breaking solidarity emerging from this America”) gives the book a bleak and mournful tone, and he doesn’t offer many concrete solutions. Nevertheless, his cogent presentation succeeds in making the problem of racial animus relevant to all Americans. Progressive readers will concur with this bracing sociological study. Agent: Zoe Pagnamenta, the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency. (Mar.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review listed an incorrect subtitle.