Children of the Dream

``Black success is as much the norm as the exception,'' state Edwards, editor-at-large of Essence magazine, and Polite, a psychoanalyst. Their upbeat report discusses 41 African Americans in positions of power and influence, among them an aerospace executive, an economist, a TV anchorwoman, a poet, a congressman, an insurance sales manager, a state assemblywoman, a banker and an assistant district attorney. The authors argue that successful blacks are shrewd, practical, highly self-reliant, girded by deep religious faith and empowered by a positive sense of racial identity. The people they interviewed moved beyond the ``black anger'' caused by racism to establish ``operational trust'' and effective working relationships with whites. While the success stories presented are inspiring, they lend only sketchy, anecdotal support to the authors' composite psychological profile of the black achiever. (Feb.)