Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal

The author, a political science professor at Queens College in New York City, contends that whites' deep-rooted, pervasive racism against blacks has created ``America's version of apartheid.'' Many white Americans, especially political conservatives, still harbor the prejudice that blacks are genetically inferior, he states. In an important, powerfully argued, dispassionate report that makes liberal use of tables and statistics, Hacker ( The End of the American Era ) documents racist attitudes and practices in the business sector, reveals the low percentage of blacks enrolled in colleges and exposes white racism in politics, employment practices and education and the public's perception of crime and welfare. Turning to blacks' ``self-inflicted genocide'' through drugs and street violence, he argues that white America shares a large measure of responsibility for this situation because it has fostered a racial chasm--a divide that seems likely to persist unless drastic steps are taken. (Mar.)