The Trouble with Friendship: Why Americans Can't Think Straight about Race

Social critic DeMott (The Imperial Middle) offers a salutary deconstruction of ``friendship orthodoxy''--the new theme of black-white commonality that, he says, prevails in pop culture and revisionist thinking and hampers moves toward racial justice. DeMott's take on ad campaigns, sitcoms, movies such as White Men Can't Jump and such authors as Studs Terkel (who calls for ``affirmative civility'') is devastating. Then he cites research comparing the U.S. to other ``caste-like'' societies and declares that caste remains--especially for poor blacks. Worse, ``nonscholarly cultural production'' has served to erase history, he states, criticizing Roots and the PBS series The Civil War for ignoring the lasting effects of slavery. Though society embraces the palliative words of such black neoconservatives as Shelby Steele, we ignore the fact that their messages of individual pride also acknowledge the need to help the poor. Thus, in a brave and potent challenge to orthodoxy, DeMott calls on the majority society to recognize its responsibilities and to endorse ``broadscale programs of development'' for blacks. (Jan.)