Paved with Good Intentions: The Failure of Race Relations in Contemporary America

Arguing that white racism is more an excuse for black failure than an explanation, Taylor ( Shadows of the Rising Sun: A Critical View of the Japanese Miracle ) challenges racial orthodoxies, but with very limited success. Ranging through studies and press accounts, Taylor effectively catalogues numerous black excesses in the name of solidarity (such as jurors' defenses of former D.C. mayor Marion Barry, ultimately convicted of one charge--possession of cocaine--of 14 brought against him); he notes that blacks commit far more interracial violent crimes than whites do; he criticizes ``race-norming'' in employment tests; and he dissects studies concluding that police are more likely to shoot blacks (instances of shootings, he argues, are in fact proportionate to arrests for violent crime). But Taylor, who is white, too easily dismisses the notion of institutional racism; he simplistically argues that Asian achievements prove that American racism is not so great an obstacle to success; and he can't understand the role of black-only organizations. Arguing that the problem of the underclass is mainly a moral one, Taylor disregards economics. Instead, he calls for get-tough police practices, favors mandatory, no-appeal death sentences for drug dealers and suggests that to combat ``reckless procreation'' the government should require female welfare recipients to use the contraceptive Norplant. His blurred distinctions between the ``underclass'' and blacks reveal his biases. (Nov.)