By the Color of Our Skin: The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race

This book is a must read for anyone looking to understand race relations in America. It looks at every aspect of race in America -- history, media, culture, politics, how we lead our lives -- and each page offers a level of depth not often found in other books. Little wonder that Dr. Alvin Poussaint called it essential reading on race. The basic premise of the book is that America may be desegregating but we are not integrating -- that our lives may intersect but they do not integrate. The book doesn't deny the progress we've made, but it shows how we remain fundamentally separate in the parts of our lives that involve personal choice -- our neighborhoods, schools, homes and culture. Perhaps most important, the book shows how the basic contradiction of American history -- a nation built on freedom and equality that enslaved and segregated some of its people -- has permeated almost every aspect of our lives. There are lots of insights here: how the increasing integration of media images may hinder real integration; how the black experience is fundamentally different from the experience of other minorities; how politicians use the symbolism of integration for their own purposes; how whites and blacks see the same things differently; how the patterns of racial separation that we see today were becoming apparent before the civil rights movement, meaning that the integration ideal of the Sixties was never really possible. You'll learn about why blacks tolerate Farrakhan; why whites don't like to buy homes owned by blacks, even in predominantly white communities; how neighborhoods turn from all white to mostly black; how you can never trust public opinion polls on race; why blacks and whites seem to be gravitating toward different sports. The book also explores whether we can ever overcome this divide -- and offers an agenda of racial honesty that may be the only way out. And one final thing: the book is beautifully written, easy to read, remarkable for a book packed with so many ideas and insights. This book deserves a lot more publicity. It's one of the most important books you'll read.

This is a distinctive book about race and, in particular, the failures of integration in the United States. American University communications professors Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown document and discuss black-white relations, drawing upon social science scholarship, the media and popular culture, and their own personal experiences. The authors talk about integration and segregation not only in schools and the workplace, but also in worship, leisure, and recreational pursuits. In doing so, they provide a well-rounded but perhaps even more dismal assessment (than others) of the failures of formal, legal efforts to achieve both equality and integration.Drawing upon their varied professional experiences, they argue that the media has helped to foster an illusion of integration. In particular, they point to the typically diverse casting of on-air television news reporters at the national and local level that suggest an interpersonal racial ease only rarely achieved. The more common view, they argue, is a society where black and white people may work together [if mostly on unequal terms], but then pass each other like ships in the night on the way home to neighborhoods that are overwhelmingly white or black. Their analysis is especially significant for large northeastern and midwestern cities, where black-white relations mostly define the race landscape.In the end, this book challenges scholars and citizens alike to reflect honestly on our values, our residential choices, and personal practices, not just on rhetoric. Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown show us that a commitment to integration requires hard work and difficult choices, both at the personal and community levels, in ways that national rhetoric about race misses.

The subject of race provokes more deceit, denial and dishonesty than any other issue in American life. The authors of this book explore the reality-versus-image dichotomy more analytically than any other work I've read. And they're right on the money with respect to affirmative action, which was developed as a counter-weight to racism, and those critics who declare that it gives rise to white resentment. This position is akin to using an experimental treatment for cancer, and then declaring that the treatment CAUSED the cancer. It is well settled that there was white resentment long before the words "affirmative" and "action" were ever used in the same sentence. This book should be required reading at every college in America.

Its not very often that a book about race does not have a hidden agenda. Most are thinly disguised propaganda opposed or supporting a particular issue. Many blame the oppressed or the oppressor. This book gets to the heart of the matter (race/integration) and does not let go. I, for one, have been hopeful regarding race relations in this country and still am. No doubt we as a nation have come a long way. However when ever I begin to believe that racism and racial prejudice is on the decline, I am harshly reminded. O.J., C.C.C., Militia are to name a few. The authors expose the lack of candidness we have when discussing race and how (from JFK to Clinton) politicians have used race and raced based rhetoric to their advantage. Alas, it is easier to stike fear and anger than to inspire. The book left me with a certain sadness, perhaps the feeling of being reminded the truth of a situation when in denial. While this book is important to both white and black americans. It is black americans who should take note; Self empowerment and self sufficiency becomes even more vitally important. Congress, the courts and the "liberal minded" white person often feel that they have done enough. Whether as a moral imparitive or for basic survival, black people must be honest with themselves. Most whites do not want real integration for reasons described in the book. Most blacks must realize for that reason, advancing in this nation in many ways must depend on blacks themselves. Thank you Mr. Steinhorn and Ms. Diggs-Brown for an excellent book!

The truth is not always pretty or palatable, but as the Bible says, it "shall set you free." That is the basic premise, and promise, of "By the Color of Our Skin: the Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race," brilliantly written, argued and researched by Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown.The 1990s have not exactly been famine years for books on race, and some of them, quite frankly, have an "attitude" and an ideological ax to grind. "By the Color of Our Skin," in contrast, gives us a stark and uncompromisingly fair and honest picture of reality, moving the reader -- with statistics, facts, and cultural and historical analysis -- across America's vast sociological landscape, to the conclusion that for all of the Colin Powells, Oprah Winfreys, Michael Jordans, and Bill Cosbys, we are surely calcifying into two separate Americas -- one black, one white.Politicians, the media and the entertainment industries play and perpetuate a tune of integration-on-its-way-to-being-achieved, and they have "charmed" the American people into thinking that things are ultimately moving in the right direction, that all that is needed now is time. But it is precisely time that is working against us, and unless we -- to borrow a medical phrase -- take some "heroic measures," we will become two countries sharing one land.Admittedly, the authors are not particularly optimistic that Americans will take such "heroic measures." The resistance to affirmative action makes that clear. Indeed, all the signs suggest that Americans have neither the will nor the inclination to make the necessary sacrifices. But then the question is, do we want to become like Belgium, fractured along Flemish and Waloon fault lines, or a Switzerland divided into separate national cantons? Perhaps the most we can hope for is co-existence, the authors say, but clearly Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown prefer to light a candle than curse the darkness.For, as the authors point out, there are models for reasonably successful integration: Shaker Heights, Ohio; the Corning Corporation in New York state; the United States military. But it requires an enormous amount of work, will, dedication, and constant vigiliance to see that the disease of racism and separatism does not gain the upper hand. The U.S. military is wise enough to understand that lives depend on racial harmony within the ranks. We should be wise enough to understand that the life -- the very survival -- of our country may depend on the same thing."By the Color of Our Skin" cuts to the bone of America's racial dilemma. More than any other book on the subject, it has the potential to change hearts and minds in this country, to bequeath to our children a better, more whole America. This book is the most candid, creative and refreshing treatment of the race question I have ever read. I cannot recommend it too highly.