A Wake Up Call

I own this book and thought it was an excellent read then as now.Rowan, who generally wrote biographies and newspaper articles in his nearly 60 year career in journalism, wanted this book to be a harbinger of sorts to come in the area of race realtions If we don't get our acts together. As I can see from the white nationalists reviews (I have read their reviews) and they find the book not to be balanced in it's writings of it's various citizens and our racial provocatuers on all sides and he names them in all areas of American life and no one gets spared and they are in all areas from politics to civil rights and entertainment. Rush Limbaugh Richard Cohen (washington post) Bob Grant Newt Gringich Jesse Jackson Howard Stern and many others. The race war will be reactionary like Rowan wrote in the with Black Males tired of being assualted from all sides of from the government (genocidal war on drugs), talk radio, Think Tank intellectualls (on the left and right) the media and Black Folk who are more concerned with "colorblindness" than real justice. Black Men like myself are the silent majority in this country and are tired of being "pushed around" and what happened in Miami last week is just the tip of the icebreg and there are Black Men who as angry than those men who plotted to bomb buildings in this country and will be better organized to carry out those plans, and Rowan expertly states his case in the various chapters I tend to think he saw Bosnia and Serbia but juxtapozed it using Blacks and America. This book is almost 11 years old and people thought he was exggerating about his concerns about the coming racial violence that will be even more deadly in a post 9-11 world because unlike the Arabs, African American Men may have a more legitimate gripe with this government because of it's history towards us past and present. And considering that the "Conservative Media" has demonized black leaders who could keep the peace in this country, the book is a harrowing look at what can be in this so-called "experiment" in a republic. I think Jefferson's "avenging angel" is coming to collect his due and it may be already too late to turn the tide. p.s. To the white male racialist reviewers who blasted the book,If they are not concerned about Black Folks as they claim to be, and think Blacks have low IQ's worldwide,then why are many of their reviews are on race in general? This book is Carl Rowan's legacy and what a great book it is, and hopefully we will get to the buisness of building bridges as citizens instead of throwing bombs either verbally or violently.

This book is a good look at the mind and the assumptions of a black liberal. The main argument of the book is that all black failure is due to white racism, not black inferiority or inability to take responsibility for their own lives. The author is black, so obviously he is going to argue according his own racial self-interest; whether his arguments are true or not is highly questionable. However, some black failure can be attributed to fatherless homes, and not inferiority or racism. The author laments the lack of civility in civic discourse, but I don't understand why. For instance, he quotes a speech given by Newt Gingrich about responsibility and then complains that Gingrich is being uncivil even though I thought Gingrich used mild-mannered, even bland, words. I guess he thought he was using so-called 'coded' racial slurs. The author doesn't seem to understand that free speech will often be offensive to someone or some group if people are allowed to criticize freely. We should all be rejoicing that we're offended because that means free speech lives and democracy is not dead. The moment nothing offensive will allowed to be said is when oppression will reign.To his credit, he mentions how blacks like Farrakan are racist hatemongers, as he sees it, along with gentile and jewish whites. He warns that a race war might break out because of increasing racism, but other than that, the book does not deal specifically with how a race war will play out. The sensational title of the book was created to sell more copies in the apocalyptic nineties, I suppose. The book has the breezy, entertaining, somewhat superficial style that one would expect from a columnist. He mocks the seemingly well-researched findings that blacks have lower IQs mostly fixed by genetic heredity. He looks askance at the institution that funded the research and suggests research that says low IQs are due to poor nutrition. I thought that The Bell Curve which argues for lower IQ of blacks in one its sections was much more carefully and thoroughly argued, despite its unpleasant conclusions, than the superficial and questionable arguments (or just ridicule and suspicion) that Rowan brings up. He would need a well-researched book of his own to argue against such findings point by point, not just a chapter.To him, the high crime rate among blacks, is not due to their own irresponsible behavior, but because white racist cops go after blacks more than whites. He has the typical liberal view that no one is responsible for their own effort, behavior, success, or failure; every outcome is due to an good or adverse environment: namely, whether it is "racist" or "minority-friendly". He gives an interesting account of the O.J. Simpson case and why he thinks Simpson is innocent. I lost interest in the matter a couple of days after it happened, so I'm not expert enough to know whether he's wrong or not. He discusses the wooing of Colin Powell for president by the Republicans. He indicates that

Author Carl Rowan is scared about the future of American democracy. If his predictions come true, so am I. Rowan believes that, because many whites lack comprehension of the way many blacks and other minorities live, they are all too willing to believe "hate talkers" on the radio, and believe congresspersons who think that reforming welfare or shaming single mothers will solve their economic woes. As he points out, however, there is little truth behind the myths about race and poverty which have been promulgated over the last twenty years or so. While I think some of his scenarios are perhaps a little overdrawn, I think anyone concerned with the future of this country and all of its citizens should read this book. I highly recommend it