Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Ironic Dynamics of Race PART ONE Impediments to Dialogue: Why We Talk Past Each Other 2. Talking About Racism: How Our Dialogue Gets Short-Circuited 3. Blaming the Victim? 4. The Debate Over Culture 5. Ideology and IQ: Moving Beyond the Bell Curve PART TWO Prejudice, Vulnerability, and Identity: Psychological Foundations of Our Racial Impasse 6. Is Racism Inevitable? Motivational Foundations of White Racial Attitudes 7. Prejudice Without Intention? Cognitive Foundations of White Racial Attitudes 8. The Complexities of the Black Response to Oppression: Strengths and Vulnerabilities, Pride and Self-Doubt 9. Integration, Assimilation, and Separatism: The Ambiguities of Identity PART THREE The Seamless Web of Problems and Solutions 10. Crime and the Multiple Causes and Effects of Inequality 11. Separate Neighborhoods, Separate Destinies 12. Beyond Affirmative Action: Toward a Resolution of Our Divisions 13. Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Disadvantage: Head Starts, Handicaps, and the Importance of Ongoing Life Circumstances 14. Beyond Black and White

About the Author

Paul L. Wachtel is CUNY Distinguished Professor and Acting Director of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies at the City College of New York. He is author of several books including The Poverty of Affluence (1983) and Psychoanalysis, Behavior Therapy, and the RelationalWorld (1997). He lives in New York City, where he is also a practicing psychotherapist.

Reviews

"[A] highly original and refreshingly objective new book on race relations in America..." -- Tikkun
"Certain to prove controversial and thought provoking, this treatise challenges conventions on all sides and provides an intriguing analysis of black/white communications and misunderstandings on both sides." -- The Bookwatch
"Thoughtful and sophisticated reading for anyone with more than a casual interest in race." -- Kirkus Reviews
"...uniquely valuable integration of political and psychological analysis, offering fresh insights on white indifference that cut through the tangles of our national dilemma and point the way with startling honesty and directness to possible solutions. Wachtel provides sharp and subtle critiques of our thinking about the key controversies in race relations over the past decades, like the Moynihan Report and The Bell Curve. Paul Wachtel is one of our most valuable social thinkers." -- Miles Orvell, Professor of English and American Studies, Temple University, author of The Real Thing: Imitation andAuthenticity in American Culture
"To a contentious, acerbic debate Paul Wachtel brings his signature trademarks--thoughtful, reflective analysis and a hopeful path into the future. This book represents what the President's national conversation on race might have been, had it been serious." -- Stanley Renshon, author of High Hopes
"...Paul Wachtel has written a book on race relations that will require any reader to see the issues in a new light." -- Seymour Sarason, Professor Emeritus, Yale University