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BOOK REVIEW
A Country of Strangers: Blacks & Whites in America Pulitzer Prize winner, David K. Shipler, deserves an award for telling it like it is in his penetrating exploration of attitudes and behaviors that characterize the
relationship between blacks and whites in his book, A Country of Strangers: Blacks & Whites in America. Everything is fair game in this book from whether whites and blacks have different odors to
explorations of why blacks are subject to differential treatment by police. Shipler does much more than demonstrate that people are people regardless of skin pigmentation. He probes differences in
attitudes and behavior and its impact on black-white relations. For example, a conversation with Thomas Kochman, a corporate consultant on racial diversity, is used to make the observation that blacks will often
use emotions to make their point and distrust white businessmen who seem detached from the points they are trying to make; while white businessmen view passionate rhetoric as dysfunctional and inappropriate in
"rational". Shipler's twenty years of seasoning as a New York Times
reporter comes through in his ear for nuances as he summarizes his interviews with students, politicians, people on the street, and even with his daughter that were conducted everywhere he went around the country. He also reports on corporate and military diversity seminars. For me he is at his best when he explodes myths, stereotypes, and counterproductive attitudes and behavior in both the black and white community.
This is a book that will appeal to everyone because it is about conversations on a topic that affects us all. But, to the extent you have feelings toward whites or blacks that have been shaped by bias, prepare to be
challenged regardless of your skin pigmentation. Shipler, not only ventures into black-white relations, he also delves into black to black, mixed-racial, and white relationships. Is this a book that
preaches to the converted? No, it is a report on race relations as much as a point of view. That is not to say that Shipler has a slant that is easily perceived. He does and it comes out in his
interviews with people whose views and work he clearly admires. However, the book is enjoyable for its conversations alone, and can appeal to the most enlightened and the most bigoted among us so long as we are
open to challenges to our positions on race and racism. |
