Two Good Books

Right now I am reading two good books:

1) Juan Williams's Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It; and

2) Mary Pattillo's Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City

Juan Williams is a political analyst for Fox News and a panelist on Fox News Sunday (I love watching him on Sundays when I don't have to teach Sun. Sch.). He's also a correspondent for NPR.

Mary Pattillo is a prof of sociology and African-American Studies at Northwestern.

The first book, inspired by Bill Cosby's controversial comments on race and class not too long ago, is a hue and cry about self-sabotaging behavior in the Black community. In the tradition of Marcus Garvey, BTW (a bit), WEB, and others, Williams makes the case for Black self-help and self-critique. And though he aptly challenges the common man, he really takes to task our leaders.

The second book traces the recent history of the North Kenwood-Oakland part of Chicago, examining everything from their educational institutions to their housing development, to see how Blacks from various economic groups have fared in this South Side community. Very interesting...