|
Raymond Thibodeaux of Takoma Park, MD, asks:
The destabilization of the inner cities through drugs,
poverty, racism, etc., has contributed to
several major incidents recently, including rioting
and the police involvements with African American
political groups, specifically MOVE and Black Uruhu.
Columnist Carl Rowan's book on the coming race wars
pinpoints a growing hostility among the black community
for a society that seems, still, stacked up against them.
Do you see a coming race war? If so,
when? If not, why not?
Dr. Wilson responds:
I do not see a coming race war. Discussion about the growing racial hostility in the black community is overplayed. Research reveals that racial hostility is highest among the most educated and professional blacks who are more likely to be involved in open competition with comparable whites for desirable and scarce positions. Poor and working-class blacks are far less likely to express hostile, anti-white sentiments. Indeed, our research reveals that blacks in poor and working class communities have a relatively congenial attitude towards race, in comparison with whites and more advantaged blacks. (For a good discussion of these point, see Jennifer L. Hochschild. "Facing Up to the American Dream: Race, Class, and the Soul of the Nation." Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). If there is a racial explosion it is likely to take the form of a riot in which blacks attack symbols of racial oppression -- police, stores and etc., in their own neighborhoods -- not an interracial riot in which blacks and whites fight each other in or outside their neighborhoods.
However, I strongly believe that racial hostility and the
growing dissatisfaction of marginalized and disenfranchised groups will be fought not in the streets but in voting booths across the country.
Next Question....
|
