Race in the Mind of America: Breaking the Vicious Circle Between Blacks and Whites

by Wachtel,Paul L.

• ISBN13: 9780415920001
• ISBN10: 0415920000
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-22
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Internationally recognized psychologist Paul L. Wachtel sheds new light on the psychological foundations of our nation's racial impasse and applies his pathbreaking "vicious circle" approach to help resolve it. This timely and fascinating analysis shows how the ways we attempt to cope with racial tensions and inequalities often lead to the perpetuation of our difficulties rather than their resolution. Understanding the ironies that characterize contemporary race relations is the first step toward extricating our nation from the vicious circle. Both controversial and healing,Race in the Mind of Americachallenges the orthodoxies that shape black and white opinion and liberal and conservative policies while sensitively exploring the way the world looks to both sides and why it looks that way. Wachtel probes the daily experiences of blacks and whites, shedding new light on how individual experiences and larger social, historical and economic forces continually re-create each other. In illustratinghow blacks and whites get caught in vicious circles that sustain the very behaviors and attitudes they wish would change, Wachtel also points toward the concrete solutions to our seemingly enduring dilemmas and shows how to move beyond the adversarial rhetoric that divides us.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
1 Introduction The Ironic Dynamics of Race	1	(22)
Part One Impediments to Dialogue: Why We Talk past Each Other	23	(74)
2 Talking about Racism How Our Dialogue Gets Short-Circuited	23	(18)
3 Blaming the Victim?	41	(16)
4 The Debate over Culture	57	(16)
5 Ideology and IQ Moving beyond the Bell Curve	73	(24)
Part Two Prejudice, Vulnerability, and Identity: Psychological Foundations of Our Racial Impasse	97	(96)
6 Is Racism Inevitable? Motivational Foundations of White Racial Attitudes	97	(24)
7 Prejudice without Intention? "Cognitive" Foundations of White Racial Attitudes	121	(22)
8 The Complexities of the Black Response to Oppression Strengths and Vulnerabilities, Pride and Self-Doubt	143	(22)
9 Integration, Assimilation, and Separatism The Ambiguities of Identity	165	(28)
Part Three The Seamless Web of Problems and Solutions	193	(94)
10 Crime and the Multiple Causes and Effects of Inequality	193	(26)
11 Separate Neighborhoods, Separate Destinies	219	(22)
12 Beyond Affirmative Action Toward a Resolution of Our Divisions	241	(26)
13 Breaking the Cycle of Poverty and Disadvantage Head Starts, Handicaps, and the Importance of Ongoing Life Circumstances	267	(14)
14 Beyond Black and White	281	(6)
Notes	287	(36)
Index	323