A brave sprint in the marathon of genetic racial equality.
Journalist and award-winning TV producer Entine writes lucidly about a forbidden topic. After O.J., it takes courage to discuss race science, nature vs. nurture, and brains vs. brawn. Sure, African-Americans dominate major American sports, but even black scholars here ask why every Olympic 100-meter finalist is black. The middle chapters explore the checkered history of blacks in America sports. Two centuries before the NBA, whites marveled at the slaves' superior athleticism. "Our sports and dances was big sport for the white folks," said one ex-slave. Readers discover that Paul Robeson, the actor-singer-communist, was an all-American and "the finest wide receiver of his era"—a Phi Beta Kappa valedictorian who went on to Columbia Law. Entine compares the defiant boxing champ Jack Johnson to Dennis Rodman. When he beat "the Great White Hope" in 1910, some whites consoled themselves with notions of their mental superiority. Jesse Owens's and Joe Louis's victories mocked theories of eugenics and white supremacy. The more recently fashionable environmental approach to the question is weakened by Michael Jordan's middle class background. After noting that Dodger executive Al Campanis and sportscaster Jimmy the Greek (who felt former slaves were bred to be athletic) lost their careers suggesting blacks were better athletes, Entine presents the evidence that makes his argument unusually ambitious and controversial: graphs of fast twitch muscles, comparisons of Scandinavian and African runners, and studies of the jumping ability of various races. (It’s true: White men really can’t jump.) The heavier bone density of whites may help them dominate swimming, though this is also one of the expensive, country club sports that Entine uses to present the sociological view. Courageous enough to ask tough questions about the uneven playing field, forthright enough to present hard evidence. (8
pages b&w photos)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-891620-39-8
Page Count: 400
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2000
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BOOK REVIEW
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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