The Coming Race War in America: A Wake Up Call [Hardcover]

Carl T. Rowan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 1996

Warning readers that America's racial and economic disputes are escalating to warlike proportions, a cautionary study cites such symptoms as corporate downsizing, the growth of armed right-wing militia, repealed welfare and affirmative action, and the O. J. Simpson trial. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In this book, Rowan, the first black Cabinet officer, and a syndicated columnist, warns that unless we act now, this country will by the end of the millennium have the same level of bloody racial strife that marked South Africa at the height of apartheid. The warning signs he cites include corporate downsizing, the rise of the angry white male, the growth of right wing militias, the war on welfare and affirmative action, the swelling black prison population and the growing popularity of Louis Farrakhan. In his chapter "How to Prevent 'Armageddon,'" Rowan recommends a massive federally enforced disarmament program, speedy prosecution of racist cops, and early and massive interventions into the lives of underclass children -- including a revival of FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps, to be paid for by the money now being earmarked for new prisons.

From Publishers Weekly

Despite the incendiary title, this book seems mainly a recap of syndicated columnist Rowan's opinions on recent political controversies regarding race, from affirmative action to the rise of Colin Powell to the O.J. Simpson trial. It's hard to tell how much Rowan believes his title: while he doesn't consider race war unavoidable, he says he's not optimistic. Then again, the indices of societal decline Rowan cites?less religious observance, economic malaise, divisive arguments over affirmative action?have provoked other Cassandras but few who predict racial violence. His views are liberal but not radical: critical of Republican administrations but also harsh toward Louis Farrakhan and other hatemongers. He sometimes seems to be settling scores, as when he calls Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen an "enemy of black people" for making a defensible argument that "it's time to limit" affirmative action. Rowan inflates his first-person narrative by quoting his own columns frequently, as if suggesting that he is at the center of these debates. He does perform a service in emphasizing the need to take right-wing militias seriously; his other recommendations include intensified gun control, greater monitoring of the police, intervention in the lives of the underclass, a revival of public works for the poor and alternatives to prison.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company; 1 edition (October 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316759805
• ISBN-13: 978-0316759809
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,547,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Waste Of Time, October 6, 2002

By 

TheHighlander (Richfield, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming Race War in America: A Wake Up Call (Hardcover)

The opening lines of Carl Rowen's book state that the United States is "on the rocks spiritually, morally, racially and economically." The author goes on to smash everyone he deems responsible for this and the plight of the black man today.

I found this book very harsh and full of thoughts and ideas that, to me, seem very rash and extreme. Although he does quip that Farrakhan, Sharpton and Jackson are part of the problems blacks now face he reserves his harshest criticism for whites. Whites in power and white men in gerneral. He launches scathing attacks on former President's Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush. Be blasts Pat Buchannon and Oliver North. He calls G. Gordon Liddy a "troglodyte". He says Newt Gingrich is full of "self righteous hypocrisy". He accuses the federal court system of having "surrendered to racist mob psychology" for rulling against affirmative action in University's.

The author also makes the statement that blacks do commit a disproportionate number of the violent crimes in America. Most of the crimes committed by blacks are committed against blacks. He then goes on to talk about the fact that over 50% of prisoners in the penal system are black and that shows we still live in a racist society. I don't follow the logic. If more blacks are committing violent crimes, wouldn't it follow that more blacks would be in jail? I don't see how that is racist.

He points to Susan Smith who killed her children by drowning them in the car by driving into a lake. Her initial police report said that a black man had hijacked her Mazda and driven off with her two young sons in it. He points to the fact that these incidents add to racial polarization and hatred and are bitter reminders of the stereotyping of all black males as potential kidnappers, rapists and killers and warps the minds of white people. I don't know Susan Smith but obviously she is not a typical well thinking person. And I don't think her statement went toward warping any white folks minds. If you would approach the average person on the street they would probably remember the case. How many of them, do you think, would remember the initial report accusing an unidentified black man? The percentage would be very very small I am sure.

He tries to defend inner city cime in a way. First, when Jesse Jackson stated "There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then to look around and see somebody white and feel relieved." While I would not agree with this statement and the author obviously does not I would not say that Jackson surely must have been embarrassed by his statement, as the author did. Maybe Jackson truly feels this way, why would he be embarrassed? And why would the author of this book feel he can speak on another person feelings? The aurthor says that the poor black teenagers do covet the $150 sneakers and the $400 boom box but when they lack any honorable recourse to get it, who's surprised that blacks maim and murder for big bucks? Is the author serious here? Is he defending murdering someone if you can't afford what you want? Is he not adding to the black sterotype himself with statements like these?

With in the pages of this book the author continually tells me that he knows, as a black man, how white men feel. How could he? Just as I'm sure he would agree no white men can truly understand many of the feelings of black men in society. For instance he states on page 104, "I know how painful it is for a white man to get a female supervisor, and how a 'twofer' - a black woman boss - puts a strain on his manhood." What is he talking about? Why is it painful for a white man to have a women boss, of any color? Who is he to speak for me? I have a women boss and it is not a strain on my manhood. Is it different if a black man has a white woman boss? He certainly did not address this situation at all.

In my opinion the author is constantly trashing the white male and defending the black race without looking objectively. I believe that this book serves no purpose except to fan the flames of racism. From all sides. Don't waste your money on this one.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Rowan's latest: unrelenting Politically Correct supremacy, December 5, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Springfield, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Coming Race War in America: A Wake Up Call (Hardcover)

I am very grateful that I didn't purchase this book. There is far less substance here than I ever anticipated. The thesis is not very complicated at all (surprise, surprise). In a nutshell, "We must stop the (white) racist boogieman ... or else." One cannot help but be nauseated at Mr. Rowan's constant use of racial and political pejoratives to discredit those who he happens to disagree with. For example, he refers to knowledge of mean American 15 point B/W IQ difference as "Caucasian madness" and "racist propaganda." The Pioneer Fund which simply explores the role of heredity vs. environment (see their web page) is a "Neo-Nazi" outfit bent on proving "white supremacy" with "psuedoscience." The Bell Curve is smeared "Bell Bull" and Charles Murray is a "Neo-Nazi" (of course, Mr. Murray is a politically correct libertarian and the co-author, Richard Bernstein -- now deceased -- is Jewish). What Rowan communicates with striking consistency in this work is intense fear -- fear of all the usual bad guys -- "angry white males", militia members, "white supremacists", "Nazis", Ku Kluxers, and so forth. Like much of the refuse that makes it onto the shelves in bookstores, there is no confusion about who the good guys are (non-whites, homosexuals, lesbians, Third World immigrants, feminists, Jews, HIV-positive people, liberals, Communists, gang memebers, etc.) and who the bad guys are (conservatives, middle class tax protestors, gun owners, angry white men, militia members, white activists, etc.). Of course, "angry white males" have little to be angry about. After getting by with little more than their whiteness for thousands of years, they now have to prove themselves to get ahead, say Rowan and his clique. Mr. Rowan doesn't debate his opponents -- nor does he even make a meager attempt to present their arguments. He simply calls them harsh and emotion-laden terms. Since he is black (and liberal), any attempt to draw attention to these shortcomings is quickly (and predictably) denounced as "racist." Of course, one could imagine Mr. Rowan's reaction if a well-known white commentator refered to the belief in the absolute intellectual racial equality as "Negroid madness" and smeared prominent blacks as "Neo-Communists" and "black supremacists" regardless of how fitting the label. If one recalls, two summers ago Mr. Rowan was the one who set the fires of racial hatred blaring in this country with his theory of a "church burning conspiracy" implicating "white racists." Having read The Turner Diaries, Mr. Rowan was convinced that the church burnings were the result of rabid white supremacists trying to start a race war in a "perverse attempt" to "save the white race." In short, The Coming Race War is not a credible work. If you're looking for another widely- distributed piece of anti-white propaganda that pins the cause of all America's problems squarely on marginal white activist groups, then this book is for you. If you're looking for substance, analysis, honesty, and the fair, balance, and accurate presentation of facts, I would recommend going elsewhere -- such as Wilmot Robertson's The Dispossesed Majority or Jared Taylor's Paved with Good Intentions.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Uncle Carl gives the 'formula', March 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Coming Race War in America: A Wake Up Call (Hardcover)

I rented this book from the library and very dissapointed. All the book contains is the same formula we've seen in countless "controversial" books. Even the cover is pretentious enough to indicate the contents are inflammatory or shocking, when in reality all Uncle Carl does is repeat various establishment platitudes about "hate".

He does not describe any "coming race war" but instead picks out several divergent groups and attacks them as "hate" groups, always conforming to the established media in his assumptions. He has the nerve to accuse the Hon Rev Farrakhan as being a "hater" (of course, good ol' Uncle Carl' is quite the lover!) but he never has the nerve or ability to back up his calumny.

In addition to the lack of content, Uncle Carl seems to write at a 4-th grade accusatory level, even more infantile than normal. 1 star for trite, redundant prose, and lack of any original content.