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Getting It Wrong: How Black Public Intellectuals Are Failing Black America

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In this slim volume, Dr. Austin torpedoes the myths of Black cultural difference and cultural decline so popular among Black pundits with lucid and trenchant arguments based on sound sociological and economic data. Essential reading for anyone interested in the issue of Black socio-economic advancement.

This book is very short and gets to the point. The author uses statistics to show that African-Americans are doing much better than we are often led to believe. There are some debatable points however. For example: The author's assertion that the teenage pregnacy rate has dropped since since the 1960's is a bit deceptive because the author doesn't acknowledge the then cultural norm of young girls 15-17 getting married and having families at young ages. Thus a decline in teenage pregnancies was seen across the broad for all groups. My favorite analyses were the comparison the Black immigrants and Black Americans and the comparison of black crime and white crime. He explains why the comparisons while unfair, when closely examined do not support the " what is wrong with Black americans?" conclusion often made, but rather speak volumes about the subtlety of modern racism. The author derides black intellectuals for finding "cultural fault" when explaining crimes commmitted by blacks but not doing the same when the crimes are committed by whites- most especially white collar crime. Stats need to be updated continually for book to have ongoing relevance.