How Race Is Lived in America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart [Hardcover]

Correspondents of The New York Times (Author), Joseph Lelyveld (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2001 | ISBN-10: 080506740X | ISBN-13: 978-0805067408 | Edition: 1st

In 1999, the New York Times embarked on the most ambitious project in its history. Starting with one central question--What are race relations like today?--a dedicated group of editors and writers began work on an intense, demanding form of narrative journalism, finding compelling stories in fifteen communities around the nation and following their subjects for up to a year until their stories played out. The result, How Race Is Lived in America, captures the emotions and candid words that often churn just below the surface and presents an uncommon view of the country's private and public discourse on race.

Whether it's the struggles of a biracial partnership in a high-tech start-up, the tension-filled merger of a white church with a black church in the South, the simmering resentments of a multiracial slaughterhouse workforce, or the hip-hop dreams of a suburban white teenager, the powerful and intimate stories in this book follow real people leading complex lives, often but not always side by side.

Aqeelah Mateen, one of a trio of young friends in Maplewood, New Jersey, finds herself torn by racial identity as she approaches adulthood. Sergeant Maria Brogli suspects that the black undercover officers on her Harlem narcotics squad fear being accidentally shot by white officers. Achmed Valdes, a white immigrant from Cuba, wonders why his best friend from Havana has chosen to align himself with Miami's black community. As each shares hopes, fears and assumptions, an intricate and poignant understanding of race relations emerges.

Throughout these chronicles, which are enriched by an extensive poll and commentary from the journalists and citizens, it is clear that America has not become two distinct nations--one black and one white--as was feared a generation ago. America is now an inescapably multiracial society, discovering day by day how perceptions of race affect the fabric of human relationships. But deep divisions and frustrations persist, in minds and hearts if not in the laws of the land.

This landmark book offers a personal yet panoramic view of real-world conflict and aspiration, pain and resolution--a portrait of a country torn apart and brought together by its attitudes towards race

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Assembly of God Tabernacle in Decatur, Georgia, has succeeded at doing what most institutions in America have failed at--achieving full integration. White parishioners who thought of blacks in the worst terms in the past have now decided that all believers--black and white--are going to the same heaven, so they might as well get used to it here on earth. After a black man hugs an elderly white woman, he says, "Man, 30 or 40 years ago I would have been hung for just touching this lady." While there is genuine affection between many of the parishioners, all the complex feelings and questions that plague the races at the turn of the century are being reckoned with here. Is integration a blessing or a sellout, blacks wonder. Is it ever acceptable--or even helpful--to make race the issue, or must a preacher and his congregation always feign colorblindness? What are the burdens of blending in, and are they worth it? And will this last, or is the church just like so many neighborhoods--enjoying a fleeting moment of integration on the way to becoming predominantly black? These are just some of the touchy issues explored in this remarkable and eye-opening book.

Originally published as a series in The New York Times, the 15 stories are the outcome of a yearlong examination by a team of reporters who managed to overcome the taboo of discussing private attitudes toward race and uncover the daily experience of race relations in schools, friendships, sports, popular culture, worship, and the workplace. The result is a wide range of intimate portraits, from bringing up slavery in the Old South, to drug cops reacting silently to the Amadou Diallo verdict, to the making of the HBO special The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood.

Race clearly remains a source of misunderstanding and alienation, but there are also heartening signs of reaching out, reconciliation, and even unity. This book is an important leap into an area most fear to tread, yet also yearn to change. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

In his introduction to this expansive book on the complexity of contemporary race relations, Joseph Lelyveld, executive editor of the New York Times, notes that he urged his correspondents to "go deep" beyond the headlines with their research and "hang in there." His staff produced 15 stellar stories that dig down to the gnarled crux of our racial dilemma in this turbulent post-O.J. era, presenting a startling array of voices and situations. In the powerful opening story, "Shared Prayers, Mixed Blessings," Kevin Sack chronicles the power of faith as a unifying force in a formerly segregated, now multi-racial church near Atlanta. Another poignant account, "Best of Friends, Worlds Apart," follows the immigration and acculturation of two youths from Cuba, where race is a lower-case issue, who find that their experiences in Miami are so different (one is dark-skinned and one is light) that it drives a wedge into their longtime friendship. Janny Scott's "Who Gets to Tell a Black Story?" explores the need for self-determination and the opportunity to define one's cultural image, as a reporter details countless obstacles faced by an African-American TV director and his writers in bringing a controversial series on drug abuse in a Baltimore neighborhood to the small screen. The unorthodox efforts of a young white writer and activist, Billy (Upski) Wimsatt, to open a dialogue between white and black youth gives new meaning to the term "wigger" (a white who wants to be black) in N.R. Kleinfeld's well-turned story, "Guarding the Borders of the Hip-Hop Nation." While the so-called "unmediated conversations about race" at the end cover familiar ground, several revelations crop up in the raw interviews with the black, white and Hispanic subjects for the pieces that are reprinted at the end of the book. Overall, this high-minded, superbly written collection unflinchingly probes America's racial struggles, posing as many solutions as it does questions, shining much-needed light on one of the nation's toughest challenges.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Times Books; 1st edition (April 17, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080506740X
• ISBN-13: 978-0805067408
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #643,404 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost there., December 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: How Race Is Lived in America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart (Hardcover)

I read this for class the past semester and thought that while there are some really incredible circumstances discussed,(White quarterback, growing up multi-racial, and minority public servants) that some people were noticeably left out. Native Americans received a further blow of marginalization. (they were mentioned once as something of a prop) Also, the diversity among Black and Asian communities was very much ignored. I must say that it's obvious who the writers/editors are marketing towards in their readership, because many of the arguments continue some monolithic dialogues that haven't changed in 20+ years. Going into a work like this will take some serious analysis on the part of the reader to notice what I'm talking about, as it is written with an almost indistinguishable slant. The work has great potential for use as a teaching tool, but focus should remain on analysis rather than taking work verbatim.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an excellent modern survey, April 30, 2001

By 

Andrea L. Howard (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Race Is Lived in America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart (Hardcover)

this is an insightful collection of articles for anyone wishing to gain a well-rounded and modern perspective on race issues in america. if anyone thinks the race issue is dead and buried, s/he needs to read this book! i was so impressed that i am using this in my race and ethnicity in america class at the university i am going to be teaching at next fall as a discussion starter.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Race Is Lived in America is very carefully!, April 29, 2001

By 

Rebecca Brown "rebeccasreads" (Clallam Bay, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: How Race Is Lived in America: Pulling Together, Pulling Apart (Hardcover)

Editors & writers for The New York Times asked one central question: "What are race relations like today?" These are the raw stories & candid observations they found just below the surface of this country's private & public discourse on race relations.

That said hold onto you seat for a bumpy read about a subject that upsets most of us & still fills us with dread & hope.

There are 15 articles written by 15 very different reporters - each focusing on an aspect of race relations that speaks particularly to them. I cannot separate them here for you - suffice to write that each article will put you through your complacency paces, set your nerves ajangling & raise a host of old ghosts most of us wish would lay low.

How are race relations lived today? Very, very carefully & rather schizophrenically for the most part & for other parts? Pure, teeth-grinding swallowings of crow food, blundering inconsiderations - hell, they treat their dogs better! & hope - what a faint & fragile zephyr is hope!

While we may no longer have to storm into Cicero to demand equal rights to live in equally pleasant homes - we sure are determined to judge each other for the way we talk, about what we talk, the way we walk & to where we walk, even the way we say hello - the color of our skin may be the least of it!

In the end both photographers & reporters speak their piece about their piece & make peace with the process - their stories are as vital as the previous ones & just as telling as they tell about their own prejudices, foregone assumptions & epiphanies.

How Race Is Lived in America touches each & every one of us: from the farmer in the field watching Indians drive by on their way to a hunt he is no longer allowed to make to the dainty dames in Southern places who simply can't understand what all the fuss is about; to athletes whose prowess on the field is less than their will to survive; to best friends torn apart by the pressures of their cultures to laborers in bloody jobs whose blood all runs red & to anyone who sees others shrink away because of their skin color & what it symbolizes.

This is a keeper for it will take quite a while to think through the dust these reporters have raised! It is appropriate that a Pulitzer Prize has been awarded for this moving & troubling effort.