White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay [Hardcover]

Star Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2006

Decaying values. Sexually transmitted diseases.

Fatherless homes. Rampant drug use.

These aren't just problems for today's inner cities.

It's the plight of all America.

Much has been said about Bill Cosby's incendiary remarks about urban black culture and its "dirty laundry." But in this provocative book, Star Parker, one of today's most controversial commentators, goes even further, proving that urban plight simply reveals a decay that is gnawing its way throughout American society as a whole.

The sexual chaos, values disorientation, and social turmoil we see in our inner cities, Parker argues, is just a magnified reflection of the moral collapse happening all over America: in our schools, our churches, our homes. And this slide toward moral decrepitude is all due to a flagrant dismissal of and assault on America's tried-and-true values.

With startling statistics and disturbing stories about the increasing secularization and criminalization of the middle class, Parker holds a cracked mirror up to suburbia. Taking on tough subjects such as abortion, drug abuse, sexual politics, and religion, she offers a rousing exploration of the raging cultural war-taking you on a wild, eye-opening tour through the White Ghetto.

Star Parker is the founder and president of CURE, the Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education, a nonprofit organization that provides national dialogue on issues of race and poverty in the media, inner city neighborhoods, and public policy. Star is a regular commentator on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and the BBC, which reaches 300 million homes worldwide. Her articles and quotes have also appeared in major publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times, and is currently a weekly syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. Star is the author of Pimps, Whores, and Welfare Brats and Uncle Sam's Plantation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Touching on Sex and the City, Snoop Dogg, the National Organization for Women, stem-cell research and "the It's-Natural-To-Be-Gay movement," born-again Parker decries the "radicalized progressive liberalism that has pervaded Middle America and usurped the authority of our founding fathers" in her indictment of all things not hard-line Christian that posits the suburbs are just as rife with immorality as the inner-city. Parker discusses "sexual pandemonium," the dissolution of the traditional family and the concepts of the insanity plea and hate crime (not the existence of the crimes, but the existence of the concept) in an effort to discover "why so many obvious areas of moral breakdown exist throughout the country." No matter what the perceived malady, the cure is simple: the moral alignment of all with Judeo Christian values. Parker may mean well, but her shallow critique will turn off anyone not already in her camp.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (March 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595550275
• ISBN-13: 978-1595550279
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

73 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Moral Decreptitude, April 30, 2006

By 

Edwin (Hollis, NY USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay (Hardcover)

The facts and statistics that Star Parker point out in her book are horrifying. The decline in morals coupled with the continuing failure of government programs has resulted in the decay of life in the inner-city. Although this decay of inner-city life is right in America's face, the same decay is happening in suburban Middle America--it is just hidden under wealth and privilege.

The loss of values and morals mixed with the left's obsession at "adopting" the lives of inner-city Americans is a direct cause of misery for these very Americans. Star Parker does a great job at showing this.

Because I am supportive of gay rights and same sex marriage, I found some of the book's rhetoric aimed at homosexuals a bit harsh. HOWEVER, whether or not you are supportive of same sex marriage, it's undeniable that some of the tactics used by proponents of gay rights are dishonest and manipulative. But this same dishonesty is practiced by liberals, democrats, republicans, libertarians, atheists and so-called civil rights leaders and Star Parker does a great job at exposing them all.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a Wake Up Call!, March 24, 2010

By 

L. Carter "wonder1" (Spring, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay (Paperback)

This book will probably shock even the not so average person...it is "enlightening," horrifying, educational and definately a much needed a wakeup call. Many people will not want to to read or agree with such disturbing information and continue to live in denial as to what is happening in our communities, schools and government; hense the continual decline of our moral code in America. There is an agenda and the target is us. In the course of being so busy living our lives and becoming complacent; many of us are just unaware of what is happening around us and the agendas that are being slid under our feet without our knowledge or awarness. If you have a concern for the future welfare of our society, your children and embrace even a moderate to conservative moral code, this is a must read. Thanks Star! I could not put it down and I did not know what I didn't know.

38 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome Book!!!, November 2, 2006

By 

Dave Pershall "dpersh" (Geigertown, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay (Hardcover)

I grew up conservative, but going to college, watching lots of TV and working with teens, I slowly began to wonder if "liberals" could be right in some areas. Isn't helping the poor a good thing, and don't we want to be free to make choices?

Star Parker clearly and boldly shatered the lies that I had begun to believe and has helped me to be more sure than ever of the biblical principles of hard work and Biblical morality. These fondations are the only way for "middle America" to help the poor and at the same time stop our own slide toward imorality and socialism!