Customer Reviews

A Whole New Ball Game: A Close-Up Look at Diversity, Racism, Sexism, Affirmative Action, Cultural Pluralism and the Unfinished Business Remai

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I am a biased reviewer. Dave Malcolm, my father and my hero, published his first book this year just before his 89th birthday. I am inspired that he completed this book and persisted in finding a publisher.

Dave's book, A Whole New Ball Game, shares the joy and wisdom gained in his particular life journey, one that has led him beyond an ethnocentric, patrtiarchal white New England background into a love affair with collaborative learning with persons of other races and cultures.

In this book, Dave describes the innovative multi-cultural master's program in counseling at San Diego State University that has for forty years trained persons from under-represented groups (along with those of us from over-represented groups). As a book about racism and cultural difference, it is most unique because it does not preach "shoulds" and moral obligations to the privileged, instead it tells how genuine contact between races, ethnicities and cultural groups makes all of our lives richer and fuller. I am not only his daughter but also a graduate of the program he founded, and the program, challenging though it was, profoundly enriched my life.

Although the book cannot replicate the experience of the graduate program, it does open up the reader's thinking. The book also inspire the reader to welcome encounters across race and ethnicity as wonderful opportunities for adventure, widened horizons, and a richer life.

The title, A Whole New Ballgame, will make most of us think that this is a book about sports, and perhaps to some people the race game or racism is a sport. A game in which there are winners and losers-preordained and predicated solely upon their physical characteristics. This book can be a text book for college level sociology classes, as well as history classes and graduate level education and counseling programs.
It is a book which is easy to read and understand the author's viewpoint. It may have been told by others with a multicultural perspective, but not so eloquently as Dave Malcolm with his broad-mainstream background. His book, with piercing insight, directs the reader toward introspection and to question their values, behavior and cultural background.
"Finally, an Anglo man understands the plight of people of color and racism." My dad gave me a "high five" for a sharing this book with him!

I assigned this book for an undergraduate course I teach, "Diversity in Psychology." As a faculty of color who teaches at a predominantly white college, I often struggle in talking about these issues with my white students in a way in which they can truly "get it." Dr. Malcolm's book helps my students grapple with such critical issues as racism, sexism, heterosexism, and all the other -isms that plague our society. He does this by sharing his own journey of dealing with these issues. His book reaches out to these students in a way that I will never be able to.

Dr. Malcolm's book is truly an inspiration, not only to me, but also to my colleauges, those who are of color and white. What I like best about this book is that the author doesn't sugar coat anything. He clearly communicates the message that in order for our society to live up to its egalitarian ideals, we *all* must be willing to engage in difficult dialogues with one another about each of these issues. We all must get comfortable with being uncomfortable in order to overcome our fears of one another. These types of dialogues are truly necessary if we are to deal with our society's unfinished business.

I will keep Dr. Malcolm's book as assigned reading for many of my courses and I'll keep it close by me because I have drawn so much encouragement from it. I would like to thank Dr. Malcolm for sharing his experiences and taking me along on his amazing journey. His book has given my students, colleagues, and me new hope that we can come to a much better understanding of one another in this society. That is Dr. Malcolm's greatest gift.