The author takes on a taboo subject by arguing that culture and personal choices—not structural racism and white privilege—are the major impediment for social and economic progress in some black communities. So, this book (which is easy to read and well researched) will probably upset a few people because it is not "politically correct."
The author succeeds in showing that the sharp rise of black political power at every level of government has not advanced, but actually impeded, black upward mobility because it has relied (counter productively) on victim status as a tool for gaining and maintaining power. Notably, the author illustrates that liberal policies, such as affirmative action and the Great Society program, stymied the economic and social advancement that blacks gained before these programs were adopted in 1960s. Moreover, the author illustrates how blacks before the 1960s succeeded--and did so despite structural racism--because they had strong communities and families. Thus, contrary to liberal ideology, blacks are generally not being disadvantaged by whatever remains of structural racism (or the lingering effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws), but by social decay and the erosion of a strong family structure.
This reader enjoyed the constructive criticism provided at the end of the book by John McWorter who argues persuasively that Jason Riley’s argument focuses too much on the greatly-diminished political clout of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and not enough on current progressive commentators (e.g., Ta-Nehishi Coates) and social media sources who have made it feel conscientious if not “cool” to stereotype blacks as victims who require more and more government support to succeed—a position that McWorter finds patronizing, to say the least.
Overall, the book is a measured and compelling attack on identity politics and is critical of liberals whose policies, contrary to their alleged intentions, are harming those who they claim to be trying to help.
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