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Race, Wrongs, and Remedies: Group Justice in the 21st Century (Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society) 1st Edition Edition

by Amy L. Wax (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars 7 customer reviews
ISBN-13: 978-0742562868
ISBN-10: 0742562867
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Product Details

  • Series: Hoover Studies in Politics, Economics, and Society
  • Hardcover: 200 pages
  • Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers; 1st Edition edition (July 16, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0742562867
  • ISBN-13: 978-0742562868
  • Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,408,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFinally, a refreshingly honest and smart book on race
By Sammie on August 26, 2009
Format: Hardcover
Much is written about race these days, but little is said. The prevailing discussion about race and social welfare policy has become predictable and an unproductive. Authors focus on blame and how to craft polices to undo the harm of the past. Despite years of mounting evidence that this approach is systematically flawed, the march continues steadfastly on: improvements for racial minorities can only come with additional government policies which must focus on how the dominate culture will cure the ills of minorities.

Professor Wax's contribution is a welcome departure from this mindset. In this book, she provides compelling and thoughtful arguments that the traditional role of social welfare policy is fatally flawed. Some change simply comes from those afflicted by the wrongs and no amount of help from those who inflicted the damage will make things better. As Wax notes in the Pedestrian Parable, at some point, the affliction becomes internal and only those affected can ameliorate the damage. While I'm sure this book will be vilified by some and ignored by many, those who are willing to read it with an open and discerning mind will be the better for it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsA courageous and important book
By Richard B. Schwartz TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 4, 2010
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
This is a courageous book. Describing its perspective as `self-help', the author argues that structural, governmental, `external' solutions for inequalities by race have now largely run their course and their returns have diminished significantly. The solutions to inequality now rest with the black community itself. `Hard struggles' remain, but `brick walls' have largely been removed. The principal problems causing the continuing inequalities are behavioral and cultural.

Given the response to arguments along this line from Bill Cosby, Juan Williams, et al., this is not a point of view that is likely to be warmly and enthusiastically embraced. She comes to the argument with a lawyer's perspective, one informed particularly by the laws governing liability and remedies.

Her key insight/example concerns a parable of an injured pedestrian. The pedestrian is hit by a guilty motorist. The motorist is directed to do all in his power to make the injured pedestrian whole. He attempts to do so. However, there are certain things that the injured pedestrian must do for himself. The guilty driver will pay for his medical care, medications and physical therapy, for example, but the injured pedestrian must show up for his appointments, fill and take his prescriptions and perform the exercises required by his physical therapist. In some ways this seems unjust. The motorist was guilty, the pedestrian innocent, but his return to health is dependent on his, not just the motorist's actions.

The author's argument is that this does in fact appear to be unjust, and that we cannot absolve the motorist of guilt.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThree cheers for Blame the Victim!
By Herbert Gintis on January 10, 2011
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Since about 1985 I have held a "blame the victim" attitude towards minority oppression. By this I have never meant in any way that the victims deserve their plight. Far from it: victims are victims and will remain victims until they end their victimization. Rather, I have been arguing that only by banning together in collective struggle can the victimization be defeated, and only the victims have a real interest in ending their own oppression.

Jews, Gypsies and gays were not responsible for being gassed, shot, hanged, and simply kicked to death by Hitler, with the deep appreciation of a large section of the German and surrounding peoples. But they are responsible for making sure this does not happen again. This can happen only if they blame themselves for their near-eradication. Of course, the non-oppressed have a moral obligation for aiding in any way they can the cause of the oppressed. But, the bottom line is people must end their own oppression however they can manage to do so.

In this lucid and hard-hitting essay on the politics of race in the United States, Amy L. Wax, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, makes a completely different argument, coming not from history and collective action, but from tort law. She takes without argument the premise that the position of poor blacks in America is due to a culture of poverty that was foisted upon the urban black community by virtue of centuries of slavery and racial bigotry. I believe that this premise is completely accurate and serves as an auspicious starting point for the analysis. Wax then distinguishes between liability and remedy. While others are liable for the position of poor blacks in America, remedy lies wholly in the hands of the inner-city black community itself.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsFresh perspective on improving inequality due to racism
By L. M. Crane on May 14, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
One of my close friends is a black journalist who maintains it’s not easy to talk publicly about race. Reading the reviews and comments on this book reinforces his view.

Prof. Amy Wax’s book is provocative in that it attempts to shed more light than heat about systemic racism, its effects, and potential ways to change cultural thinking in both whites and blacks. She provides a fresh perspective, but one that will challenge conventional thinking by well-meaning people. Wax believes that structural systemic efforts by government or other external entities to eliminate racial inequality have both helped and hurt the black community. After fifty years of major racial progress in many areas, there has been backsliding in others. She argues that although emphasis on law and policy may have once made sense, the time has come to assign priority to self-improvement through behavioral, cultural, and moral reform. She never advocates abandoning the former, but believes there is now more progress to be made in the latter areas.

Through the simple “parable of the pedestrian,” Wax defines the situation succinctly. A pedestrian crosses the street at the crosswalk and with the light. A driver runs a red light, hitting the pedestrian, causing major physical damage. Under the law and common sense, the driver should be responsible for returning the pedestrian to his previous status by paying for medical care and rehabilitation. But what if that rehab requires physical therapy that the pedestrian refuses to participate in? The pedestrian’s injured status is not fair and was not his fault. Nonetheless, the driver is powerless to return the pedestrian to his former status without some effort by the pedestrian. So it is with the racial victim.Read more ›
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