Enough--#16 finished

This is a book by Juan Williams that discusses problems in black America.  It was written after Bill Cosby became vocal about problems he was seeing with the poor black population in America and asked what happened in the time since the Brown decision.  The book talks about the reaction both positive and negative to this and basically comes down on Cosby's side of things.  I thought it was a very good read and pointed out many things that seem to be common sense.  This whole issue kind of came to a head with Katrina and has now fallen out of the news I guess.  I think President Obama's election also affected it in that black issues have mostly fallen out of the news--reparations, complaints on No Child Left Behind, the rap and movie violence(except when a tragedy happens) and the poor underclass.

The book mentions and even quotes the then Senator Obama but he is a minor character and doesn't really come off on either side.  I think this is kind of telling in that it shows how little involvement Obama had with the African American/black movement on a major scale.  He certainly was not part of the civil rights movement being too young for that.

Oh well, I think the book points out some very good things about how people, all peoples not just black, can avoid a life of poverty--it even steps them out.  1. Get a high school diploma, college degree even better, 2. no children until at least 21 and married and working a job to support your family and 3. be good parents.  Those really are simple ideas and they should be on billboards and commercials.  Book talks about how some may want to keep and underclass so there will be government handouts and leaders can talk about these topics rather than actually solving them.  I would hope not, but have to understand not everyone sees things the same way.

I have already posted the book on PBS, there is 1 copy ahead of it, but I would expect it to move at some point.  I might add a 4th book, not sure yet.