The Closest of Strangers: Liberalism and the Politics of Race in New York

An editorial writer for New York Newsday , Sleeper here offers a fair, tough-minded airing of New York City's racial tensions and animosities on all sides. Countering those black leaders and white leftists who cast New York City as another Johannesburg or as ``Up South,'' he sees hope for resuscitating the fragile 1960s consensus of interracial fair play battered by rising urban crime, poverty, black extremists' divisiveness and white racism. Sleeper spotlights constructive, predominantly black community-based organizations that have adapted the tactics of the late activist Saul Alinsky to confront establishment figures, including Mayor David Dinkins, fixture of the Harlem elite. As timely as today's ugly headlines, this blend of history and reportage seemingly spares no one in its search for common ground. (Sept.)