cover image The Flip Side of Soul: Letters to My Son

The Flip Side of Soul: Letters to My Son

Bob Teague. William Morrow & Company, $15.95 (201pp) ISBN 978-0-688-08260-4

TV newsman Teague ( Live and Off-Color ; Letters to a Black Boy ) uses the device of letters to his son to express positive and provocative thoughts on the ``imperatives that come with being black.'' Blaming white society for all the ills in black society is, in Teague's view, counterproductive, even self-defeating. In support of that argument, he cites the example of immigrants and refugees who become readily assimilated in the mainstream of competitive America despite a variety of handicaps. Interspersing anecdotes of his personal experience with accounts of bias and hostility he has encountered in his professional life, he underscores the verities of stable family life, describing them as essential for release from the welfare syndrome. As he addresses his son, who is on the brink of his own media career, Teague speaks also to today's young black Americans, offering them challenges he believes they are ready to accept. (Feb.)