Wrong for All the Right Reasons: How White Liberals Have Been Undone by Race

A veteran foundation official and civic activist in New Jersey, MacInnes, now a state senator there, drubs fellow Democrats for what he considers their embrace of balkanized identity politics, their emphasis on welfare rights over full employment and their acceptance of excuses for unwed motherhood and black crime. His wide-ranging historical account is insistent if not terribly original or fully convincing. While other commentators have made similar arguments, MacInnes's book is useful for his ""progressive"" (he now considers the term ""liberal"" a pejorative) faith in government and his recognition that ""education and class-not race, language, or religion-are the real dividers in American society."" So he supports public investment (schools, libraries) more than ""antipoverty"" programs, recognizes that welfare reform requires increased spending and suggests we must think long-term and accept small victories in the fight against urban poverty. Progressives, he believes, must abandon racial preferences-thus requiring black progressives to make greater compromises than white ones. (Mar.)