Our Souls to Keep: Black/White Relations in America

Ever since his daughter's first experience of racism, Henderson has been ""on a mission to help as many white people as I can to learn more about black Americans."" An educational sociologist, dean of the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma and author of Cultural Diversity in the Workplace Henderson contends that the prejudice felt by many whites against African Americans has resulted in segregated neighborhoods, public schools with white teachers who expect black students to fail and workplaces in which white supervisors communicate poorly with black employees. Henderson provides a detailed description of traditional African American culture in order to illuminate how the differing speech patterns, body language and value systems of black Americans contribute to misunderstandings during interactions with even sympathetic white bosses and teachers. Although the author has some interesting ideas for improving relations between the races (including ways white supervisors can assist black workers through well-thought-out mentoring programs and good suggestions for white teachers trying to motivate low-achieving black students), his advice sometimes takes on the tone of a patronizing lecture. While Henderson makes the valid point that referring to racial groups in terms of false stereotypes (e.g., ""blacks are lazy"") is one of the manifestations of prejudice, he undermines his argument when he later oddly opines that ""Euro-Americans tend to be very talkative"" and ""whites are less animated than blacks."" (Dec.)