THE ANATOMY OF RACIAL INEQUALITY

In this highly persuasive analysis of race stigma in U.S. society, Loury, a political commentator and director of the Institute of Race and Social Division at Boston University, argues that it is not simply racial discrimination (which is "about how people are treated") that keeps African-Americans from achieving their goals, but rather the more complex reality of "racial stigma"—"which is about who, at the deepest cognitive level, they are understood to be." Loury argues that the image white Americans have of black Americans as less than full citizens influences policy far more than who African-Americans actually are. Although much of Loury's argument is theoretical (his training as an economist is evident in his proposing and then testing various axioms), he grapples eloquently and vigorously with such concrete examples as affirmative action, arguments about racial IQ differences and racial profiling. He concludes that the employment of color-blind policies will not address widespread racial inequalities since they do not take into account either the external or internal harm done to African-Americans from "a protracted, ignoble history during which rewarding bias against blacks was the norm." Originally given as the W.E.B. Du Bois Lectures at Harvard, Loury's arguments are provocative and productive. (Feb. 8)

Forecast:The controversies generated by books as diverse as Herrnstein and Murray's The Bell Curve and Lani Guinier's The Tyranny of the Majority could be replicated by this short, cogently argued book—if the public bandwidth is available for it at the time of its release. If not, expect the ideas to bubble up over the years via campus and lobbyist discussion.