From: ur-valhalla!aol.com!Rmborland
Subject: USA! Fwd: Laissez Faire Book News: THE END OF RACISM
Message-ID: <199510152257.PAA25913@ix5.ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Oct 1995 16:02:54 -0700
Laissez Faire Books also has an excellent selection of other libertarian and
classical liberal books.
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From:   BookNews@LFB.org (Chris Whitten)
To:   BookNews@LFB.org
Date: 95-10-13 11:50:13 EDT


$8 off the cover price... and the first 300 are autographed!

A splendid, overwhelming attack on the scourge of cultural relativism

THE END OF RACISM
by Dinesh D'Souza
(reviewed by Jim Powell)

Throughout much of the 20th century, intellectuals promoted the
pernicious dogma of cultural relativism--one culture is as good as
another. They denounced Western civilization for its acknowledged sins
like slavery. They touted the alleged purity and wisdom f primitive
societies whose savage horrors they overlooked. Western civilization
has suffered, and the poorest among us have been devastated.

D'Souza, author of the bestseller *Illiberal Education* which exposed
the evils of politically correct intolerance, has done a magnificent
job telling this vital story. An Indian immigrant, he brings to the
task global perspective, passion for his adopted land and outrage at
the injustices of relativism.

He eloquently affirms the epic achievements of the West. Only the West
created the scientific method, free markets and self-government. The
West created universities to help expand knowledge. The West developed
joint stock companies to better handle entrepreneurial risks. The West
pioneered elections to peacefully resolve political disputes. Unlike
many other civilizations, the West freely adapted ideas which
originated elsewhere.

By contrast, D'Souza notes, "the wheel was unknown in virtually all of
black Africa, and also in pre- Colombian America, although strangely
enough the wheel did exist in Mexico, where it was only used as a
toy... Virtually no community in the Americas nor black Africa knew
about the plow until Europeans introduced it in the modern era...
Every generation builds upon the knowledge of ancestors largely
because of the invention of writing... But with the exception of Mayan
hieroglyphics, writing was unknown in the Americas... In black Africa,
literacy was confined to small enclaves... "

True, D'Souza acknowledges, the West was stained by slavery--as was
every civilization. He tells how Arabs were the first to import black
slaves on a large scale, and more black slaves went to the Middle East
than to America. Politically correct types revere "Native Americans,"
but tribes such as the Chocktaws, Chicasaws, Cherokees, Creeks and
Seminoles owned slaves. You might be surprised to learn how several
thousand American blacks owned black slaves in Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas--D'Souza names some of the
largest black slaveowers. Asian, African and Middle Eastern slavery
continued well into the 20th century--even now, some places.

D'Souza explains how our Founding Fathers, including slaveowners, put
slavery on the defensive and generated irresistible pressure to
resolve the issue. D'Souza notes how the situation was very different
elsewhere. For example, "Spanish and Portugese plantation owners did
not have to explain to anyone, or even to themselves, why they were
enslaving large numbers of Africans, depriving them of liberty, and
stealing the fruits of their labor."

D'Souza tells how influential anthropologists like Franz Boaz,
Margaret Mead, Ruth Benedict and Ashley Montagu promoted cultural
relativism, undermining confidence in the West. Mead, for example,
brazenly twisted facts to portray the alleged superiority of primitive
South Seas cultures.

D'Souza shows how cultural relativism has had catastrophic
consequences. For instance, the plight of poor blacks which he insists
cannot be blamed on white racism as civil rights "leaders" claim, nor
on genetics as Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray argued in their
controversial bestseller *The Bell Curve*. D'Souza explains how poor
blacks suffer because they embraced a culture of irresponsibility and
dependence rather than the culture of responsibility and self-reliance
which helped the West prosper.

D'Souza offers shocking revelations about how government schools
promote counter-productive cultural values among blacks. For example,
in Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadephia and other
cities, government schools spend scarce time on Afrocentric programs
teaching Swahili-- instead of mastering English which would help poor
black children lift themselves out of the slums. He reveals that
Washington, D.C. government schools paid a consultant $250,000 to
develop a program around African "word magic" which admittedly had
nothing to do with academic skills.

D'Souza recommends sweeping away racial preferences and adopting a
race-neutral rule of law like that advocated by adical Richard
Epstein. He favors focusing on self-help. "The supreme challenge faced
by African Americans," he says, "is the one that Booker T. Washington
outlined almost a century ago: the mission of building the
civilizational resources of a people whose culture is frequently
unsuited to the requirements of the modern world." An inspiring
masterwork.

The first 300 Laissez Faire readers will receive a copy with a
bookplate autographed by D'Souza.

PY6352 (hardcover) 724p.                  $30.00
                                 LF PRICE ONLY $21.95

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