By the Color of Our Skin; The Illusion of Integration and the Reality of Race

New York: Dutton, 2000. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xviii, 299, [3] pages. Notes. Index. Inscribed by the author (Steinhorn) on the half-title page. Inscription reads: To Larry, Sylvia & Selene---I value our friendship and truly respect your dedication to making this a better world-- Thank You-- Lenny. The New York Times called By the Color of Our Skin a "clear-headed, energetic and pointedly sarcastic book about this country's racial divisions and cultural hypocrisy." Leonard Steinhorn is an author, CBS News political analyst, and professor of communication and history at American University. He teaches, writes and lectures on American politics and presidential elections; the 1960s in America; baby boomers; and race relations in the United States. For several years in the 1980s, he worked as a speechwriter, press secretary, and policy advisor for members of the United States Congress, including former House Judiciary Committee Chair Peter W. Rodino and the future House Majority Leader, Congressman Steny Hoyer. He has served as a senior executive at strategic communication and media firms as well as leading non-profit organizations. Since 2012 he has served as a political analyst for CBS News Radio, covering politics and elections, and he appears regularly on WUSA9 TV News in Washington, DC. Barbara Diggs-Brown is an associate professor of public communication at the American University School of Communication. She writes and lectures on cultural diversity in the media and has served as a media and press adviser for political campaigns, public officials, and advocacy groups. While signs of racial progress are everywhere, the reality is that America is hardly more integrated than it was before the civil rights movement. Beyond the rhetoric of politicians, the media, and the prevalent symbols of integration lies a very different reality: 70 percent of black children attend predominantly black schools; and an Hispanic or Asian American with a third grade education is more likely to live in an integrated neighborhood than is a black with a Ph.D. Fueled by these startling statistics, By the Color of Our Skin argues that integration does not exist now; that it never had a chance to exist in the past; and that it will never exist in the future. Leonard Steinhorn and Barbara Diggs-Brown would themselves like to see integration become a reality but find--through polls, statistics, interviews, and anecdotes--that the illusion of integration is more damaging than useful because it keeps society from having an honest dialogue about the problem of race. By the Color of Our Skin explodes powerful myths and outlines a new vision of race in America. Derived from a Kirkus review: The authors revisit a subject to shed belated tears for an honorable notion. Unfortunately, much of their talk about busing, white flight, and even affirmative action seems familiar. Familiar because the authors, both professors of communication at American University, haven't extended their fact-gathering much beyond 1960s data. So why, according to Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown, hasn't integration lived up to its promise? After legislation passed in the 1960s outlawing discrimination and segregation, most people seem to believe that racism can no longer exist. That conviction, contend Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown, is ironically bolstered by the prominence and influence of Colin Powell, Michael Jordan, Bill Cosby, Oprah Winfrey, and hundreds of other powerful African-Americans. Cited as an example of how we fool ourselves over integration's failure, for instance, is the Motown Sound played throughout the movie The Big Chill. As the authors conclude triumphantly, whites in real life listen to entirely different radio stations than blacks. Rather than investigate the phenomenon known as "wiggers"-young whites who hang out with blacks-Steinhorn and Diggs-Brown accept the traditional putdown that these youngsters are mere wannabes. Statistics are duly presented to show that hardly five percent of American communities enjoy enough of a racial mix to be considered integrated today. Still, the authors take solace from the fact that communities like Shaker Heights, Ohio, provide proof that integration can indeed work.