Showdown : Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America
by Larry Elder
List Price:
Our Price: $4.95
You Save: $10.00 (67%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $3.95 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Larry ElderEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Bargain Price
Published: 2003-09-20
ISBN: N/A
Number of pages: 384
Book Reviews of Showdown : Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America
Book Review: The wealth of African-Americans
Summary: 1 Stars
There are several deceptions to deconstruct in this book, I'll just focus on one of his talking points (one that other members of the "Republican Noise Machine" - such as Dennis Prager - like to repeat); that is, the argument that if taken as a whole, blacks in the U.S. are more prosperous than blacks in other parts of the world. What gets left out of this self-congratulatory bit of info is that they are being compared to blacks in Africa, a continent that has been assaulted and robbed by colonizers, proxy armies, transnational corporations and the CIA for generations. Blood Diamonds and the DVD Lumumba are among the many resources one could review to provide some perspective on the imposed poverty of blacks in Africa. Regarding the well-being of blacks in, for instance, European nations or Canada, they may have less income but they benefit from universal health care, more paid vacation, a less draconian drug war, and other advantages of living in societies that are less dominated by corporations and a corporate media. Here in the U.S., many of the African Americans that have some job security and are in the middle class are employees of the government. That is, they are employees of the sector of U.S. society that the right-wing is constantly attacking (except for the police and military, whose growth is another indicator of social breakdown). Amazingly, even segments of our prison and military industrial complexes are being privatized to ensure more of the public's tax dollars flow to the bank accounts of "private" enterprise.
Elder also leaves out that a sizable portion of the wealth of African Americans comes from the underground economy. It is no secret that cocaine boosted the economy of cities like Miami (see the DVD "Cocaine Cowboys"). It and other criminalized drugs are keeping communities and households afloat across the country. Marijuana, a more benign drug than tobacco and alcohol, is the biggest cash crop in many states. So, yes, African Americans may have more money than blacks in Canada; but many face years in a cage due to the market threat it poses to the corporate drug pushers. Some of those corporate drugs, like Ritalin, are being pushed on children in minority communities in an appalling manner The War Against Children of Color: Psychiatry Targets Inner-City Youth.
It is shameful for Elder to attempt to paint such a rosey picture of the circumstance of African Americans when we are imprisoning blacks at a higher rate than South Africa did during apartheid Why Are So Many Black Men In Prison? A Comprehensive Account Of How And Why The Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity In The Lives Of African-American Men; when the schools of many African Americans are neglected The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America; and when the neocon economy exacerbates divisions between the rich and the rest of us American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass.
Elder is rewarded by our racist and classist elite media for deflecting attention away from a variety of serious problems, not just in communities of color, but problems for the general public as a whole Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class - And What We Can Do about It (BK Currents).
Thankfully, right-wing hosts like Elder are now being exposed by progressives like Thom Hartmann, Amy Goodman, and Jesse Jackson - who now has his own radio show to set the record straight. They don't serve power and privilege, so they aren't on as many stations; but more and more people are discovering these honest voices, as well as independent journals such as Colorlines.
It is time to confront bias, and the elite interests that divide America. Thus, Larry Elder has a lot to account for. He can begin to make amends by interviewing African American scholars such as Cornel West Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations and Angela Davis Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture (Open Media).
"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, then neither persons nor property will be safe." - Frederick Douglass
(Google "Donald Rumsfeld and Mount Misery")
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Books and e-Books
Real Solutions for Busy Moms: Your Guide to Success and Sanityby Kathy Ireland
Howard Books; Published: 2009-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.44
Price in other shops:
Moo Baa La La Laby Sandra Boynton
Little Simon; Published: 1982-11-30; Board book; Book
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrunby J.R.R. Tolkien
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Published: 2009-05-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
WordPress For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/ Tech))by Lisa Sabin-Wilson
For Dummies; Published: 2007-11-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.05
Price in other shops:
![The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised] Image](/images/The-Carrot-Principle-How-the-Best-Managers-Use-Recognition-to-Engage-Their-People-Retain-Talent-and-Accelerate-Performance-Updated-Revised-1439149178-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Carrot Principle: How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance [Updated & Revised]by Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton
Free Press; Published: 2009-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.44
Price in other shops:
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.98
Price in other shops:
The Associateby John Grisham
Doubleday; Published: 2009-01-27; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.12
Price in other shops:
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah EquianoCoffeetown Press; Published: 2008-10-01; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
A Lion Called Christian: The True Story of the Remarkable Bond between Two Friends and a Lionby Anthony Bourke, John Rendall
Broadway; Published: 2009-03-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.76
Price in other shops:
The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the Worldby W. Cleon Skousen
National Center for Constitutional Studies; Published: 1981-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.39
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
Michael & MeRelease date: 2005-08-02; DVD
Best price: $24.19
Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Self-Serving Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreiby Dick Morris, Eileen Mcgann
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2009-07-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.15
Price in other shops:
Guilty: Liberal "Victims" and Their Assault on Americaby Ann Coulter
Crown Forum; Published: 2009-01-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.99
Price in other shops:
The Death of Right and Wrong: Exposing the Left's Assault on Our Culture and Valuesby Tammy Bruce
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2004-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.61
Price in other shops:
Economic Facts and Fallaciesby Thomas Sowell
Basic Books; Published: 2007-12-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.49
Price in other shops:
Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Changeby Jonah Goldberg
Broadway; Published: 2009-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.41
Price in other shops:
The New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and Free Mindsby Tammy Bruce, Laura C. Schlessinger
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2003-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.98
Price in other shops:
Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifestoby Mark R. Levin
Threshold Editions; Published: 2009-03-24; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.01
Price in other shops:
What's Race Got to Do with It?: Why It's Time to Stop the Stupidest Argument in Americaby Larry Elder
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2009-03-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.67
Price in other shops:
The Ten Things You Can't Say In America, Revised Editionby Larry Elder
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2001-09-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops: