The Anatomy of Racial Inequality

Book excerpt: ÒPaints in chilling detail the distance between Martin Luther KingÕs dream and the reality of present-day America.Ó ÑAnthony Walton, HarperÕs ÒIntellectually rigorous and deeply thoughtful...LouryÕs book deals with racial stigma...in its political and philosophical aspects as a cause of black disadvantage...An incisive, erudite book by a major thinker.Ó ÑGerald Early, New York Times Book Review ÒLifts and transforms the discourse on ÔraceÕ and racial justice to an entirely new level.Ó ÑOrlando Patterson ÒHe is a genuine maverick thinker...The Anatomy of Racial Inequality both epitomizes and explains LouryÕs understanding of the depressed conditions of so much of black society today.Ó ÑNew York Times Magazine ÒLoury provides an original and highly persuasive account of how the American racial hierarchy is sustained and reproduced over time. And he then demands that we begin the deep structural reforms that will be necessary to stop its continued reproduction.Ó ÑMichael Walzer Why are Black Americans so persistently confined to the margins of society? And why do they fail across so many metricsÑwages, unemployment, income levels, test scores, incarceration rates, health outcomes? Known for his influential work on the economics of racial inequality and for pioneering the link between racism and social capital, Glenn Loury is not afraid of piercing orthodoxies and coming to controversial conclusions. In this now classic work, he describes how a vicious cycle of tainted social information helped create the racial stereotypes that rationalize and sustain discrimination. Brilliant in its account of how racial classifications are created and perpetuated, and how they resonate through the social, psychological, spiritual, and economic life of the nation, this compelling and passionate book gives us a new way of seeingÑand of seeing beyondÑthe damning categorization of race.