Faded Dreams paints a new and challenging picture of why racial inequality changes in America. The author argues that blacks caught up with whites mainly when government policies, under political pressure by blacks and an important segment of the white community, pushed for greater racial equality. Similarly, the greatest obstacles to black gains in other periods have also been government policies. These policies usually assumed away the race problem or used it against blacks for political purposes. Faded Dreams shows that three dominant views of economic differences between blacks and whites - that blacks are individually responsible for not taking advantage of market opportunities, that the world economy has changed in ways that puts blacks at a tremendous disadvantage compared to whites, and that pervasive racism is holding blacks down - do not adequately explain why blacks made such large gains in the past and stopped making them in the 1980s and 1990s.
- ISBN13 9780521576390
- Publish Date 13 June 1996 (first published 25 November 1994)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Cambridge University Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 300
- Language English