Those who overwhelmingly vote Left have imbibed conservative ideas--often without recognizing them as such. It's well documented that the Right has shaped many white Americans' views about poverty, racism, and the role of government, but since the end of the Civil Rights Movement, those ideas have also seeped into the thinking of Black Americans.
Blacks have been influenced by the culture of the Right, even as systemic inequalities worsened, racial disparities widened and civil rights protections eroded. The conservative notion of individual hard work and personal effort--pulling yourself up by your bootstraps--had once been a survival strategy alongside civil rights activism. But in recent decades, individual ambition and success were all that mattered in a society where nearly all Americans were losing ground.
With keen insight into political history, this accessible commentary traces how bootstrapping became pervasive and helps explain resurgent racial and economic inequality today. Ultimately optimistic, it reveals why the concept has begun to lose sway, first with millennial activists and then with their parents and grandparents.
A deep reflection on justice and equality, BOOTSTRAPPED is a tour de force on the limits of personal responsibility, not just for Black America but for the nation as a whole.
- ISBN13 9781455596645
- Publish Date 1 September 2020
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Center Street
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 232
- Language English