Abstract
The effects of excessive moralism can be severe. Not merely a matter of being too strident, in dividing the universe into villains and heroes—into racists and nonracists—it creates frictions that undermine the resolution of important issues. Those singled out for defamation resent the obloquy to which they are subject, while those showered with unearned praise develop a distorted self-image. Either way, this moral warfare increases the probability of misconstruing essential information. Because of the nature of morality, people fail to perceive the obvious or misinterpret it so badly they are led astray. In the case of race relations, this has resulted in America being trapped in a collective impasse for some decades now.
The poisonous atmosphere surrounding any attempt to debate issues involving race and ethnicity is demonstrated in many ways. In addition to the usual ad hominem attacks and overheated rhetoric, there has also developed a fundamental disregardfor the truth, which has become widespread not only among journalists, but is even beginning to creep into scholarly publications. Not since the days of Senator Joe McCarthy has the drive to discredit so overridden every other consideration. Lies out of whole cloth are not uncommon and straw men dot the landscape. Thomas Sowell, Civil Rights
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Moral Enemies
Can, L.G. (1997)“Color-Blind”Racism.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
McBride, J. (1996)The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother.New York: Riverhead Books.
Tamar Jacoby describes similar sensitivities among black reporters in a newsroom where she worked. Jacoby, T. (1998)Someone Else’s House: America’s Unfinished Struggle for Integration.New York: The Free Press.
D’Souza, D. (1995)The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society.New York: 1 The Free Press.
See Chapter 3 for additional confirmation.
See Majors, R. and Billson, J.M. (1993)The Cool Pose: The Dilemma of Black Manhood in America.New York: Simon & Schuster. Anderson, E. (1999)The Code of the Street: Decency,Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City.New York: W.W. Norton.
Loury, G.C. (1995) “The End of Relativism,”The Weekly StandardSept. 25.
Monk, R.C. (1996)Taking Sides: Race and Ethnicity Second Edition. Guilford, CT: Dushkin.
For examples see: Leo, J. (1994)Two Steps Ahead of the Thought Police.New York: Simon & Schuster; Kors, A.C. and Silverglate, H.A. (1998)The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses.New York: The Free Press.
Ignatiev, N. (1995)How the Irish Became White.New York: Routledge.
Jesse Jackson, among others, has also cited this calumny.
Sowell, T. (1984)Civil Rights: Rhetoric or Reality?New York: William Morrow.
Sowell, T. (1981)Ethnic America.New York: Basic Books.
.Evidence for the existence of this elite can be found in: Benjamin, L. (1991)The Black Elite: Facing the Color Line in the Twilight of the Twentieth Century.Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
Whereas before World War II blacks were habitually held responsible for solving the “race problem,” since the (1950’s, especially in disciples such as sociology, the onus has decidedly switched to whites. See: McKee, J. B. (1993)Sociology and the Race Problem: The Failure of a Perspective.Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
One such work is: DuCille, A. (1996)Skin Trade.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Among the attitudinal changes revealed by survey research are the following. Whereas in 1942 only 32% of whites favored integrated schools by 1995 96% said they did. Similarly in 1944 only 45% of whites advocated giving blacks equal job opportunity, but as early as 1972 97% did. Comparable shifts have also been documented in expressed attitudes toward segregated public facilities, residential housing patterns, and intermarriage. See: Schuman, H., Steeh, C., Bobo, L., and Kysman, M. (1997)Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations. Revised Edition.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
One of the most extensive exposes of the calumnies to which whites are exposed is: Horowitz, D. (1999)Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes.Dallas’ Spence Publishing. Rather revealingly, Horowitz relates that the white publishers of his best selling autobiography were so spooked by the subject that they refused to bring his new work to market. Seee also: Cheney, L.V. (1995)Telling the Truth: Why Our Culture and Our Country Have Stopped Making Sense.New York: Simon & Schuster, and MacDonald, H. (2000)The Burden of Bad Ideas: How Modern Intellectuals Misshape Our Society.Chicago: Ivan R. Dee.
.National Education Association. (1973)Education and Racism.
Before World War II, it was blacks who were more likely to be castigated for their immorality. The virulence of these charges is attested in the words of Howard Odum. He authoritatively observed that: “nurtured with some hatred of whites, taught no morals, with a fanatical religion, itself leading to erratic actions, with little regard for common decency, and bred in filth and adultery, the negro is considered peculiarly liable to crime.” See: Odum, H.W. (1910)Social and Mental Traits of the Negro.New York: Columbia University Press. The same attitude is on display in the textbooks of the era. See: Ellwood, C.A. (1924)Sociology and Modern Social Problems.New York: American Book.
Ebony (1992)Who Gets Welfare?December.
Jeanne Thornton and David Whitman with Dorian FriedmanU.S. News & World Report.Whites’ myths about blacks, Nov. 9, 1992, pp.41, 43–44.
For example in: Finsterbusch, K. (Ed.) (1997/98)Annual Editions Sociology. Guilford, CT: Dushkin.
More recently the Amadou Diallo affair did the same. The publicity generated by Diallo’s unjust death in a fusillade of police bullets was likewise used to impugn the motives of law enforcement agents. See MacDonald, H. op cit.
Cannon, L. (1997)Official Negligence: How Rodney King and the Riots Changed Los Angeles and the LAPD.New York: Times Books.
Sacks, D.O. and Thiel, P.A. (1995)The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism“ and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford.Oakland, CA: The Independent Institute.
Apparently other blacks, including law professors, are under this impression. See: Farber, D.A. and Sherry, S. (1997)Beyond All Reason: The Radical Assault on Truth in American Law.New York: Oxford University Press.
Lefkowitz, M. (1996)Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History.New York: Basic Books.
Numerous examples of this “gotcha” mentality have sprung up on American campuses of late. The best chroniclers of the phenomena are: Kors, A.C. and Silverglate, H.A. (1998)The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses.New York: The Free Press.
Schlesinger, A.M. (1992)The Disuniting of America.New York: W.W. Norton.
Steele, S. (1990)The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America.New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Steele, S. (1998)A Dream Deferred: The Second Betrayal of Black Freedom in America.New York: HarperCollins.
Fein, M. (1997)Hardball Without an Umpire: The Sociology of Morality.Westport, CT: Praeger.
Fukuyama, F. (1999) The Great Disruption.The Atlantic MonthlyMay, p.77.
Ellis, R.J. (1998)The Dark Side of the Left: Illiberal Egalitarianism in America.Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press.
Nietzsche, F. (1989)Beyond Good and Evil.(Translated by Helen Zimmern) New York: Prometheus Books.
Wolfe, A. (1998)One Nation After All. New York: Viking.
Even legal scholars have taken to insisting that legal “truths” are determined by what “stories” one accepts. See: Farber, D.A. and Sherry, S. (1997) op. cit.
Durkheim, E. (1915)The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.New York: The Free Press; Durkheim, E. (1933)The Division of Labor in Society.New York: The Free Press; Durkheim, E. (1961)Moral Education.New York: The Free Press.
Fein, M. (1997)Hardball Without an Umpire: The Sociology of Morality.Westport, CT: Praeger.
See for instance: Gould, S.J. (1989)Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of Life.New York: W.W. Norton Co.: Gould, S.J. (1993.Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History.New York: W.W. Norton.
Steele, S. (1990) op. cit; Steele, S. (1998) op cit.
Cayton, H.R. and Drake, St. C. (1946)Black Metropolis.London: Jonathan Cape.
Fisher, C.S., Hout, M., Sanchez Jankowski, M., Lucas, S.R., Swindler, A.. and Voss, K. (1996)Inequality by Design: Cracking the Bell Curve Myth.Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Herrnstein missed the excitement, having unfortunately died before it got going.
See Becker, H. (Ed.) (1964)The Other Side.New York: Free Press; Becker, H. (1973)The Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance.New York: The Free Press.
Sharpton, of course, has employed the same tactics many times, including in the Amadou Dial) affair.
Themstrom, S. and Thernstrom, A. (1997)America in Black and White: One Nation Indivisible. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fein, M.L. (2001). Moral Enemies. In: Race and Morality. Clinical Sociology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1281-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1281-3_2
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5476-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1281-3
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive