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Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America, by Eugene Robinson
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Instead of one black America, today there are four.
“There was a time when there were agreed-upon 'black leaders,' when there was a clear 'black agenda,' when we could talk confidently about 'the state of black America'—but not anymore.” —from Disintegration
The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a “Black America” with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book, Disintegration, Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist Eugene Robinson argues that over decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered. Instead of one black America, now there are four:
• a Mainstream middle-class majority with a full ownership stake in American society;
• a large, Abandoned minority with less hope of escaping poverty and dysfunction than at any time since Reconstruction’s crushing end;
• a small Transcendent elite with such enormous wealth, power, and influence that even white folks have to genuflect;
• and two newly Emergent groups—individuals of mixed-race heritage and communities of recent black immigrants—that make us wonder what “black” is even supposed to mean.
Robinson shows that the four black Americas are increasingly distinct, separated by demography, geography, and psychology. They have different profiles, different mindsets, different hopes, fears, and dreams. What’s more, these groups have become so distinct that they view each other with mistrust and apprehension. And yet all are reluctant to acknowledge division.
Disintegration offers a new paradigm for understanding race in America, with implications both hopeful and dispiriting. It shines necessary light on debates about affirmative action, racial identity, and the ultimate question of whether the black community will endure.
- Sales Rank: #531594 in Books
- Brand: Robinson, Eugene
- Published on: 2010-10-05
- Released on: 2010-10-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.57" h x 1.04" w x 5.87" l, .89 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 272 pages
From Publishers Weekly
In this clear-eyed and compassionate study, Robinson (Coal to Cream), Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for the Washington Post, marshals persuasive evidence that the African-American population has splintered into four distinct and increasingly disconnected entities: a small elite with enormous influence, a mainstream middle-class majority, a newly emergent group of recent immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean, and an abandoned minority "with less hope of escaping poverty than at any time since Reconstruction's end." Drawing on census records, polling data, sociological studies, and his own experiences growing up in a segregated South Carolina college town during the 1950s, Robinson explores 140 years of black history in America, focusing on how the civil rights movement, desegregation, and affirmative action contributed to the fragmentation. Of particular interest is the discussion of how immigrants from Africa, the "best-educated group coming to live in the United States," are changing what being black means. Robinson notes that despite the enormous strides African-Americans have made in the past 40 years, the problems of poor blacks remain more intractable than ever, though his solution--"a domestic Marshall Plan aimed at black America"--seems implausible in this era of cash-strapped state and local governments.
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Based on his years of reporting and observation of changes in black America, journalist Robinson finds that the black community has evolved to the point where it has disintegrated into distinct sectors: the mainstreamers, or black middle-class majority, who have made tremendous but often understated progress; the abandoned minority with little hope of escaping poverty; transcendental elites of such wealth and power that whites can’t deny; and an emergent group of biracial blacks and recent black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean who are challenging an essentially native black American experience. In the age of Obama, Robinson notes the advancement of the black elites, with wealth and power, into “full ownership stake” in the U.S., distancing them economically from the middle and lower classes. The emergent group identifies with a different notion of the black experience, making them ideologically and politically unreliable. All are in strong contrast to the abandoned, who are at the center of the black disintegration. Readers don’t have to agree with Robinson’s observations to appreciate the undeniable differences within black America and to maybe want further analysis. --Vernon Ford
Review
PRAISE FOR DISINTEGRATION:
"In Disintegration, Eugene Robinson neatly explodes decades' worth of lazy generalizations about race in America. At the same time, he raises new questions about community, invisibility, and the virtues and drawbacks of assimilation. An important book."
—Gwen Ifill
"Gene Robinson's Disintegration is the first popular salvo in the Age of Obama regarding the delicate issues of class division, generation gap, and elite obsession in Black America. This painful conversation must continue--and we have Gene Robinson as a useful guide."
—Cornel West
PRAISE FOR COAL TO CREAM:
"A sorely needed new kind of book about race in America, one that does not simplify the intractable problem but doesn't traffic in easy doom either. . . . It is a breath of fresh air."
—Anthony Walton, The New York Times Book Review
Most helpful customer reviews
126 of 132 people found the following review helpful.
Illustrates a phenomenon that's happening regardless of race
By Mark Sumner
Robinson's book details the way in which Civil Rights lifted the cap on income and opportunities for a few in the black community, but the rest of the community paid a price in a loss of cohesive, whole neighborhoods. Perversely, the result is that while the number of blacks in the middle and upper classes increased sharply, those percentages represent only a small part of the overall population. And as those "stars" left the community, the opportunities for those left behind -- Robinson's "abandoned class" -- may have actually diminished.
This is not a book that pines for the "good old days." Robinson is frank about the grim truth of life in black America before Civil Rights. However, he recognizes that the passage of Civil Rights legislation was a step, not the completion of a journey, and that no matter how bright this goal, there were still dark and unintended consequences.
While Robinson's book is focused on the black community, the effects he notes are happening across racial divides. The increasingly polar communities he describes are applicable to America as a whole as the gap between rich and poor has widened ever more sharply over the last three decades. The resulting stagnation and isolation of the abandoned class and the constant celebration of the accomplished class is something that's affecting all of America, not just black America. These effects are illustrated most fully in the black community, where the limits of Jim Crow laws kept the gap between rich and poor very small for the better part of a century, but the same forces of income and educational inequality don't just threaten to shatter -- they are shattering -- the nation as a whole.
If we don't learn to address the problems Robinson discusses, we may all soon find out what it's like to be part of the abandoned class. Just as black America has illustrated what can happen when rapid social change drives communities apart, let's hope that solutions can be found there that can heal us all.
69 of 77 people found the following review helpful.
Robinson Speaks The Truth of Black America in DISINTEGRATION
By Cyrus Webb
I read Eugene Robinson's DISINTEGRATION mainly out of curiosity, because though I find him to be a brilliant mind---I don't normally agree with his politics. After finishing it I have to say that it is probably one of the most thoughtful books I have read this year.
DISINTEGRATION takes a hard look at how blacks have evolved as a people in the United States, and is not without it critiques of the hardships some have brought on themselves. The book reminds you of what so many have fought for and even given their lives to achieve, while some just seem to squander the civil rights they have at their disposal.
No wonder Robinson's writings are so respected. Whatever your political persuasion, you will find something in the book you will not only agree with but find yourself sharing with others. I know I did. As a Conservative, I try to approach book on the topic of race with an open mind. In this case, I am a better person because I did.
Kudos to Robinson for delivering an honest portrayal of black America that is sure to be a discussion piece for some time to come.
30 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Good, a quick read, but needs more substance
By D. Howard
Normally I'm one who doesn't like too many statistics in a book because I feel over-reliance on that bogs a book down, but I felt this one needed more statistics. Eugene Robinson relied too much on personal anecdotes, and while I love reading those I felt a book of this nature needed more facts. I also felt he recycled some material from his Washington Post column for this book. A chapter near the end which mentions a shooting/murder in Southeast DC over a cheap bracelet was also one of his Post columns.
He puts black people in four categories: Mainstream, Emergent, Transcendent, and Abandoned, but I think to combine two different groups of people (biracial black people and immigrants) in the Emergent group downplays the differing trials and tribulations both groups go through.
The black community is definitely divided by the haves and have nots, and it would be nice for us to all come together, but Robinson doesn't give many answers here. The ones he gives are idealistic.
This book was a start in the right direction, but it was a thin outline that needed more fleshing out.
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