Rating: 
Summary: DIN OF HATRED
Review: Dinesh carries water for the far right, all the way to the well and beyond, to the extent of rationalizing racism in the USA as the result of how Black Folks ACT! Give me a break! This book is an unspeakable monument to pure hate. All good people should know the facts:that Dinesh and ANYONE WHO DEFENDS THIS BOOK are racist, racist, racist, to the core. There is a special place reserved for them, my friends, in the book of judgement. Save your money (Dinesh gets all he needs from his corporate backers) and buy, or at least look at, James Allen's disturbing collection, "Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America", and witness the real legacy of racist hatred in America. Dinesh is the shame of a nation.
Rating: 
Summary: CULTURE MATTERS
Review: This book was a great achievement in exposing the false pretenses of our current racial orthodoxy. Beset by a series of protracted fallacies, our current policies on race are little more than one-way partisan affairs seeking to paint whites as incurable racists who continually place hurdles in the path of blacks. The current analysis of our racial dilemma is ideologically straight-forward: white racism explains the entire difference in wealth, life-expectancy, education attainment, IQ scores, illegitimate births, poverty, access to the internet and virtually every other statistical discrepancy between the races. To buttress this notion a host of blatantly transparent nonsense has ensued. Legislative policy wants to make crime look more politically correct by inventing a new category of offense, hate crimes, in the hopes that they can devote more attention to blacks as victims and whites as offenders. The media spend a great deal of attention on police brutality and the "horrors" of racial profiling, but neglect pointing out its obvious reasonableness considering the black/white ratio in crime is just a great as the male/female ratio. College academics spend a great deal of time resurrecting the slave trade and rehashing the caricature of evil whitey enslaving noble Africans , but neglect mentioning that slavery is still pervasive all across the face of modern Africa. The media, academia and public policy offer a highly selective presentation of the facts of our racial situation since nourishing the sentiment that whites mistreat blacks is imperative to maintaining the current direction of public policy -- affirmative action, quotas, and third-world immigration. D'souza shows that he can stand on his own two feet and with superb acumen demolish each liberal antic in turn. He takes the reader on both an historical and sociological adventure chronicling the origin on racism in Europe, its subsequent development in the United States, the opinions on race by some of Europe's great thinkers and explorers, the rise and fall of scientific racism, and the eventual triumph of Boazian cultural relativism. As the book progresses Dsouza carefully distills his central thesis that cultural relativism is the invisible serpent that is responsible for consuming the black culture. The success of cultural relativism over universal standards of conduct and scientific racism gave a forceful impetus to egalitarianism and the civil-rights movement, but now performs an inhibiting role by preventing any critique of black culture. If it is impossible to judge the merits of one culture by the standards of another, all cultures are immune from criticism, including the gansta rap, illegitimacy and crimes of blacks. However, identifying culture as the culprit will not pass the politically correct hurdle on race. If black culture is responsible for black failure, why punish innocent whites by reverse discrimination? So, leaning a great deal on Thomas Sowell, D'souza argues that blacks are ultimately the only ones able to repair their own culture and that they must take proactive steps for insuring the advancement and progress of their people. Today, civil-rights leaders demand and expect nothing from the black community -- remember, liberals think blacks can not improve their condition since their disadvantage is due to whites -- and increasingly implore for greater government activism, educational spending, affirmative action, diversity consultants in every major industry, and an eventual abolition of academic and standardized testing. All evidence of race differences must be squashed under the moral dictates of egalitarianism. D'souza shows with perspicuous logic and prose that civil-rights leaders have misdiagnosed the problem and are making a fatal error by tying the fortunes of blacks to the prodigality of the state. Without question, the measure of racial progress is calculated in government spending and stringent lawsuits. Traditional notions of fairness and equity are capriciously disregarded so that any white business owner who does not have a "representative" share of minorities is looked on with suspicion and guilt. D'souza's book shatters each of these assumptions and consequently the moral edifice of liberal social policy on race. In doing so he was won the enmity of every racial demagogue and politically correct parrot, but earned the respect of those who still cherish reason and truth above all else.
Rating:
Summary: An Original Work
Review: This book seeks to ask some original questions and treads into some very politically correct waters. First, the author examines the very essence and meaning of racism. What really is racism and where did it originate? D'Souza's answer, after providing some exciting historical data, is that racism developed as an intellectual movement during the enlightenment which sought to group and categorize the races in a reasoned manner. As D'Souza details, some of the greatest thinkers, from Kant, to Jefferson, to Hegel, all accepted the doctrine of racism. Thus Dinesh makes the case that racism as such is not an inherent or unavoidable part of the human condition but is rather a traceable intellectual movement. D'Souza is very solid and interesting on the issue of American slavery. D'Souza makes the case that slaves were brought primarily for their labor and not because whites had intense (racist) dislike for Africans. Yet, when the country began to develop and such remarkable documents as the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were written, it became necessary to explain the apparent contradiction between the professed equality of all men and the practice of institutionalized slavery. The solution was the then prevelant doctrine of racism that was put forward by some of the most gifted minds of the generation. Dinesh makes clear that explaining the contradiction was only important in a country like the United States where freedom and liberty were cherished principles. Slavery in other places: China, India, the middle east, and throughout Africa did not need to be justified morally as those countries had no tradition of or committment to liberty. I must confess that I am skipping many of the more interesting facts in D'Souza's book such as the fact that hundreds of black Americans owned black slaves during the early part of the 1800's. Finally Dinesh plunges into the 20th century. He details the postmodern shift in academia to a position of cultural and moral relativism. Such a development would prove integral later on in justifying the social pathologies of groups by appealing to principles of relativism. Some of Dinesh's most poignant and fascinating commentary focuses on the "civil rights industry" that provides the income of such people as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and others. These "black leaders" have a vested financial interest in maintaining and keeping alive the notion that persistent racism still exists in American society. His commentary on political correctness, black racism, Asian sucess in the face of seeming barriers, are also cogent and interesting. His points about the multitude of issues involved in area of race and culture are far-reaching and insightful. This book is long but enjoyable and easy to read. This is not "a racist, conservative book" but an important piece of scholarship that must be read by all those who take seriously the issue of race in America. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: Substance?
Review: If you are interested in buying this book, please read at least 20 customer comments, negative and positive. If the positive comments strike you as more thought out and less reactive, I urge you to read this extremely interesting book. However, if you find more truth in the idea that Mr. D'Souza and his ilk spend their time writing 600 page essays intent on keeping the black man down, I suggest you close the curtains, turn up the electric blanket, and cry yourself to sleep, listing to latest Andrew Hacker book on tape playing softly in the background.
Rating:
Summary: typical bigot
Review: he has a phd in what hard-core racist ways? his book offers no solutions except roll over and say yes masa.he is a big time sell-out.no class no substance&blind to the fact of life. no wonder why he wrote a book about that dead beat racist president reagan? this man mr.D'souza offers no solutions but more problems.
Rating:
Summary: A completely unbiased opinion
Review: It's interesting how paranoid people are of a simple opinion. This book was simply an unbiased assessment of the racial conflict in the Northern U.S. People who don't like this book are just afraid of the truth, it frightens them, so they take it out on the author, instead they follow zealots like Louis Farrakhan or Jesse Jackson.
Rating:
Summary: Bigotry in Scholarly Language
Review: If you sigh, roll your eyes, and shake your face with a knowing smirk whenever you hear about the impact of racism on African Americans, then this book is for you! Like The Turner Diaries, The Bell Curve, and other like books of enlightenment, The End Of Racism will provide you with plenty of revisionist scholarship to reinforce how intelligent and civilized you are at the expense of others. But you already knew that, didn't you.
Rating:
Summary: Feel Good Racism
Review: Ugh! I feel so slimy after reading this book. If you're looking for a way to justify hatred of the "other", then this is the book for you. For myself, I choose to love all humanity rather than point fingers of blame at them for my problems. Dinesh D'Souza and the entire right wing would do themselves some good if they removed the post from their own eyes before criticizing the mustard seed in someone else's eye.
Rating:
Summary: It's Thought Provoking
Review: Whether you are pro/con, this book is well worth the read because of it's thought provoking nature. This book could be the basis for a new dialogue on race, which is sorely needed since our society apppears to be bogged down in addressing the concerns of both blacks and whites. D'souza supports each of his arguments, never making a declartive statement and letting it stand by itself. The strength of this book is that it is written with scholarly rigor without getting bogged down in scholarly prose. Makes it very accesible to the average reader. The author is speaking here next week, and I'm glad I read this beforehand. I can't say I agree with all of his points, but it is a sorely needed new perspective on the problem of race in this country.
Rating:
Summary: Revisionist History At Its Worst
Review: Readers seeking a book that will provide "intellectual" ammunition to justify prejudices against Black Americans need look no further than, "The End of Racism" - a tome that rationalizes bigoted thought in scholarly language. The author examines "black pathology," without ever examining if white pathology, which brought 300 years of brutal slavery, undercut Reconstruction reforms, and set into place decades of legalized segregation (up until 1964!) ever had an impact on the status of Black Americans. Readers wishing to read a scholarly, unbiased, well-researched account of American race relations should purchase, "Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crow" by Leon Litwack.
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