The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't solve race problems, but how many books do?
Review: A Jewish author relates how a Jewish law firm discriminated against a Black employee, lawyer Lawrence Mungin. The author is uniquely qualified to write this story because he is Jewish, thus can write candidly about other Jews; he is a lawyer, thus can follow the tortuous trail of the discrimination case; and, he went to Harvard, so he doesn't have to be awed by a Name. The book is for people who want to feel sorry for themselves, to feel guilty, or to feel compassionate. No help in solving racial problems, though, so people making a living off race can feel economically secure. The author does give us enough details so that we can analyze and speculate, if we wish.

Mr. Mungin set himself up perfectly to be used as a "vaccine." I explained in a recent book that if a company thinks that certain cultural groups will attack it, it can "vaccinate" itself by bringing in "attenuated" or "sanitized" members of those groups-people who speak the same language, have the same manners, dress pretty much alike-in short, people you feel "comfortable" with. With the company safely "vaccinated," wild strains of these groups find it difficult to gain entry and cause damage. Larry was made to order- he worked his whole life to fit in. If people would stop riding their racial horses and get down to honest thinking, then they might start to consider what the critical mass of a minority should be in a company so that minority members are not merely "vaccines."

Rating:
Summary: If Only Life Were Fair
Review: After graduating from Harvard College, Mungin was determined to gain admission to Harvard Law School and to achieve status and wealth by gaining partnership in a big city law firm. Unfortunately, he never made it. Barrett, his Harvard Law School roommate, tells Mungin's story with remarkable insight and sympathy. In truth, Mungin was a less than distinguished law student, a less than enthusiastic lawyer, and a less than happily adjusted person. Yet given his abilities and credentials, it is hard to believe that Mungin would not have made partner at one of the four firms he tried, had he not been black. That is what an entirely black jury in the District of Columbia concluded in awarding him 2.5 million dollars. And yet the racism at Mungin's last firm was subtle and unintended. Mungin should have further persisted if the brass ring was all that counted. Are we as a society to award compensation to everyone who fails to reach their highest ambition when--as JFK found it so easy to say--"life is not fair?" The court of appeals decided otherwise. To my mind, Barrett has, perhaps unintentionally, very powerfully illustrated why.

Rating:
Summary: If Only Life Were Fair
Review: After graduating from Harvard College, Mungin was determined to gain admission to Harvard Law School and to achieve status and wealth by gaining partnership in a big city law firm. Unfortunately, he never made it. Barrett, his Harvard College roommate, tells Mungin's story with remarkable insight and sympathy. In truth, Mungin was a less than distinguished law student, a less than enthusiastic lawyer, and a less than happily adjusted person. Yet given his abilities and credentials, it is hard to believe that Mungin would not have made partner at one of the four firms he tried, had he not been black. That is what an entirely black jury in the District of Columbia concluded in awarding him 2.5 million dollars. And yet the racism at Mungin's last firm was subtle and unintended. Mungin should have further persisted if money and status were all that counted. Can we as a society compensate everyone who fails to reach their highest ambition when--as JFK found it so easy to say--"life is not fair?" The court of appeals decided otherwise and, to my mind, Barrett unintentionally has very powerfully illustrated why.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, but how compelling is it?
Review: As one interested in the law, I really enjoyed this book. But I also found it hard to empathize with the author. I agree that a lot of discrimination within the workplace still exists in the United States, but much of this book came across to me as "whining" why the other guy (who happens to be white) makes 115,000 a year, while he (the black author) "only" makes 95,000 a year. Discrimination? Perhaps, but he is still better off (regardless of if he'll ever make partner at some firm or not) than the vast majority of Americans, or people across the world for that matter. "The Good Black" is just another chapter in America's continuing struggle with race.

Rating:
Summary: First Hand Confirmation
Review: It's obvious that Larry Mungin was treated wrong at his law firm. The book details every humiliation that was dished out to him but was it old fashioned racism or was it simply rude and rough lawyer culture? The book is very well written but it never delivers the slam dunk. At the end you still have the question: Racism or hubris?

Rating:
Summary: Subtle Discrimination
Review: Many professional liberals believe that they (we) do not have pernicious racial prejudices. After all, if they did, would they not fail to be genuine liberals? The story of Larry Mungin is, I think, a counterexample to this belief. It shows that professionals who think of themselves as liberals, and who are in fact liberals, are not immune to wronfgul racial prejudices. So perhaps the belief should be revised. Perhaps we should concede that we, that is professionals and self-professed liberals, sometimes have bad racial prejudices. May it not be argued, instead, that what make us liberals is the fact that we do not *act on* such prejudices, that we do not let wrongful prejudices affect our conduct?

If I'm right, however, the story of Larry Mungin is a counterexample to *this* belief too. We, professional liberals etc., may not only have pernicious racial prejudices; we may also let them affect our conduct toward people of races different from ours.

"The Good Black" is not a story of explicit race discrimination. The facts are subtle and are propertly presented as such by the author. But at no point does the subtelty of the facts obscure the impression that this is a case in which a person's race detrimentally affected his prospects in society.

Rating:
Summary: Indictment of practice of law in the upper echelons
Review: Mr. Mungin did not succeed. Why? He did not have clients. Why? He did not have a mentor. Success in the legal field is about networking. Not credentials, not work ethic, not scholarship, and definitely not legal ability. In Mr. Mungin's world, the only way to find clients is in country clubs, exclusive associations, and campaign fund-raising events. To do any of these, you need an invitation, and you cannot get an invitation when you are different. The inclusion of a small number of Blacks and other minorities in these networking events is a function of arrogance, swagger, and the competitiveness to kick a person when they are down. Basically, the teachings of White Western 20th Century patriarchy. This portrayal is an indictment of the practice of law. My view of law is to achieve justice. These powerful attorneys have the financial resources and intellectual capital to achieve justice, but why would they in a world of self-preservation where empathy can lead to destruction. That is why I enjoyed this book. It shows the world of these attorneys. It gives future lawyers a choice. Follow Mr. Mungin into a world where you lose your humanity in the fight for partnership or instead listen to your inner voice and blaze a path toward justice.

Rating:
Summary: A disturbing study of a lawyer's struggle with racism
Review: Paul Barrett has done a superb job of describing one man's struggle to work within a system which later betrays him. Barrett knows his subject well, as they were roommates in law school but he reports Larry Mungin's professional experiences so impartially that the reader is forced to draw his own conclusions. Was Larry Mungin the victim of racism in the law firm for which he worked? We see the evidence and while our hearts bleed for him and the way he is treated, we are invited into the workings of a modern day law firm where the number of hours billed is what counts. We suffer with our accomplished black lawyer as he is humiliated and we watch his career and his hopes for a partnership crumble. Barrett tells the story so skillfully that the reader becomes involved in the intrigue and the book is difficult to put down. Modern law firms are not very pretty places and we begin to wonder if Mungin's treatment differs from that of his white colleagues. Are they all treated badly? This is what the firm claims in the discrimination lawsuit which follows. Racism is sometimes as insidious as cancer and while the judges may not be certain that Mungin was its victim, we know that it exists and that it contributed to the despair of this "good black." This book is a must for lawyers and lay people - for everyone. Barrett has written a masterful work and has left his readers anxious for his friend and even more anxious for the good blacks and good minorities everywhere.