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Rating: 
Summary: maybe incoherent writing is a sign of bad, thoughtless ideas
Review: Hi. The comments of the other 1-star reviewer about the book being nonsense is, in many ways, justified. One article in the book, "The Ethnic Scarring of American Whiteness," by Patricia Williams is one example of a piece that I found several ridiculous generalizations,etc. Check out the book "A Different Mirror" by Takaki. This instead has lots of evidence, is well-written,etc.... Whew, incoherent writing stinks (and doesn't do the world any good...it just makes some confused, angry...Maybe incoherent writing really is a sign of! Get a change with Takaki's book. here's an essay response I did for a class regarding a piece in the book: Is it Me or the Writing?Patricia Williams' piece, "The Ethnic Scarring of American Whiteness," left me feeling confused and whirled about with extreme statements lacking support. Part of this is because the writer made generalizations or statements that lacked evidence. The statement, "...one loses sight of the fact that some 'successfully assimilated' ethnics in the United States have become so only by paying the high cost of burying forever language, customs, and cultures (253)," lacks evidence. The writer's statement would have been more convincing if she gave accounts of people who forever buried their language, customs, and culture. I doubt there are people who forever buried, so to speak, their language, customs, and culture as result of the process of assimilation (and if they felt embarrassed, in the U.S., by their ethnicity/culture and thus decided to toss it aside, then that's their choice...one does not have to forever bury their ethnic identity in order to successfully assimilate...assimilation doesn't necessarily mean "loosing something"). The statement is ridiculously extreme and dramatic without warrant in saying "burying forever."
Another extreme statement lacking support refers to African Americans, "whose submission is seen as a generous and proper 'gift' to others rather than as involving personal cost (258)." Sure, there might be some people who think this, but there are also people who don't think this. Who sees the submission of African Americans as "generous?" In fact, who sees African Americans as submissive? If the writer wants to be convincing and not have me take the statement as ridiculously extreme and unsupported, tell me who these people are, and give me examples of cases. Otherwise, I cannot take the ideas seriously.
The writing also left me feeling confused. In addition to numerous statements based on pure personal opinion and no evidence that made me yearn to read something with logic and evidence (a.k.a. writing of merit), the piece felt like a bunch of loose threads. Where was the conclusion? Are there problems that need to be thought about and fixed? What should I do with the ideas I just was given (well, most of the piece was pure extreme opinion lacking support and generalizations or even fallacies that maybe we can't do anything constructive on what it talked about). The piece was abstract in many ways that maybe a conclusion wouldn't even have been possible.
In conclusion, the piece had some good points that were outnumbered by generalizations lacking evidence. The writer might feel passionate about the issue of ethnicity in America, but the poor writing and poorly thought-out ideas destroyed its potential to amount to something clear and constructive. Maybe (or maybe not) after reading the piece over again I won't still be asking, " So what the hell are you saying?" while reading through most part of the piece (and if so, I'll retract my statements and regret not reading it carefully enough). The only way that effective change (regarding issues of harmful racism, or even about poverty, or about the economy) can take place in a timely manner is if there is clear communication (spoken, written) and well-thought-out, logical ideas and plans.
Rating:
Summary: maybe incoherent writing is a sign of bad, thoughtless ideas
Review: Hi. The comments of the other 1-star reviewer about the book being nonsense is, in many ways, justified. One article in the book, "The Ethnic Scarring of American Whiteness," by Patricia Williams is one example of a piece that I found several ridiculous generalizations,etc. Check out the book "A Different Mirror" by Takaki. This instead has lots of evidence, is well-written,etc.... Whew, incoherent writing stinks (and doesn't do the world any good...it just makes some confused, angry...Maybe incoherent writing really is a sign of! Get a change with Takaki's book. here's an essay response I did for a class regarding a piece in the book: Is it Me or the Writing? Patricia Williams' piece, "The Ethnic Scarring of American Whiteness," left me feeling confused and whirled about with extreme statements lacking support. Part of this is because the writer made generalizations or statements that lacked evidence. The statement, "...one loses sight of the fact that some `successfully assimilated' ethnics in the United States have become so only by paying the high cost of burying forever language, customs, and cultures (253)," lacks evidence. The writer's statement would have been more convincing if she gave accounts of people who forever buried their language, customs, and culture. I doubt there are people who forever buried, so to speak, their language, customs, and culture as result of the process of assimilation (and if they felt embarrassed, in the U.S., by their ethnicity/culture and thus decided to toss it aside, then that's their choice...one does not have to forever bury their ethnic identity in order to successfully assimilate...assimilation doesn't necessarily mean "loosing something"). The statement is ridiculously extreme and dramatic without warrant in saying "burying forever."
Another extreme statement lacking support refers to African Americans, "whose submission is seen as a generous and proper `gift' to others rather than as involving personal cost (258)." Sure, there might be some people who think this, but there are also people who don't think this. Who sees the submission of African Americans as "generous?" In fact, who sees African Americans as submissive? If the writer wants to be convincing and not have me take the statement as ridiculously extreme and unsupported, tell me who these people are, and give me examples of cases. Otherwise, I cannot take the ideas seriously.
The writing also left me feeling confused. In addition to numerous statements based on pure personal opinion and no evidence that made me yearn to read something with logic and evidence (a.k.a. writing of merit), the piece felt like a bunch of loose threads. Where was the conclusion? Are there problems that need to be thought about and fixed? What should I do with the ideas I just was given (well, most of the piece was pure extreme opinion lacking support and generalizations or even fallacies that maybe we can't do anything constructive on what it talked about). The piece was abstract in many ways that maybe a conclusion wouldn't even have been possible.
In conclusion, the piece had some good points that were outnumbered by generalizations lacking evidence. The writer might feel passionate about the issue of ethnicity in America, but the poor writing and poorly thought-out ideas destroyed its potential to amount to something clear and constructive. Maybe (or maybe not) after reading the piece over again I won't still be asking, " So what the hell are you saying?" while reading through most part of the piece (and if so, I'll retract my statements and regret not reading it carefully enough). The only way that effective change (regarding issues of harmful racism, or even about poverty, or about the economy) can take place in a timely manner is if there is clear communication (spoken, written) and well-thought-out, logical ideas and plans.
Rating:
Summary: typical liberal nonsense
Review: The title says it all. According to the essay writers in this book, America practically descriminates worse now than it did before the civil rights movement. Sure, the world is not perfect, but from the the words of these people, you would think that blacks were still being actively and severly descriminated against. Of course, there are no alternative views (besides common sense), so I again call this book what it really is, typical liberal nonsense.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book!
Review: This book was great...Ignore terse comments from others...
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