Book review of William Julius Wilson, More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (Issues of Our Time). W. W. Norton and Co., 2009. $24.95 hardcover, $15.95 papercover

Rosenthal, Marguerite G.

English

ScholarWorks at WMU

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare Volume 37 Issue 3 September Article 12 2010 Review of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. William Julius Wilson. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal. Marguerite G. Rosenthal Salem State College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw  Part of the Social Work Commons Recommended Citation Rosenthal, Marguerite G. (2010) "Review of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City. William Julius Wilson. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 37 : Iss. 3 , Article 12. Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol37/iss3/12 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Social Work at ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact maira.bundza@wmich.edu. million members, would give clout to drive for the GCCWA. Itis true that unionists have sometimes opposed government jobprograms because they pay too little or they seem to replaceunion jobs. But things seem to be improving on that front, andthe issue needs to be discussed, as does the actual union pres-ence in New Orleans, including whether union apprenticeshipprograms match the training goals of the GCCWA.Frank Stricker, California State University, Dominguez HillsWilliam Julius Wilson, More than Just Race: Being Black and Poorin the Inner City (Issues of Our Time). W. W. Norton and Co.,2009. $24.95 hardcover, $15.95 papercover.The pre-eminent sociologist, William Julius Wilson,has been analyzing and clarifying the causes of impover-ished African Americans' marginalization from mainstreamAmerican society for over two decades. In this latest work,Wilson extends his project by engaging the conflict betweenthe culture of poverty and structural theories of persistent in-equality experienced by those at the bottom of the U.S. socio-economic ladder. And, while he continues to find the primarycauses of harsh inequality to be structural in nature-especiallythe changing economy that leaves unskilled workers behind,but also discriminatory hiring practices, de facto housing seg-regation, the inferior schools that African American childrenattend, the lack of transportation and the like-he now givesmore credence to cultural explanations. This shift, he bluntlystates, "will likely generate controversy" because it is offensiveto those social scientists who cringe from any explanation thatsuggests "blaming the victim."In a compact text (155 pages plus extensive notes), Wilsoncovers a broad range of topics related to the consequencesof living in blighted urban neighborhoods characterizedby joblessness. Wilson has focused on this singularly im-portant issue before, but he here extends his analysis by in-corporating recent research on topics such as subsidies forhousing choice, young black men's exceedingly high rates ofincarceration (more could have been done here), the greatersuccess that black women have in the new service economy, andBook Reviews 187Journal of Sociology & Social Welfarefamily formation and composition. This last subject has beenmuch written about, beginning with the Moynihan Report of1965 that Wilson partially rehabilitates. Indeed, Wilson himselfhas generated a stream of research from his earlier book, TheTruly Disadvantaged, where he documented that black men's in-ability consistently to earn sufficient wages to support a familywas the most salient factor in marriage-less parenthood. Butwhereas young poor black women previously reported an ex-pectation to marry after bearing children, they now expresscaution about and even rejection of marriage because theyview their male partners as unreliable, though they continueto value highly the prospects and realities of motherhood. Thisattitudinal shift is an example of how Wilson integrates struc-tural with cultural analyses of the particular situation of blackfamilies: a worsened employment climate for black males, nowmagnified not only by the disappearance of low-skilled indus-trial jobs from the inner city but especially by technologicalinnovation (expertise for which is denied them by inadequateschools) and globalization, has resulted in cultural responsesthat include irresponsible and even predatory sexual behaviorby young black men and women's disinclination to trust andmarry them.The lack of trusting relationships also arises in the areaof job-seeking. Wilson discusses research that shows that, incomparison to Mexican immigrant workers, black men are dis-trustful of each other and fail to cooperate in sharing informa-tion about jobs, a key way that those with low skills obtainwork. This cultural attitude, engendered in part by blackmen's understanding that they are perceived by employers asunreliable and less capable, combines with structural patternsof employer discrimination to reduce these men's chances ofobtaining work.The topics discussed herein are only a few of the many thatWilson tackles in his comprehensive analysis of recent researchin the areas of persistent poverty. Indeed, anyone wanting tocatch up on recent research in this arena will gain enormouslyfrom reading this cogently and economically written book,and students unfamiliar with the theoretical controversiessurrounding structural or/and cultural explanations of persis-tent poverty will find this work approachable and engaging.188Wilson concludes his book, as he has done previously,by advancing a policy perspective that he frankly states nowdeparts from his previous call for universal rather than tar-geted programs. Although he doesn't clearly spell out specificapproaches, he now states that the problems of impoverishedAfrican Americans are so severe that frank discussions aboutrace and poverty are needed to undo the consequences of racialsubjugation.Marguerite G. Rosenthal, Salem State College (Emerita)Olivia Golden, Reforming Child Welfare. Washington, DC: TheUrban Institute Press, 2009. $29.50 papercover.The field of child protection has had a long and problem-atic history. Despite decades of countless "reforms" at boththe federal and state levels, our public child welfare systemremains beleaguered and dysfunctional, reeling from crisis tocrisis. Within the past 15 years alone, due to child welfare liti-gation resulting in consent decrees or settlement agreements,public child welfare agencies in the majority of states have beenplaced temporarily under court supervision or surveillance.In 2001, Olivia Golden took on the task of heading upthe extremely troubled District of Columbia child protectionagency. In this book, she describes her experiences and accom-plishments in that role. She led the agency out of federal courtreceivership through "major improvements in the number ofadoptions, the timeliness of abuse and neglect investigations,the proportion of children with up-to-date service plans, andthe number of young children in family settings, rather thangroup homes." She and her staff sharply reduced worker case-loads, instituted rigorous new licensing standards for group-care facilities while closing one in the process, and eliminatedchildren's overnight stays in the agency's office building. Theyclosed three emergency shelters, increased the use of kinshipfoster care, and improved the drastically inadequate comput-erized information system.Golden examines two other examples of what she callssuccess stories of child welfare turnarounds, in Alabama andUtah, where the state child welfare agencies had been underBook Reviews 189

Review of \u3cem\u3eMore than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City.\u3c/em\u3e William Julius Wilson. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.

https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3548&amp;context=jssw

Review of \u3cem\u3eMore than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City.\u3c/em\u3e William Julius Wilson. Reviewed by Marguerite G. Rosenthal.

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