Hating Whitey: And Other Progressive Causes

Ideological hatred of whites is now a growth industry, boosted by "civil rights" activists and liberal academics. These once-youthful radicals, now entrenched in positions of power and influence, peddle a warmed-over version of the Marxist creed that supported the communist empire and excuses intolerance to the point of murder. Betraying the legacy of Martin Luther King, this unholy alliance of black civil rights leaders and white radicals threatens to undermine America's moral, political, and economic institutions.

Mr. Horowitz acknowledges that America's unique political culture is the creation of white European males, primarily English and Christian. But these very men and their heirs have led the world in abolishing slavery and establishing the principles of ethnic and racial inclusion. Undeterred, so it seems, by America's Anglo-Saxon roots, people of every race and creed still flock by the millions to these shores, claiming a share of our unparalleled rights and opportunities. Yet, with staggering hypocrisy, a clique of racial warlords and academic malcontents indict our every institution for racial oppression.

No stranger to ideological combat, Mr. Horowitz anticipates the standard charges of racism and sexism inevitably hurled at dissenters from the party line. Undaunted, he boldly grapples with contemporary racism in all its forms.

This collection of screeds by self-styled conservative columnist David Horowitz (The Politics of Bad Faith, 1998; Radical Son, 1997; etc.) lampoons what he views as the destructive orthodoxies blindly embraced by liberal apologists. Nearly all of these pieces first appeared as essays in Salon magazine, which Horowitz characterizes as a left-of-center publication with sufficient editorial independence to include a dissident writer like myself. The self-characterization is telling because these essays, which purport to be social commentary, reveal an author who likes nothing more than bucking the views of the majority. In one piece, Horowitz chronicles his youthful dalliance with the Black Panthers and his subsequent disillusionment as he came to realize that the party leadership consisted not of idealists but of murderous thugs. In more recent years, he has entered a less lethal arena of combat: the halls of left-wing academia, where, as a guest speaker, he fights the conservative battle against the entrenched forces of the radicalized, but comfortably tenured, elite. Despite the intrusiveness of his ego, Horowitz writes engagingly about contentious issues, particularly the politics of race. Specifically, he objects to the way in which blacks are given carte blanche to indulge in reverse racism, a tendency that Horowitz traces in part to affirmative action and the contemporary mania to stake out the role of the victim. In a highly polemical style, Horowitz argues that Americans, particularly black Americans, have lost sight of the color-blind society envisioned by Dr. King. Horowitz is at his best when he uses the more glaringly fallacious arguments advanced by his ideological foes to expose their inherent hypocrisy. He is at his worst when he engages in personal attacks, such as his gratuitous characterization of cultural theorist bell hooks as a relatively young woman of limited intelligence and modest talent. Although occasionally blurred by egotism, invective, and repetition, these essays will both aggravate and amuse. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Once a prominent U.S. leftist, Horowitz garnered an even larger reputation upon the publication of Radical Son, his memoir documenting his transformation from a radical to a conservative. Now, as the editor of the intentionally provocative conservative journal Heterodoxy and a frequent columnist for Salon, Horowitz employs heat-seeking rhetoric that aims to be as inflammatory as possible. Taking on U.S. race relations and claiming that "anti-white racism" has become intrinsic to the black civil rights movement and "common currency of the 'progressive' intelligentsia," he launches an all-out attack that is almost comical in its single-mindedness. He documents Louis Farrakhan's controversial and contested statements attacking white European and American culture and politics; goes after Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison, "whose boundless suspicions of white Americans amount to a demonization as intense as Elijah Muhammad's"; and characterizes Harvard Law School professor Derrick Bell as a "black racist" and a "product of the Communist left." He also explores how American universities have been destroyed by leftist "McCarthyism" and the "political persecution of Newt Gingrich by liberal democrats." But such provocation, presented in essays that seem hurriedly written and which lack footnotes (or any documentation of their more questionable facts), quickly devolves into a boring rant. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Horowitz documented his ideological shift from 1960s revolutionary to end-of-the-century conservative in the compelling Radical Son. This current collection of essays continues his criticism of "leftist" culture and its damaging effects on American society. Its 27 chapters expand his view to what Horowitz sees as anti-white attacks presented by African American activists, the media, and academics at elite institutions, thus undermining democratic values. In turn, he claims allegiance to his radical roots of political, ethnic, and sexual equality and traditional American values. The sections on the Black Pathners (Horowitz cooperated with Huey Newton for a short period of time) echo views appearing in Radical Son. Horowitz closes his work with attacks on President Bill Clinton, not necessarily for his sexual affairs but for possibly compromising national security in allowing the transfer of nuclear and other advanced weapons technology to China on his watch. This is a passionate polemic that will be pleasing to those who agree with the author and deplorable to those who don't. Recommended for public and academic libraries.AStephen L. Hupp, Urbana Univ., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.