BLACK AND RIGHT

An eye-opening collection of thoughtful essays from a broad spectrum of young African-Americans whose economic and sociopolitical positions go against the grain of conventional liberal wisdom. Even more remarkable, there are contributions from precious few of the older guard; the exceptions: Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who weighs in with a rueful 1991 piece published in Policy Review and Shelby Steele (The Content of Our Character, 1990), the subject of a wide-ranging interview he granted two of the editors. In large measure, most of the more than two dozen entries represent original efforts by young academics, attorneys, business people, journalists, and legislative aides, staking out right-of-center stands on a host of issues. Cases in point range from crackdowns on crime through an end to affirmative action, lower taxes, personal initiative, religious observance, self-reliance, smaller government, and welfare reform. Without gainsaying the achievements of civil-rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., these Young Turks do not shy from taking on today's establishment and what they consider to be its insistence on entitlements, victimhood status, and the debilitating effects of institutionalized bigotry. Not too surprisingly, several contributors are at pains to link the conservative canon to the family values and sense of community that sustained African- Americans during their extended time of trial. Nor are at least two correspondents reluctant to challenge progressive positions on abortion and homosexuality. In brief, then, the editors (all affiliated with the David Institute, a California-based social-research group) offer a provocative compilation of fresh new voices that effectively puts paid to any notion that all blacks are in the ideological camps of either Louis Farrakhan or Jesse Jackson.