The Anatomy of Racial Inequality: With a New Preface (The W. E. B. Du Bois Lectures)

Review “Intellectually rigorous and deeply thoughtful… The Anatomy of Racial Inequality as much as anything, might be considered Loury’s declaration of independence, his fully articulated position as a neoliberal… Loury’s book deals with racial stigma quite directly, but in its political and philosophical aspects as a cause of black disadvantage… The Anatomy of Racial Inequality is an incisive, erudite book by a major thinker.”―Gerald Early, New York Times Book Review“Glenn Loury’s new book, The Anatomy of Racial Inequality, paints in chilling detail the distance between Martin Luther King’s dream and the reality of present-day America… In page after page of statistics gathered over a period of decades, Loury reveals the true nature of subjugation by race in the United States… [A] scrupulous account.”―Anthony Walton, Harper’s“In [The Anatomy of Racial Inequality] Loury makes a striking departure from the self-help themes of his earlier work, defending affirmative action and denouncing ‘colorblindedness’ as a euphemism for indifference to the fate of black Americans. [The book] offers a bracing philosophical defense of his new views. Returning to an argument he first presented in his dissertation, Loury argues that blacks are no longer held back by ‘discrimination in contract’―discrimination in the job market―but rather by ‘discrimination in contact,’ informal and entirely legal patterns of socializing and networking that tend to exclude blacks and thereby perpetuate racial inequality. At the root of this unofficial discrimination, he says is ‘stigma,’ a subtle yet pervasive form of antiblack bias.”―Adam Shatz, New York Times Magazine“Coolly, clearly, and relentlessly, Glenn Loury traces the devastating effects of racial stigmatization on relations between blacks and whites in America. He uses the analytic tools of economics deftly without for a moment falling into pomp or mystification. No one has better stated the case against presuming that liberal states and free markets will of themselves dissolve unjust inequalities.”―Charles Tilly, Professor of Sociology and Political Science, Columbia University“According to Glenn Loury, the problem of racial inequality should no longer be seen as one of racial discrimination. The fundamental problem is one of racial stigma, which contributes to the second-class citizenship of African-Americans. This fact-filled, impossible-to-pigeonhole, impressively interdisciplinary book should inaugurate a new and better discussion of racial equality in America―and with any luck, new and better policies as well.”―Cass Sunstein, Professor of Law, University of Chicago“In these lectures, the distinguished economist Glenn Loury has reoriented the public discussion on black–white inequality. He has drawn on economic and sociological analyses to emphasize the historical roots essential to understanding the social stigma which underlies the more overt forms of discrimination and inhibits the development of black capabilities. His analysis implies a critique of liberal individually-based political philosophy, while at the same time recognizing its virtues.”―Kenneth J. Arrow, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Stanford University“This is social criticism at its best. Glenn Loury provides an original and highly persuasive account of how the American racial hierarchy is sustained and reproduced over time. And he then demands that we begin the deep structural reforms that will be necessary to stop its continued reproduction.”―Michael Walzer, Professor of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton“This strikingly original book will likely emerge as one of the most important analyses in recent times of America’s unyielding problem of ‘race.’ In four tight, intensely argued chapters, Loury compellingly elucidates the often tragic ‘rationality’ of discriminatory behavior that results, less from raw racist antipathy than from the logic of self-confirming stereotypes, as well as the role of social st