Thanks for this recommendation. I bought the book and I’m reading it. Here are a few remarks about what I’ve read so far.

The story about the misdelivered package was eloquently told and made some important points. I think he had a good strategy for dealing with this woman, at least from his point of view. Blaming people all the time for this kind of misunderstanding is more stressful for the blamer than the blamed. But I think he cut her far more slack than I would ever be willing to give myself in a situation like that. Sure, I might have been initially suspicious when I heard that story. But she should’ve have checked to see if the package was there, rather than automatically assuming he was lying. And once she saw that the package was there, she should’ve apologized and given it to him. At the very least, she should have apologized for making him take a second trip. A lot of the wokerati expect too much from privileged people. I think he is expecting too little.

I’m also becoming suspicious of this claim that there is something wrong with black culture. I think it likely that these are problems produced by poverty, and the reason they are present in many black families is that blacks are disproportionally poor. Thomas Sowell says Blacks picked up these cultural problems from poor whites. I think both groups suffer from these problems because of poverty.

The only cultural difference I have found so far can be seen in the false dichotomy Mr. Coleman sets up between abstinence and illegitimacy. Anecdotally, I’ve notice that young white people escape this dilemma by having as much sex as they want while using birth control. I have been told by Black friends that young black men usually don’t use birth control. When I read Coleman and other black writers who decry the illegitimacy rate among blacks, they don’t mention birth control as a solution to the problem. Nor does Coleman seem to recognize that abortion is a far better solution to this problem that having a child you can’t afford to raise.

Thanks again for recommending the book. I’m continuing to read it.