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When I was in college at Ann Arbor, we referred to Ypsilanti, Michigan as "Ypsitucky" because it was largely populated by White immigrants from the south. I marveled at how those people hated the Black immigrants from the south, and how the Blacks hated them. But if you threw a sheet over them (which the Whites probably did to themselves with some regularity), you would not be able to tell them apart. They talked and behaved in the same way. They had the same touchy pride, contempt for learning, and feckless approach to life. They shared the same dysfunctional culture, in other words. The surpassingly odd thing is that people condemned the Whites who held this culture, while excusing it among the Blacks, to the detriment of the Blacks. And this is what Black Rednecks and White Liberals (the first essay in this collection) is about. Sowell supports his case with sound reasoning from unimpeachable data. If anything is lacking, it is a clear idea of how, practically, to address the problem. But of course acknowledging the problem is the first step, and Sowell's essay will convince any discerning person to do so.