Race in the mind of America1999

Psychologist Paul Wachtel has won an international reputation for his studies of how people get caught in vicious circles that end up perpetuating the very difficulties from which they wish to escape. Here he applies his path-breaking approach to the larger sphere of race relations. Wachtel's analysis probes beneath the surface of our troubled relations and illuminates how blacks and whites together unwittingly participate in the perpetuation of our divisions.

Whether in discussing schools, jobs, crime, or affirmative action, Wachtel's analysis helps us to overcome the tunnel vision that has shaped blacks' and whites' very different perspectives and to understand how our daily actions and reactions have become self-fulfilling prophecies. In laying bare the deeper structure of our...