Faded Dreams
The Politics and Economics of Race in America

Faded Dreams paints a new and challenging picture of why racial inequality changes in America.

Martin Carnoy (Author)

9780521576390, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 June 1996

300 pages, 27 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.44 kg

"Faded Dreams is the most important book on race and the economy in quite a few years....Carnoy's reminder of the power of political intervention sounds a bracing wake-up call in this era of poltical cynicism." Chris Tilly, American Journal of Sociology

Faded Dreams paints a new and challenging picture of why racial inequality changes in America. The author argues that blacks caught up with whites mainly when government policies, under political pressure by blacks and an important segment of the white community, pushed for greater racial equality. Similarly, the greatest obstacles to black gains in other periods have also been government policies. These policies usually assumed away the race problem or used it against blacks for political purposes. Faded Dreams shows that three dominant views of economic differences between blacks and whites - that blacks are individually responsible for not taking advantage of market opportunities, that the world economy has changed in ways that puts blacks at a tremendous disadvantage compared to whites, and that pervasive racism is holding blacks down - do not adequately explain why blacks made such large gains in the past and stopped making them in the 1980s and 1990s.

1. Introduction
2. The ups and downs of African-American fortunes
3. The politics of explaining inequality
4. Are blacks to blame?
5. Is the economy to blame?
6. Has racism and discrimination increased?
7. Politics and black educational opportunity
8. Politics and black job opportunities (I)
9. Politics and black job opportunities (II)
10. Black economic gains and ideology: The White House factor
11. Any hope for greater equality?

Subject Areas: Economics [KC]