Paul Robeson Jr Speaks Hardcover - 1993

From the publisher

"Feisty and persuasive essays championing the principle of multiculturalism. Robeson (son of the legendary black actor, singer, and activist) pushes the 'culture war' controversy beyond the narrow confines of university campuses to show how the outcome of this debate could fundamentally affect all levels of U.S. economic and social life."--Kirkus Reviews

"Thoughtful, well-reasoned essays . . . define with unusual precision the issues at stake in the nation's angry cultural wars."--Booklist

"Argues that the melting pot paradigm has excluded blacks. On campus, he says, it should be replaced by the mosaic model."--The New York Times

"A provocative and timely look at current discussions of race, gender, and multiculturalism in American political and cultural life."--Joan W. Scott, Institute for Advanced Study

"I have seldom read a book that is filled with as much prophetic good sense as this one. [It] has more than enough honesty, verve, and brilliance to become a primer for all who have seen the future and believe that it can only work if we commit here and now to the best values of multiculturalism."--David Levering Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor, Rutgers University, author of W. E. B. Dubois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919

"At a time when anti-Semitism has done such unspeakable damage to the historic ties of Blacks and Jews in America, the reasoned and moral tone of Paul Robeson, Jr. on this subject is a welcome and much-needed balm."--Henry Siegman, Executive Director, American Jewish Congress

According to Paul Robeson, Jr., the controversy about multiculturalism is in fact a profound ideological struggle over the values of our national culture. More than a question of the politics of race and gender, the debate is about whether melting-pot culture, the foundation of American life, should be replaced by a mosaic culture incorporating the values of the diverse groups that make up America's population.

Robeson contends that the melting pot image has not worked for blacks, who are excluded by definition from the blended culture of the ethnic American dream. Basing his argument in part on a rejection of the idea of radical individualism, the author suggests that the absence of a concept of group rights in American history places blacks at a disadvantage.

Robeson attacks mainstream American culture itself in a series of interrelated essays on his father (Paul Robeson), Clarence Thomas, liberals and conservatives, cultural diversity in the workplace, gender and minorities, blacks and Jews, the black middle class, and the university.