Killing What Slavery Could Not: Review[1

• Published in: The New York times 1993
• Main Authors: Hochschild, , Arlie Russell
• Format: Review
• Language: English
• Subjects: BILLINGSLEY, ANDREW; HOCHSCHILD, ARLIE RUSSELL
• ISSN: 0362-4331

What makes "Climbing Jacob's Ladder: The Enduring Legacy of African-American Families" so welcome is the calming way [Andrew Billingsley], the chairman of the family studies department at the University of Maryland and the author of "Black Families in White America," guides us past simple, often heated interpretations of such data. He combines an unflinching look at current troubles in the black family with an appreciation of its abiding strengths. The balance between these two viewpoints is the hidden gift of this book. Since Daniel Patrick Moynihan published "The Negro Family: The Case for National Action" in 1965, much of the academic discourse on the subject has crackled with attack and defense. During the Reagan-Bush years, those who tried to illuminate the relation between economy and culture, the context and interior of family life, generally held opposing views. Either they were "conservatives" who forgot the context -- the economy, racism, class divisions among blacks -- and focused on cultural deficiencies in the poor black community. Or they were "liberals" who focused on the context and ignored culture. "Climbing Jacob's Ladder" bridges the gap between these two positions and moves the debate in the direction of inquiry. Kent Amos, a successful businessman and a Vietnam veteran, "quietly designed an after-school program" for his son and his friends in their home in 1981. Within six years, there were 50 boys helping with chores, homework and dinner. Nearly 10 years later, 36 of them were in or had graduated from college. "Most of the others were employed or in school," Mr. Billingsley writes. "Only a few had been lost to the streets."