General Description (from RandomHouse.com)
Half a century after brave Americans took to the streets to raise the bar of opportunity for all races, Juan Williams writes that too many black Americans are in crisis—caught in a twisted hip-hop culture, dropping out of school, ending up in jail, having babies when they are not ready to be parents, and falling to the bottom in twenty-first-century global economic competition.
In Enough, Juan Williams issues a lucid, impassioned clarion call to do the right thing now, before we travel so far off the glorious path set by generations of civil rights heroes that there can be no more reaching back to offer a hand and rescue those being left behind.
Inspired by Bill Cosby’s now famous speech at the NAACP gala celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Brown decision integrating schools, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the “culture of failure” that exists within their community. He raises the banner of proud black traditional values—self-help, strong families, and belief in God—that sustained black people through generations of oppression and flowered in the exhilarating promise of the modern civil rights movement. Williams asks what happened to keeping our eyes on the prize by proving the case for equality with black excellence and achievement.
He takes particular aim at prominent black leaders—from Al Sharpton to Jesse Jackson to Marion Barry. Williams exposes the call for reparations as an act of futility, a detour into self-pity; he condemns the “Stop Snitching” campaign as nothing more than a surrender to criminals; and he decries the glorification of materialism, misogyny, and murder as a corruption of a rich black culture, a tragic turn into pornographic excess that is hurting young black minds, especially among the poor.
Reinforcing his incisive observations with solid research and alarming statistical data, Williams offers a concrete plan for overcoming the obstacles that now stand in the way of African Americans’ full participation in the nation’s freedom and prosperity. Certain to be widely discussed and vehemently debated,Enough is a bold, perceptive, solution-based look at African American life, culture, and politics today.
Why the President Should Read It
Real solutions to real problems. That’s what this book contains. For many politicians, the black community is nothing more than a voting bloc that can be taken for granted as voting almost universally Democrat. Unfortunately this means Democrats have virtually no other incentive other than to make blacks believe that Republicans are the root of all their problems, and that voting Democrat is the way to solve them. There is little to no incentive for Democrats to do anything that will truly improve the situation of blacks in America, because if those problems are solved then why should blacks continue to vote Democrat? Republicans also have almost no incentive to improve the situation of blacks, because no matter what they do they won’t get credit for it, and in fact their attempts to assist will probably be used against them. So-called black leaders have created an industry around “helping” the black community, but like Democrats, truly solving problems might lead to their unemployment. Thus the focus of these leaders is not on real solutions, but on hype that keeps the money and votes flowing where they want them.
If the problems that plague the black community such as crime, single-parent families, lack of education, etc. are to be solved, it is going to be by leaders who read what real black leaders like Juan Williams and Bill Cosby are saying. But any President, black or white, who hasn’t read Enough is likely to start off with the wrong perspective.
Personal Notes
I grew up in Arcadia, CA, historically a mostly white suburb of Los Angeles, although by the time I graduated from high school it had become a destination for wealthy Asians and Caucasians were the minority. I can count on one hand the number of black kids I knew growing up. Enough was not eye-opening in the sense that it showed me what the black community has gone through or is going through, but it was a revelation in that it showed me there is substantial diversity of opinion as to what the solutions should be for the challenges facing racial minorities in America.