The toll the 1960s took on black America

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WINNING THE RACE: BEYOND THE CRISIS IN BLACK AMERICA

By John McWhorter

Gotham, $27.50, 432 pages

REVIEWED BY CLIVE DAVIS

All those experts who mouth conventional wisdoms on the question of race remind me of a long-forgotten boxer, Joe Grim, one of the old pros mentioned in George Plimpton's superb collection, "Shadow Box."

A hundred years ago, Grim's sole claim to fame was that he was impossible to knock out. This didn't mean that he was a good fighter. Far from it. He lost all -- or almost all -- his bouts, and as the venerable ring historian, Nat Fleischer, once put it, "He was slow on his feet and even slower in his thought process."

The point, though, was that despite taking one fearful beating after another, poor Joe somehow managed to avoid being counted out. Heaving himself up from the canvas, his face a bloody mess, the man known as "the human punching bag" would stagger towards the ropes and gesture defiantly to the crowd, "I am Joe Grim, and I fear no man. . . ." Then the pounding would begin all over again.

Why am I mentioning this sad story? Because there are hundreds, if not thousands of Joe Grims scattered across campuses and the commanding heights of journalism, and no matter how hard they are pummelled by the likes of John McWhorter, one of the most thoughtful commentators on race in America, they plod on and on, heads down, eyes closed.

And, unlike Grim, these members of the self-anointed elite still believe they wear the champion's belt. In their own minds, at least, there is not a bruise, not a scratch on their faces.