About the Center for Race and Ethnicity

From its earliest years, the Manhattan Institute has been keenly aware of how racial issues touch on almost every aspect of American life. The Center for Race and Ethnicity was created to infuse the debate on race in America with the Manhattan Institute's profound belief in individual liberty and our commitment to free markets as the best guarantor of freedom and prosperity.

The Center for Race and Ethnicity includes Manhattan Institute Senior Fellows Tamar Jacoby, John McWhorter, Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom.

Important works by CRE scholars:

One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups by Herman Badillo Sentinel, January 2007 "As the nation's first Puerto Rican-born U.S. congressman, the trailblazing Badillo supported bilingual education and other government programs he thought would help the Hispanic community. But Badillo came to see that the real path to prosperity, political unity, and the American mainstream is self-reliance, not big government. Badillo's solution to this problem relies on traditional values: hard work, education, and achievement. His lessons are important not only for Hispanics but for every American." AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America by John H. McWhorter Dutton and Gotham Books, February 2006 McWhorter traces the decline of the black inner city since the Civil Rights movement and rejects the usual assumptions about black history and culture. In Winning the Race, McWhorter offers a compelling new vision for the future of black America. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means to Be American by Tamar Jacoby Basic Books, 2004 Jacoby includes distinguished social scientists, prize-winning journalists and fiction-writers—thinkers like Nathan Glazer, Herbert Gans, John McWhorter, Michael Barone, Pete Hamill and Stanley Crouch in her look at the melting pot in America, and what it means to be an American in the age of globalization. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority by John H. McWhorter Gotham Books, January 2003 Addressing subjects as diverse as affirmative action, blacks on television, and the reparations movement, John McWhorter identifies and assesses black America’s tendency to publicly emphasize a victimhood it privately acknowledges to be a thing of the past. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning by Stephan Thernstrom, Abigail Thernstrom Simon & Schuster, 2003 Two distinguished experts on race in America offer a sober appraisal of the racial gap in education—and show how it can be overcome. No Excuses highlights inner-city schools across the country that are models of superb education and thus beacons of hope. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible by Stephan Thernstrom, Abigail Thernstrom Simon & Schuster, September 1997 A monumental study of race in America over the last fifty years. This book highlights unheralded truths about the socioeconomic, educational, and cultural condition of African-Americans. AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

The Manhattan Institute also helped produce early works by eminent scholars such as Thomas Sowell's Markets and Minorities (Basic Books, 1981) and Walter Williams' The State Against Blacks (McGrawHill, 1982), for which the Institute also produced as a PBS documentary. More recently under our Book Fellowship program, the Manhattan Institute supported the publication of Linda Chavez's Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation (Basic Books, 1991) and Peter Salins' Assimilation, American Style (Basic Books, 1997).

Tamar Jacoby on Immigration Policy Reform

Articles and Select Media

• Immigration Bomb is Dud Arizona Republic, 02-03-08
• Immigration is Not Black and White Dallas Morning News, 01-07-08
• Is Anyone Listening? Los Angeles Times, 01-02-08
• California without a Mexican Los Angeles Times, 08-25-07
• Assimilation Keys New York Post, 07-08-07
• The fearmongers win again New York Daily News, 07-01-07
• Immigration: Status Quo = Hell New York Post, 06-18-07
• Like it or not, it's time to act Arizona Republic, 06-06-07
• A good compromise for democracy Los Angeles Times, 05-29-07
• Immigration bill: A solid compromise Philadelphia Inquirer, 05-23-07
• Immigration's Future Washington Post, 05-23-07 (This piece also appears on RealClearPolitics.com, 05-23-07, and was reprinted in the Dallas Morning News, 05-28-07 and in The Miami Herald, 05-30-07)
• A long-awaited and welcome moment The Orange County Register, 05-20-07 (This article was reprinted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 05-23-07)
• Meeting Our Immigration Needs Real Clear Politics, 05-14-07 (This article originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times, 05-10-07)
• The American Way on Immigration—Or Germany's? Washington Post, 05-11-07
• 'Temporary is temporary' won't work for all immigrants Los Angeles Times, 05-10-07
• Immigration Countdown Wall Street Journal, 04-20-07
• Hold the Emotions: A Rational Approach to Immigration Sh'ma, March 2007
• Immigration Debate, A week-long debate featuring Tamar Jacoby, Los Angeles Times, February 19-23, 2007
• Immigration Reform: What to Expect in 2007, Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees Policy Update, January 2007
• The System Is the Problem Washington Post, 12-15-06 (This article also appeared on RealClearPolitics.com, 12-15-06)
• Betting on a bad horse Fort Worth Star Telegram, 12-04-06
• A Wedge Too Far The Weekly Standard, 11-20-06
• GOP Can't Lose Latinos Los Angeles Times, 11-17-06 (Also appeared in RealClearPolitics.com, 11-17-06)
• Immigration Nation Foreign Affairs, November/December 2006
• Let's Restart the Political Discussion Los Angeles Times, 10-11-06
• Inmigración: entre el pragmatismo y el control Foreign Affairs en Español, October 2006
• Real Immigration Reform Will Vault Over Border Fence New York Daily News, 9-1-06
• Immigration Realism By Tamar Jacoby and Cesar V. Conda, National Review Online, 8-2-06
• Amnesty Is Not a Four-Letter Word Los Angeles Times, 7-30-06

Polls and Reports

• Poll of Undocumented Workers, 3-29-06 PowerPoint
• National Poll on Immigration Reform, 3-26-06
• Immigration Poll: National Survey of Republican Voters, 10-17-05
• An Idea Whose Time Has Finally Come? The Case for Employment Verification, Migration Policy Institute, 12-5-05

John McWhorter on Culture and Black America

• Not Battling Racism New York Sun, 04-24-08
• A Second Chance Act New York Sun, 04-10-08
• Conversion of the Race Conversation New York Sun, 03-27-08
• 'The Wire': War of Truths New York Sun, 03-14-08
• Fighting Words in Education Crowds New York Sun, 02-28-08
• 'Obambi' Is Working It New York Sun, 02-22-08
• Blackness: A Quick and Dirty Primer TheRoot.com, 02-13-08
• Obama's American New York Sun, 02-07-08
• Welcoming Obama To Reality New York Sun, 01-31-08
• Crying Wolf Over Race New York Sun, 01-30-08
• Turn Up The Heat New York Sun, 01-24-08
• Bradley Effect R.I.P. New York Sun, 01-17-08
• Hillary and MLK Wall Street Journal, 01-16-08
• Change May Now Be Happening New York Sun, 01-10-08
• Black-on-Black Thought Crime New York Sun, 01-02-08
• Beware the Witches of Grammar New York Sun, 12-20-07
• Guidelines Leading Nowhere New York Sun, 12-13-07
• Stop the Black KKK New York Sun, 12-06-07
• The Lawnside Syndrome New York Sun, 11-29-07
• The Great Hope New York Sun, 11-28-07
• No More Excuses: Joel and Mike New York Sun, 11-08-07
• Racial Bias As Hurdle, Not Excuse Philadelphia Inquirer, 10-28-07
• Ghetto Pathology New York Sun, 10-25-07
• Walking Away From Hate New York Sun, 10-18-07
• Toward a New Rights Revolution New York Sun, 10-11-07
• Orthodox Campus New York Sun, 10-04-07
• Paradiso New York Sun, 09-26-07
• Exposing Bigotry New York Sun, 09-20-07
• Children in The Lurch New York Sun, 09-06-07
• Casual Killings New York Sun, 08-16-07
• Creole Vs. French New York Sun, 07-26-07
• Hangover From Brown New York Sun, 07-19-07
• One of the Bad Seeds New York Sun, 07-12-07
• A New Alphabet New York Sun, 06-28-07
• Up From Prohibition New York Sun, 06-21-07
• Letting Words Fly New York Sun, 06-07-07
• Poisoned Palate? New York Sun, 05-31-07
• What's the Point of Books? New York Sun, 05-24-07
• Dog Days of August New York Sun, 05-17-07
• What's in a Smile? New York Sun, 05-10-07
• Hating Whitey Worldwide New York Sun, 05-03-07
• Great Society Begets Bad Society New York Sun, 04-26-07
• The 'N' Word Wall Street Journal, 04-26-07
• Suicide Shooters New York Sun, 04-17-07
• Without Americanness National Review, 04-16-07
• A Dangerous Detour New York Daily News, 04-10-07
• Crises Of the Ex-Cons Crises Of the Ex-Cons, 04-12-07 PART III
• They're Finding Jobs New York Sun, 04-05-07 PART II
• The Truth About Ex-Cons New York Sun, 03-29-07 PART I

Abigail Thernstrom and John McWhorter on the Academic Achievement Gap

Articles
Abigail Thernstrom

• Closing the Racial Gap The Ripon Forum, Summer 2004 (Vol. 38. #11)
• Close the Gap by Teaching Social Skills Philadelphia Inquirer, 6-27-04
• One Drop of Blood, review of John D. Skrentny, The Minority Rights Revolution, (London) Times Literary Supplement, April 16, 2004
• Education gap can be closed with fresh ideas Portland Tribune, 3-2-04
• Martin Luther King's unfinished legacy Boston Globe, 1-16-04

Initiatives
John McWhorter

• Race, Culture and Achievement Initiative

Under the leadership and scholarship of John McWhorter, the Manhattan Institute held a conference on Race and Culture in early 2004. The success of this conference, which brought together influential black leaders for panel discussions on authenticity, popular culture, and race, crime and the media, led to the creation of a new Manhattan Institute initiative.

This new initiative, the Race, Culture, and Achievement Initiative, brings together influential leaders in the world of education, public policy, finance, and media to discuss the achievement gap afflicting minority students as well as possible prescriptions for closing the gap. These discussions have featured National Urban League President Hugh Price, KIPP Academy Founder and Superintendent David Levin, President and Chief Executive of the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada, and most recently Harvard Economist, Dr. Roland Fryer, Jr.

Abigail Thernstrom

Articles

• Subtle, Serious, Patriotic National Review Online, 03-20-08
• Beyond Black Politics Wall Street Journal, 03-14-08
• Is race out of the race? By Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Los Angeles Times, 03-02-08
• Separation Anxiety By Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Wall Street Journal, 11-30-07
• The Massacre of Innocence Wall Street Journal, 09-06-07
• Supreme Gibberish Wall Street Journal, 07-02-07
• Racial Politics, As Ever National Review, 03-19-07
• Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act: By Now, a Murky Mess Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 5:41, 2007
• Reviewing (and Reconsidering) the Voting Rights Act Engage, Volume 7, Issue 2, 2006
• The Souls of American Folk National Review Online, 11-06-06
• Take Ten: A decade's worth of analysis National Review Online, 10-11-06
• Divvying Up Wall Street Journal, 6-29-06

Testimony