In America Apart: The Inconvenient Truth about Multiculturalism and Racism Today, James R. Long exposes the myths that are leading America toward a reckoning from which it may not be able to recover. Long contends that a nation comprised of different races - sans identity politics - could work, but that a nation comprised of different cultures will not. The evidence for his sweeping argument incorporates psychology, history, economics and Long's own personal experiences in what he calls the dungeon of diversity, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
America Apart begins with a frank discussion on the merits/demerits of the two competing models and philosophies seen within American society: the salad bowl and melting pot. Chapters 2 - 5 dissect what Long calls 'the narrative' - that disparities between racial group's outcomes in health care, education, employment and the justice system are solely caused by racism and discrimination. Chapter five, Crime, Race, and the Justice System is broken into two parts. In part one, Long dismantles, claim by claim, Michelle Alexander's award-winning, best-selling book, The New Jim Crow. Part two focuses on interracial crime and in particular how the intelligentsia misrepresents the facts when the perpetrator is white and the victim black.
The origins for this false narrative are given their own chapter (7) in which Long takes the reader back in time to early twentieth century Germany and the Institute for Social Research. Here, he details where much of the modern Left's ideology comes from and how its vision is propagated. Economic Marxism gave way to cultural Marxism. The proletariat got replaced with non-whites, gays and women.
In the final chapter, Long explains what the proponents of the narrative want (massive white guilt) and what the consequences will be if they achieve their goals. Along the way, Long dispels the falsehoods surrounding bi-lingualism, grievance politics and reparations. Using his own legal case as evidence, Long also takes on the results-oriented, judicial activist approach to law and several of its advocates including renowned historian John Hope Franklin.
America Apart ends with an ominous warning: that Americans must shed their hyphenated ethnicities/identities and become Americans only. If not, they risk turning their civil society into an ethno-police state - like the one in which the author himself resides.
About the Author: Long is an intellectual hailing from the most unlikeliest of places. After growing up in and around the most diverse city in America, Houston, Texas, James R. Long was sentenced to life in prison for a robbery/homicide he did not commit. Years of tension and violence followed in the mecca of multiculturalism that is the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Eventually, Long began to wonder if the parties disseminating the conventional wisdom on race and diversity were being objective, or merely pushing an agenda.
As someone who was wrongfully convicted yet remains incarcerated, Long began to realize he had the right to speak to the fairness of the justice system. After years of research and reflection, Long felt compelled to write America Apart: The Inconvenient Truth about Multiculturalism and Racism Today.
Long's own trial for capital murder was tainted by the racism of a black detective. Official court transcripts show that Raymond Phillips, a black friend of Long's, was physically abused and forced to write a statement implicating Long in the crime. During this coercion, the black detective chided Phillips, saying, "It's bad enough you're friends with a white guy, did you have to live with him, too?"
In addition to police misconduct, Long also had to deal with judicial activism during his trial and on appeal. In a vigorous dissenting opinion, Justice Ben Z. Grant said that the majority's opinion was made of "whole-cloth," and that Long's trial judge kept evidence from the jury that would have proven Long's innocence. Therefore Long disputes the claims of historian Jon Hope Franklin and others that judicial restraint helps the 'little guy.'
Issues concerning race are important to Long because he has a bi-racial daughter entering adulthood. Long agrees with the late Samuel Huntington that "a nation is a fragile thing," and fears the America his daughter will live in will be a balkanized police state like the prison in which he resides.
