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.

Manhattan Institute Senior Fellows Herman Badillo, Kay S. Hymowitz, John McWhorter, Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom work extensively on issues of race and ethnicity in America. Their work has garnered national attention and continues to serve as a guide for reform. In 2007 the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation named civil rights & education researchers Stephan and Abigail Thernstrom as recipients of the Fordham Prizes for Excellence in Education in recognition of their work on race and education. John McWhorter's book, Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (Gotham Books) was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Non-Fiction. In addition to honors such as these, CRE fellows regularly appear on national TV and radio shows such as Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor, CNN's Situation Room, Talk Radio Network's Laura Ingraham Show, and Salem Radio Network's Denis Prager Show.

Important books by CRE scholars:

NEW! All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can't Save Black America by John H. McWhorter Gotham Books, June 2008 "Joining the ranks of Russell Simmons and others who have called for a deeper investigation of hip-hop's role in black culture, McWhorter's All About the Beat is a spectacular polemic that takes the debate in a seismically new direction." AVAILABLE AT AMAZON | READ MORE

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

Marriage and Caste in America: Seperate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age by Kay S. Hymowitz Ivan R. Dee, November 2006 "Many scholars have explored the resulting breakdown of marriage over the past forty years and the exponential increase of divorce and out of wedlock birth rates. But Hymowitz adds something new: she shows how this marital breakdown is intricately connected to our high rates of poverty and inequality and threatens to turn the nation into "two Americas," one marriage-minded, child-centered, educationally successful, and affluent, the other marriage-indifferent, barely educated, and all too often financially precarious." 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).

Immigration

Select Articles

• Choices to make on immigration policy Jacob Vigdor, Boston Globe, 05-19-08
• The Assimilation Factor Howard Husock, New York Sun, 05-13-08 (This article also appears on RealClearPolitics.com, 5-13-08)
• Immigration Bomb is Dud Tamar Jacoby, Arizona Republic, 02-03-08
• Immigration is Not Black and White Tamar Jacoby, Dallas Morning News, 01-07-08
• Is Anyone Listening? Tamar Jacoby, Los Angeles Times, 01-02-08
• California without a Mexican Tamar Jacoby, Los Angeles Times, 08-25-07
• Immigration Overhaul Herman Badillo, New York Sun, 07-18-07
• Assimilation Keys Tamar Jacoby, New York Post, 07-08-07
• The fearmongers win again Tamar Jacoby, New York Daily News, 07-01-07
• Immigration: Status Quo = Hell Tamar Jacoby, New York Post, 06-18-07
• Like it or not, it's time to act Tamar Jacoby, Arizona Republic, 06-06-07
• A good compromise for democracy, Tamar Jacoby, Los Angeles Times, 05-29-07

Select Media

• Noticias, Howard Husock, Univision, 5-14-08
• Tiempo, Herman Badillo, WABC, 01-14-07 [PART 1] [PART 2] [PART3]
• Visiones, WNBC, 01-14-07
• Pura Politica, Herman Badillo, NY1 Noticias, 01-12-07 [PART 1] [PART 2]
• Glenn Beck Show, Herman Badillo, CNN Headline News, 01-11-07

Reports

• Measuring Immigrant Assimilation in the United States Civic Report 53, May 2008
• "You Say Tomato, I Say Tomato": A Right-Left Conversation About Immigrant Integration and Assimilation Civic Bulletin 50, October 2007
• Results of the Manhattan Institute's Immigration Opinion Research July 2005-April 2007

Books

• The Immigration Solution: A Better Plan Than Today's Heather Mac Donald, Victor Davis Hanson, and Steven Malanga (Ivan R.Dee, November 2007)
• One Nation, One Standard: An Ex-Liberal on How Hispanics Can Succeed Just Like Other Immigrant Groups Herman Badillo (Sentinel, January 2007)
• Reinventing the Melting Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means to Be American Tamar Jacoby (Basic Books, 2004)

Race Relations

Articles

• Race as a Sport John McWhorter, New York Sun, 05-15-08
• Dashiki Posturing Of Wright John McWhorter, New York Sun, 04-30-08
• Talking the Talk John McWhorter, New York Times, 04-27-08
• Not Battling Racism John McWhorter, New York Sun, 04-24-08
• Conversion of the Race Conversation John McWhorter, New York Sun, 03-27-08
• Subtle, Serious, Patriotic Abigail Thernstrom, National Review Online, 03-20-08
• Beyond Black Politics Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Wall Street Journal, 03-14-08
• 'The Wire': War of Truths John McWhorter, New York Sun, 03-14-08
• Is race out of the race? Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Los Angeles Times, 03-02-08
• 'Obambi' Is Working It John McWhorter, New York Sun, 02-22-08
• Blackness: A Quick and Dirty Primer John McWhorter, TheRoot.com, 02-13-08
• Obama's American John McWhorter, New York Sun, 02-07-08
• Welcoming Obama To Reality John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-31-08
• Crying Wolf Over Race> John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-30-08
• Turn Up The Heat John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-24-08
• King of the Projects Kay Hymowitz, Wall Street Journal, 01-18-08
• Bradley Effect R.I.P. John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-17-08
• Hillary and MLK John McWhorter, Wall Street Journal, 01-16-08
• Change May Now Be Happening John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-10-08
• Black-on-Black Thought Crime John McWhorter, New York Sun, 01-02-08

Select Media

• Newshour with Jim Lehrer, John McWhorter, PBS, 4-4-08

Books

• All About the Beat: Why Hip Hop Can't Save Black America (Gotham Books, June 2008)
• Winning the Race: Beyond the Crisis in Black America (Dutton and Gotham Books, February 2006)
• Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority (Gotham Books, January 2003)
• Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom (Hoover Institution Press, January 2002)
• America in Black and White: One Nation, Indivisible Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom (Simon & Schuster, September 1997)

Education Reform

Articles

• Fighting Words in Education Crowds John McWhorter, New York Sun, 02-28-08
• Separation Anxiety Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, Wall Street Journal, 11-30-07
• No More Excuses: Joel and Mike New York Sun, 11-08-07
• Children in The Lurch John McWhorter, New York Sun, 09-06-07
• Supreme Gibberish Abigail Thernstrom, Wall Street Journal, 07-02-07

Books

• No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom (Simon & Schuster, 2003)

Prisoner Re-Entry

Articles

• Prison to Work, Howard Husock, New York Post, 05-20-08
• A Second Chance Act John McWhorter, New York Sun, 04-10-08

Reports

• Moving Men into the Mainstream: Best Practices in Prisoner Reentry Assistance Civic Bulletin 51, March 2008
• Moving Men into the Mainstream: The Next Steps in Urban Reform | Putting Policy to the Test Civic Bulletin 46, October 2006
• Moving Men into the Mainstream: The Next Steps in Urban Reform | From Recidivism to Redemption: Ending the Cycle of Incarceration
  Civic Bulletin 45, October 2006
• Moving Men into the Mainstream: The Next Steps in Urban Reform | Black Men Left Behind: Reflections on Current Research Civic Bulletin 44, October 2006

To learn more about the Manhattan Institute's work on prisoner re-entry, click here.

Culture and Family

Articles

• Father's Day Without Fathers Kay Hymowitz, Chicago Sun-Times, 06-17-07
• Welfare reform worth celebrating Kay Hymowitz, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7-16-06
• How Welfare Reform Worked Kay Hymowitz, Chicago Sun-Times, 4-30-06
• The Marriage gap Kay Hymowitz, Dallas Morning News, 3-12-06

Books

• Marriage and Caste in America: Separate and Unequal Families in a Post-Marital Age Kay Hymowitz, (Ivan R. Dee, November 2006)