The New Yorker Debunks Dinesh

From time to time, aggravating racial resentment has made successful Republicans squeamish. After the 1988 elections, George Bush tried to squirm out of responsibility for his campaign's tactics with what has become a familiar American refrain:"That's history." But, while Bush has consigned his acts to history, D'Souza consigns them to oblivion, as if the Southern strategy had nothing to to with the story of race and racism in our time. "The End of Racism" sings the praises of Martin Luther King but offers what amounts to an updated version of Barry Goldwater's old civil-rights program, an alibi for national indifference. Its faulty account of American history is potentially destructive, its sociology of American culture is deficient, its neglect of conservative racial posturing is shameless, and its policy prescriptions are ominous. In short, it is a mirror of our racial politics.