Instruction
• Please go to the Amazon.com website and find information about the book by Mr. Jason Riley titled, "Please stop helping us: How liberals make it harder for Blacks to Succeed." You can get the gist of the contents of the book by reading the description of it, reading some of the reader comments about it. There is a sample of the text of the hardcover edition available on the "Look Inside" feature on the Amazon.com website. In particular read last paragraph on page 3 and the first paragraph on page 4.
• Mr. Jason Riley is a Wall Street Journal columnist and a Manhattan Institute senior fellow. I am not asking about the author's thoughts regarding President Obama.
• Please read posts by your colleagues and give one of the posts your five-star (positive) rating.
• I am asking/inviting you to identify the apparent theme of this book; to relate this theme to statements by Stroh in our textbook; and to attempt to explain if it is possible for well-intentioned liberals to do the well-intentioned things without doing the unintended outcomes that Riley apparently feels hinder the success of Blacks in the United States.
Stroh, the author of our textbook, devotes a lot of attention to homelessness as a difficult social problem. In the spirit of the story about the elephant and several blind people trying to make sense of it, people in different roles may have partial and incomplete perspectives about what "homelessness" means and why it is important. For example, in the context of a big city, business owners, shoppers and people living on the streets are likely to understand what "homelessness" means in different ways. If you want to, privately and informally (and anonymously) interview someone about homelessness from his or her perspective. This assignment is an active learning assignment, not a kind of formal research activity. DO NOT interview someone who is or has been homeless or who is likely to be at high risk of becoming homeless. Do not put yourself or others at some kind of physical or psychological risk. If you have concerns or questions, speak to me first. You are looking for insights to share about the possible causes of homelessness and how the one person perceives homelessness from his or her role and perspective. If you choose not to actually interview someone anonymously, identify the kind of person who could be interviewed and write the questions you would ask of them. Identify the kind of hypothetical person by role and write out what you believe would be their likely answers to your questions. If you are not comfortable with this assignment, tell me so and we will design another assignment together.