Using numerous personal stories from the 1950s to today, from the American South and Midwest to Western Africa, the author displays the compulsive and repetitive nature of racism, its effect on both participant and victim, and how American prejudice and discrimination migrated to Africa with the creation of Liberia.

The author is a marginal man who belongs to all of the groups involved. As an insider, he was privy to confidential racial and cultural viewpoints. As an outsider, his academic training allowed him to apply the principles of sociology and anthropology to what he observed. Although the book is based on academic theory, it is written in an engaging and understandable way that appeals to a mass audience.

Through a variety of anecdotes and vignettes illustrating the persistence of ignorance among people who really know better, the reader will gain insights into the nature of racism and perhaps himself, as well, as he sees his own racial and cultural attitudes displayed.

This account of the social and cultural forces that destroyed Liberia is based on social psychology — how people think and act as a group. In every society and nation, while every individual may not exactly fit the mold, there are cultural similarities that lead to groupthink — an essential element of national character.  less