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In 1988, when a federal judge ordered the city of Yonkers, New York, to integrate more thoroughly its low-income housing throughout the city, it set off a bitter dispute that would consume the town for the next five years. Among those caught in the controversy was the city's 28-year-old mayor, Nicholas Wasicsko, who had used the issue to his advantage during his campaign and found that he would never be able to escape it, either during or after his administration. Veteran New York Times journalist Lisa Belkin focuses not on the abstract "sides" of the integration debate, but on the people who take those sides. It's that personal perspective that makes her account most worth reading.
| AUTHOR: | Lisa Belkin |
| CATEGORY: | Book |
| MANUFACTURER: | Little Brown & Co (T) |
| ISBN: | 0316088056 |
| TYPE: | City Planning & Urban Development, Minority Studies - Race Relations, Sociology - Urban, Housing (Sociological Aspects), Race And Ethnic Relations, Social Science, 20th century, African Americans, History, New York (State), Politics and government, Poor, Public housing, Race relations, Social conditions, Yonkers, Yonkers (N.Y.), Sociology |
| MEDIA: | Hardcover |
| # OF MEDIA: | 1 |
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Customer Reviews of Show Me a Hero: A Tale of Murder, Suicide, Race, and Redemption
nonfiction that reads like a narrative This is a well written book that encourages thinking about important social issues. The City of Yonkers was forced by the courts to desegregate housing after years of discriminating against minorities. The decision was made to have small groups of cluster homes scattered throughout white neighborhoods. All hell broke loose in the white communities after the court decision. Whites feared a minority presence and a decline in property values and fought viciously against the homes. Poor families hoped for a safer, better place to live and raise their families. A balanced and complex story, well wrought, with an interesting cast of characters from politicians to single mothers desperate to move their families to safer neighborhoods. All the answers about the future of public housing aren't here, but certainly a clearer concept of the issues involved, from personal to political, can be gathered from this fascinating story.
A Non-Fiction Novel About Yonkers
Lisa Belkin does a wonderful job weaving a narrative about Yonkers's desegregation struggle (or at least part of it). In her effort to achieve more than a dry rendition of the crisis, which paralyzed Yonkers for several years she left a few things out. Among them are the following: the Black and Hispanic communities in Yonkers in whose name the case was brought; the Yonkers school system (yes it did start as an education case); the political structure, including former Mayor (and now Republican leader) Angelo Martinelli; the moderate citizen groups, including Canopy and the Fair Housing Council; the court's monitor Joe Pastore, etc. Reading it, one is left with the impression that the collision (or cataclysm) was inevitable. It wasn't. As in Kosovo, political leaders played on people's ethnic fears and racial divisions for narrow political gain.
Yet, the impossiblity of having a true narrative is well documented in Janet Malcolm's recent book, The Crime of Sheila McGough. As in Rashomon, it depends on what you are looking at, and, perhaps, what you are looking for.
Sensational. A true slice of what it was it was really like
I've never written one of these before, but I just read that reader from New England and I had to respond. I think we read two different books. The one I read captured the chaos and heartbreak of the city I have lived in all my life. I was at a lot of the meetings and clashes that fill this book, and reading Belkin I felt like I was there all over again. More important, I learned so much about the behind the scenes wrangling that I didn't know. One dimensional? No way. She peered into people's souls. Did she streamline? Yes. And as a reader, I thank her. The point was the essence of a city in chaos, and she painted that portrait in gritty and riveting detail. It wasn't her job to make sure everyone in town got their name in her book. As for Hollywood, I don't think they'll have the guts to make this movie. There are no pat happy endings here and no easy answers. Just a story that I couldn't put down.