Black Rednecks and White Liberals

The title essay states Sowell's thesis about the origins of the "black ghetto" culture.

Sowell argues that the black ghetto culture originates in the dysfunctional white southern redneck culture which was prominent in the antebellum South. This culture came, in turn, from the "Cracker culture" of "North Britons", that is, border English, highland Scots, Welsh, and Ulstermen who emigrated from the more lawless border regions of Britain in the eighteenth century.[1]

In the collection's second essay, Sowell explores the origins of antisemitism among those harboring jealousy toward Jews for their financial and entrepreneurial successes.

Among other historically persecuted "middlemen minorities" were Lebanese and Chinese immigrant merchants. The resentment is due to a perceived "lack of added value" that these middlemen provide, as it is not easily observable.

In the collection's third essay, Sowell reviews the history of slavery. Contrary to popular impression, which blames Western society and white people as the culprits, Sowell argues that slavery was a universal institution accepted and embraced by nearly all human societies. The world's trade in slaves, then slavery itself, was abolished by the British in the nineteenth century, against opposition in Africa and Asia where it was considered normal. The economic effects of slavery are also misunderstood, since slaves were often a luxury item whose upkeep was a drain on the rich, and nowhere did the availability of cheap slave labour result in wealthy societies.

The fourth essay features Sowell's argument that Germany should not be defined solely by the 12-year period of Adolf Hitler's régime from 1933–45. Sowell further argues that Hitler was highly inconsistent in his views toward a unified Germany – while he strenuously argued for annexation of the German-dominated Sudetenland, German-dominated portions of Italy such as Tyrol were ignored as Hitler preferred his alliance with Benito Mussolini.

The fifth essay features Sowell's discussion of the early days of Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. and its eventual deterioration from its place of prominence in early Black education, which Sowell argues was a direct consequence of the famed Brown v. Board of Education United States Supreme Court decision.

Additionally Sowell argues that, though W. E. B. Du Bois was more activist in his attempts to end Jim Crow laws and other forms of legal discrimination while Booker T. Washington held a more accommodating position, Washington did at times secretly fund and support efforts to end Jim Crow laws.

The final essay features Sowell's criticism of the advantages that multiculturalism is supposed to confer to the society in which it is present.