Honky

Honky, by Dalton Conley (2000)

Conley writes of his experiences growing up white in an overwhelmingly black and Hispanic housing complex. Much of this memoir reads more like the sociologist he would eventually become than the child who grew up as a minority in a poor neighborhood.

From a young age, Conley relates that he was aware of the many advantages that his race gave him. Indeed, after he attends an area school—in which he is the only white student—his parents game the educational system and enroll their son in a school in Greenwich Village.

The clash of cultures looms larger in Conley’s life as his new friends begin to ask about coming to his apartment. The author relates his embarrassment about his neighborhood and his contempt for his less fortunate neighbors as he gets older and begins to focus on his own academic future.

In spite of the book’s title, Conley only relates one incident in which the title epitaph is used against him. He also only describes one instance during which he worried for his own safety in his old lower East Side neighborhood.

The climax of young Dalton’s story is the shooting and maiming of his black friend, Jerome. Conley’s parents make the decision to leave the old neighborhood for subsidized housing in a better part of town.

Dalton’s memoir doesn’t read like a personal account as much as a sociological elucidation of the events that shaped his young life. In spite of this fact, it is still an interesting, quick read. Recommended.

Beer and Circus

Beer and Circus, by Murray Sperber (2001)

The author makes a sweeping indictment of higher education in this, his fourth book about college athletics. Sperber argues that large public institutions have become too big to provide a quality education to their charges. The author describes an arms race of college athletics that places a huge emphasis on building strong teams and getting schools placed in prominent athletics conferences. Administrators, he says, pin their hopes on national championships in the hopes that this will lead to increased visibility, and enrollment, for the university.

Not only does this approach rob students of a quality education, says Sperber, but it gambles with taxpayer money as these big programs rarely pay for themselves. Another point in the volume is that the party scene that accompanies these sporting events is very damaging to students. There were plenty of stories in the Indiana Daily Student during my time in Bloomington that highlighted the drinking and partying of students. Nationally, the most high-profile cases have been deaths from alcohol poisoning. The author makes a strong, if evident, case that universities should be providing a good education, rather than a great tailgating experience, to their students.

Originally reviewed 2/11/04

Stay tuned this week for my review of John R. Gerdy's Air Ball: American Education's Failed Experiment With Elite Athletics