REVIEWSrnTalk of theTownrnby Wayne LuttonrnI Heard It Through thernGrapevine: Rumor inrnAfrican-American Culturernby Patricia A. TurnerrnBerkeley: University of California Press;rn276 pp., $25.00rnMany black Americans are convincedrnthat they are the targetsrnof a vast array of white-authored schemesrndesigned to spike their food with contraceptives;rnforce them to engage in selfdestructivernbehavior, especially drugrnaddiction; and kill them, to use theirrnbodies for medical experiments or out ofrnsimple malice. In her new book / HeardrnIt Through the Grapevine, ProfessorrnPatricia Turner of the University ofrnCalifornia-Davis recounts some of thernrumors circulating among blacks ofrnthese alleged conspiracies on the part ofrnwhite Americans.rnFor example, Kool and Marlbororncigarettes, Coors beer. Tropical Fantasyrn(a soft drink), and Church’s and KentuckyrnFried Chicken are among thernitems widely believed to contain secretrningredients that sterilize black males.rn(The exploding urban black illegitimacyrnrate suggests that this campaign is notrnworking.) Although there is no tasteless,rnododess drug that can selectivelyrnsterilize blacks, so persistent are thesern”urban legends” that the Food and DrugrnAdministration has been called in tornconduct expensive tests of fried chickenrnand soft drinks. The Ku Klux Klanrn(sometimes in cooperation with SouthrnAfrican interests) is believed to be thernmoving force behind the distribution ofrntainted food, as well as the maker of thernpopular athletic wear that urban blacksrnBRIBERS ij’:;^rn’rOLI.rfl.MAtBrK ‘•rn;•. l-80#77-545,^jrn-•* < * «,•rnliterally kill for. Adidas, Converse, Nike,rnand Reebok are among the businessesrnrumored to be owned by the Klan or byrnSouth African companies, or both. Onerncompany, which sold clothes under thernTroop label, eventually went bankruptrnafter its brand name was said to stand forrn”To Rule Over Oppressed People,” andrnthe linings of its jackets and shoes werernsupposed to contain messages likern”Thank you, nigger, for making us rich.”rnProfessor Turner reports that manyrnblacks are convinced that the federalrngovernment is harvesting them for use inrnmedical research. As an instance of thisrnshe cites the string of 28 black childrenrnmurdered in Atlanta between 1979 andrn1981. Though Wayne Williams, a blackrnhomosexual record promoter, was convictedrnfor the crimes, rumor persists thatrnhe was railroaded into prison and thatrnthe real culprit was the Atlanta-basedrnfederal Center for Disease Control,rnwhich supposedly used their bodies forrncancer research or, alternatively, to extractrna fluid found only in black testicles.rnWhile the government has, in effect,rnbeen subsidizing the black birthraternthrough various Great Society welfarernprograms, opinion polls indicate thatrnmore than half of all blacks are convincedrnthat the government is likely involvedrnin a number of genocidal plots directedrnagainst them. Chief among thesernare the proliferation of drugs throughoutrnthe inner cities, and—even more sinisterrn—the introduction of the AIDS virus,rnbelieved to have been hatched in arngovernment laboratory.rnThe author emphasizes that theserntales are given credence by educatedrnblacks, not just ghetto dwellers. ProfessorrnTurner relates that when she providedrnBelievers with empirical evidence tornthe contrary, they accused her of beingrn”taken in” by the White Power Structure.rnAn aspect of this topic that Turnerrndoes not explore is what some of thernconsequences of this rumormongeringrnmay be for whites. If even collegeeducatedrnblacks believe that whites arerncontaminating food and fostering genocidalrnprograms, is it any wonder thatrnblack violence against whites is escalating?rn^ayne Lutton is associate editor ofrnThe Social Contract quarterly.rnNew Right,rnNew Wrongrnby Paul GottfriedrnBeyond the New Right: Markets,rnGovernment, and the CommonrnEnvironmentrnby ]ohn GrayrnNew York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall;rn195 pp., $34.50rnJohn Gray’s latest book, an anthologyrnof essays, confronts unflinchingly thernstate of conservatism in the Anglo-Americanrnworld. Resistant to the happy talkrnabout a conservative renaissance in thern80’s, Gray, a Whiggish Oxford don andrna scholar of classical liberalism, stressesrnthe ineffectiveness of the respectablernright in both the United States and hisrnown land. Though President Reaganrnand Prime Minister Thatcher accomplishedrnfiscal trimming and administrativerncuts, the managerial states in theirrncountries did not change significantly asrna result of their efforts. The administrativernstructure of these governments remainedrnintact, and centralized control ofrnwhat used to be called “civil society”rncontinued to grow, after only minimalrninterruption. The therapeutic and victimologicalrnfeatures of this control, whichrnAmerican paleoconservatives havernrushed to expose, are not unrelated tornthe structural problems sketched byrnCray: they represent merely a (perhapsrnProtestant) variation on a form of sociallyrndestructive management characteristicrnof the modern West. In America werncelebrate this system as “liberal democracy,”rnthough it has little to do with eitherrnfreedom or popular self-government,rnimposed upon us as it is in therninterest of “values” and “sensitivity.”rnThe strongest aspect of Gray’s critiquernof the New Right, by which he meansrnthe Thatcher-Reagan brand of 1980’srnconservatism, also betrays, ironically, thernweakness in his arguments. Gray chargesrnthe Thatcherites and Reaganites withrnhaving resorted to material factors inrntheir attempts to explain human conduct,rnas if monetary and tax reformsrncould improve social relations and pub-rnAUGUST 1994/33rnrnrn