Racism, Hypocrisy, and Bad Faith: A Moral Challenge to the America I Love

Hi this is Webby, using my parents account to write review because they purchased it on Amazon so it was easier:Dr. Bailey’s book should make you feel uncomfortable with what you ignore and who your bedfellows may be. If you have read the news in the last 10 years, but like nearly everybody, actually situating what is going on and how it happened does not make too much sense, this book is for you. Getting past the headlines and so called “arguments” that have infected American politics, Bailey works to show you what you are actually talking and believe in. A central lesson from this work is that you probably haven’t connected all the dots between your beliefs, your feelings, and your actions in a harmonious way. A large part for that is due to “bad faith” actors embroiling and inflaming the worst parts of the country to make themselves wealthy and powerful in the present, at the expense of true history and the future stability of America.This isn’t a book that just cheerleads the normal “right thing to do” approach in leftist circles. This book provides the historical account, pragmatic value, and democratic necessity of understanding how race and bad faith relate and copulate in the minds of the afraid, while showing those how their fear is the exploited by the hypocrites and power-lusters. By exploitation, Bailey outlines how the Americans who pay lip service to support certain virtues and policies, actually undermine their beliefs by doing so. In a nihilistic turn, they support things that are detrimental to what they think is right and what makes economic sense. It costs the racist money to be racist, it costs the centrist even more to perpetuate the racist’s lies.The current status of division in America was a long time coming. The inheritance the contemporary world has received is the polite version of historical evils, but in a needed turn, Bailey points out and outlines the positive response to ensure the future becomes better. Not just a different version of the same perpetuation.

Dr. Bailey's discussion of American society covers a multitude of issues we face from environmental failures to the normalized gun violence we experience regularly. He not only articulates the many problems we face but shows how those in power have used the malicious tools of Racism, Hypocrisy, and Bad Faith for their own gain at the expense of our society. What he points out that many other critiques of American society lack are our own role in this mess. He shows us simultaneously how we can be manipulated by media, the government, and money but also ensures we understand that we are not helpless victims and that by being consumed by or ignoring these problems we fail to find solutions. This book in the hands of many Americans could enact real change in our society and help give voice and arguments to those who feel frustrated but struggle to articulate why or feel powerless.

Dr. Bailey answers the call of what is needed from America (citizens and politicians) regarding political morality in an era where identity politics, plutocracy, ethnocentrism, and corporate greed is permeating our political landscape at a rapid pace.

At first glance, Dr. Julius Bailey’s Racism, Hypocrisy, and Bad Faith: A Moral Challenge to the America I Love appears to be aimed towards the academic: those with some sort of philosophic, political, or even more broadly, intellectual background. Anything written by a someone with a PhD and has quoted praise by the intellectual giant that is Cornel West, is scholarly in nature, but the verbiage and prose used by Bailey is accessible, evenly cadenced, and clear, meaning that not only can scholars and intellectuals alike appreciate the argument and evidence within the book, but the average American reader can, too. In fact, this book is aimed at reaching the American reader. That is precisely the audience that Bailey is writing for and is the audience that needs to hear what he has to say.We are in an era of hyper-partisanship. The divide between the left and the right has been enormous and the game of “whataboutism” has led us to turn a blind eye to political corruptness and blatant hypocrisy. Dr. Bailey’s argument begins with informing and/or reminding the reader of the political time we are in. It is through this lens that he explains the ways in which we got to the Trump election. Throughout the rest of the project, Dr. Bailey navigates his argument by explaining major topics of discussion that oftentimes lead to this divide in politics. His explanations, though, are clear and direct, meaning that regardless of party-leaning, one should take the time to read and understand the motivations and underlying history of these issues.Dr. Bailey’s book is a wake-up call to America. Naturally, it would attract those who side on the left, but those in the “silent majority” should pick up a copy and open their eyes to what blind voting based on “party loyalty” or “conservative values” means for their own values, and their role in moving America back in the direction of a multi-racial democracy. Dr. Bailey’s argument calls attention to political hypocrisy but it also calls attention to the hypocrisy within us.