Book Description About the Author Wilfred Reilly is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University, a historically Black institution. His research interests include International Relations, contemporary American race relations, and the use of modern quantitative/empirical methods to test “sacred cow” theories. He is the author of Hate Crime Hoax: How the Left is Selling a Fake Race War and The $50,000,000 Question: An Engagingly Empirical Examination of the Relationship between “Privilege” and Pride. Read more Customers Review: Professor Reilly wants to have the conversations we all are afraid to have, and in this book he breaks all the rules of our public discourse. But thanks to the Professor’s gentle and good natured humor, he not only leads us through some serious and complex topics but does it entertainingly as well. His arguments are usually well sourced and clear, without excessive jargon or tendentiousness. He also gives samples of arguments from both extremes and rebuts them clearly and humorously, but without the bitter style of say, an Ann Coulter or Samantha Bee. Much of this material is covered in other places (few things are new under the sun) but rarely with this level of clarity and fun for the reader. Highly recommended.
The presumption of pervasive prejudice has become the basis of discourse. Professor Reilly’s book Taboo guides us, with statistics and a dose of humor, to reasoned analysis of difficult social conflicts. He asks us to set aside the presumptions and passions and examine the basis of our beliefs. There is today an enormous expenditure of time and energy on correcting injustices that do not, in fact, exist. The suppression of inconvenient facts can only lead to faulty solutions. Freedom of speech has come to mean freedom to speak about subjects that I find acceptable.There was a time when the word “argument” did not have a negative meaning. It used to mean reasoned, polite discourse with the objective of resolving differences. Now we just yell at each other. Professor Reilly has challenged us to examine the basis of our differences and have an argument.
This book forces the reader to deal with their own bias and prejudice on social issues; Black Lives matters, IQ and race etc. It’s in there and it’s wonderful; you can’t skip this book and claim to be relevant in these conversations.
Taboo is an excellent work by Dr. Wilfred Reilly addressing the assertions of critical race theory, and it’s opposite cousin the alt right. The book is a synthesis of Taleeb Starks level witticisms with the analysis of a modern-day Thomas Sowell.I highly recommend this work as a valuable contribution in addressing the intellectual short comings of identity politics on the left as well as the right. |
4 reviews