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July 14, 2005
Emphasis on the "Freak"
Also a mystery to me is why, when Levitt and Dubner quote a bunch of Klansmen in post-World War II Atlanta, the Klansmen sound like this,
"When I came home from work the other night, there was my kid and a bunch of others, some with towels tied around their necks like capes and some with pillowcases over their heads. The ones with capes was chasing the ones with pillowcases all over the lot. When I asked them what they were doing, they said they were playing a new kind of cops and robbers called Superman against the Klan. Gangbusting, they called it! Knew all our secret passwords and everything. I never felt so ridiculous in all my life! Suppose my own kids find my Klan robe some day? ... Our sacred ritual being profaned by a bunch of kids on the radio!" (pages 64-65)
whereas when they quote a bunch of black gang members in Chicago in the 1990s, they sound like this,
"You got all these niggers below you who want your job, you dig? So you know, you try to take care of them, but you know, you also have to show them you the boss. You always have to get yours first, or else you really ain't no leader. If you start taking losses, they see you as weak and shit." (page 103)
and like this,
"Would you stand around here when all this shit is going on? No, right? So if I gonna be asked to put my life on the line, then front me the cash, man. Pay me more 'cause it ain't worth my time to be here when they're warring." (page 107)
The gang members seem to talk so much more, I don't know, colorfully than the Atlanta Klansmen, don't they? Why the difference? (It's not that the authors actually spoke to either the Klansmen or the gang members; they spoke to neither.)
But here's the biggest mystery of all: what on earth possessed them, in the bibliographical notes to their chapter "How Is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real Estate Agents?", to write this:
"Of most particular interest to us was Stetson Kennedy, The Klan Unmasked (Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University Press, 1990). . . . But Stetson Kennedy himself is probably the greatest living repository of Klan lore. . . . The authors visited Kennedy at his home near Jacksonville, Florida, interviewing him and availing ourselves of his extensive collection of Klan paraphernalia and documentation. (We also tried on his Klan robes.) We are most grateful for his cooperation.
They tried on Klan robes?!? And then thought the experience so fun and zany that they had to mention it in their book?
What is wrong with these guys?
Posted by Eric at July 14, 2005 5:12 PM
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Comments
I enjoyed the book immensely, but I did feel it was pretty slight considering the weight of its various subject matter. I finished it in about three hours, and my first thought afterwards was "Is that it?"
I also wondered how they managed to hold off on their discussion of regression analysis until two-thirds of the book was behind them. I realize they're writing for a broad audience, but something so fundamental to economic analysis should have been discussed much sooner, and in slightly greater detail.
Their presentation of data also left a lot to be desired. I kinda wish they had included more visual representations of their data. Of course, asking for some Tufte-like graphics may be a bit much considering the book's mass-market nature.
Good catch on the quotes by the way. I didn't really notice it in my reading.
Posted by: marshall at July 14, 2005 8:29 PM
I have not read Freakonomics, but I also found BLINK to be slight.
Not that there was a whole lot to THE TIPPING POINT. Wasn't the Tipping Point what used to be commonly referred to as "critical mass"?
Geeesh...
Posted by: John A at July 15, 2005 7:12 AM
Hello. Came across this blog critiquing the book I co-wrote with Steve Levitt, "Freakonomics." Am more than happy for you to have your say about it but I thought I would clear up at least on of the "mysteries" that seems to have you troubled: that is, why the Klansmen speak and certain way and why the gang members speak another. In each case, the quotes are from written works: the Klansmen from Stetson Kennedy's book "The Klan Unmasked" and the crack gang members from a series of academic papers written by Sudhir Venkatesh and Steve Levitt. I can't quite tell what you're implying in your critique -- that we're racist? that we're making stuff up? -- but it would seem pretty plain to me that we're committing nothing more heinous than non-fiction writing here, duly cited in the endnotes.
Posted by: stephen dubner at August 29, 2005 6:20 PM
but it would seem pretty plain to me that we're committing nothing more heinous than non-fiction writing here, duly cited in the endnotes.
Er, yeah, that and trying on Klan robes.
Sorry, I'm not so impressed by the fact that you're one of the authors that I'm afraid to express my ambivilence about you're doing that. (Not that my thoughts on the matter matter. Greatly.)
Seems like engaging in the whole exercise would creep me out, personally. On the other hand it seems kind of gonzo. In that light, I guess it's funny in an edgy sort of way. Maybe MTV is ready for a show like Jackass with an economics slant or something?
Posted by: Robert S. at September 23, 2005 1:36 AM
I enjoyed the book, "Freakonomics", quite a bit, and it has actually inspired some research I have been doing lately. The research is, in fact, on the Klan. In response to the man who wrote about how awful it was of them to try on the robes and comment that they enjoyed themselves......lighten up! I'm not saying it's not a bit childish, but it's okay to do ridiculous things once in a while. I don't believe the writers did it out of a longing to be apart of the Klan or out of spite, it was just fun. Had they decided to engage in Klan rituals you could critic them, but not for just trying on the robes.
Posted by: Jessica S. at March 2, 2006 10:49 AM