[aculeus]

Sorry.

It was the amazon link for this book:


All God's Children: The Bosket Family and the American Tradition of Violence
by Fox Butterfield

Now that I am recalling better the theme for this book is that these African-Americans picked up the violence habit by observing violent whites in the Carolinas.

It's been years since I read the reviews but that recollection would fit the Times typical slant. (It is also extremely stupid.)

[Orual]

All God's Children

Just as you said, from one of the reviews:

Butterfield presents a fascinating discussion of American violence. He suggests that contemporary black violence is a tradition inherited from white southern violence, theorizing that white honor, slave reputation, and black respect are codes capable of provoking violence if impugned, or even slightly stepped on. Butterfield considered closely the political, social, judicial, and racial climates influencing violence, particularly their impact on the Boskets, a black U.S. family.