Black and White Styles in Conflict

The author of Corporate Tribalism “goes a long way toward showing a lay audience the value, integrity, and aesthetic sensibility of black culture” (Marjorie Harness Goodwin, American Ethnologist).

“This book has advanced my own understanding of black/white relations on many fronts. It’s Kochman’s most brilliant contribution to the field, one that will illuminate racial misunderstandings that have been lurking below the surface for many decades. It’s more than a contribution to scholarship: it can serve as a practical guide for anyone who wants to cross racial barriers in education, in business, or in social life.” —William Labov, Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

“In Black and White Styles in Conflict, [Kochman] draws attention to a rarely acknowledged problem in inter-ethnic communications: A difference in means (or style) rather than of ends (or goals) impedes many attempts at communications among Americans . . . His thesis is convincing and his demonstrations impress the reader with the range and importance of stylistic conflicts . . . The potential for conflict and misunderstanding which inheres in these stylistic differences has alarming implications. Kochman is at his best when analyzing the differing conceptions of accountability to communication of the two groups, the factor he asserts as being the basis for stylistic conflict.” —Francisca Goldsmith, America