Ellis Cose believes it's fading as a phenomenon. We talk with him about his new book, "The End of Anger"
BY TERESA COTSIRILOS
When veteran journalist Ellis Cose wrote "The Rage of a Privileged Class" in 1993, his editor was so shocked by his thesis -- that black middle-class professionals were deeply frustrated by enduring discrimination in the workplace and remained unable to achieve the same level of success as their white colleagues -- that he pulled him aside to ask if it was really true. Published just a year after the L.A. riots, that book struck a responsive chord with the black community and was received to wide acclaim. Now, nearly two decades later, Cose is revisiting the black middle class in his new book, "The End of Anger," and finds that much has changed. He describes an emerging generation of optimistic young black professionals, but notes that their attitudes are complicated by white anger, racism and divisions within the black community. We spoke with him last week...[continued]
