It’s a legendary book in Ivy sociological curricula. (Or was?) It’s “centrist” and sympathetic to its subjects, not some kind of 1980s “white woke” takedown. My entire childhood education was being bussed from Flatbush to Canarsie to a special public school program funded by the Astor family, directly after the era this book is about.

Inscription:

“In the early stages of hyperconnectivity, where bias spreads like wildfire while facts are buried even deeper in the mud by that traffic, I will do my best protect the history of the place that made me. NYC has always been a place where people arrive and then try to act like they’ve always been there, and no one was there before. Stories are stomped out and built on top of in repeating cycles. To the best of my knowledge, the stories of 70s, 80s and 90s Brooklyn have not been properly recorded, except perhaps in the rich corpus of hip hop music that made an indelible mark on global culture. It’s my job to share my experience growing up in that legendary place. Because what happened there in those eras presages what is happening in America today. NYC is always and forever, ahead of the curve, and our ancient history is often America’s present. The answer lies buried in Brooklyn. 2018” ▪️

https://www.amazon.com/Canarsie-Italians-Brooklyn-against-Liberalism/dp/0674093615