ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the foundation, substance, and implications of the recently prominent "self-help" ideology. It discusses the differences and similarities between traditional civil rights organizations and black conservatives regarding the importance of self-help for racial advancement. Second, The chapter also examines the black conservatives' attack on the welfare state and suggest that the language of their attack gives us insight into their real agenda for reestablishing traditional institutions of social authority, for example, the nuclear family, the church, and businesses in the black community. It argues that black conservatives use self-help to shape new normative orientations that help to underwrite and adjust to the massive Reaganite disinvestment, private and public, in black communities. Even though black liberals and conservatives agree to focus on the behavior of the black poor as an important obstacle to resolving poverty, each group assigns a different responsibility to government. Civil rights organizations see an important need for government action.
