Book Review

CAUGHT IN THE UNDERTOW

Children.'', ROBERT COLES, Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist who teaches at Harvard University, is the author of ''The Moral Life of Children'' and ''The Political Life of

1987

Overview

Soon enough newspapers across the country, radio announcers and television reporters were telling Americans Perry's story - his brief, successful life and his quick, violent death. One of those who learned of the tragedy was [Robert Sam Anson], a freelance magazine writer and the author of ''McGovern: A Biography'' and other books, whose son also attended Exeter and knew the Harlem youth. Mr. Anson's son spoke for many when he doubted the policeman's assertion that he had reacted to an attempted mugging and severe beating -that he feared for his life: ''Couldn't be true. Eddie was too smart for that. The cop musta' just killed him.'' ''Kids would always be asking me about my hair. 'How do you keep it up? What happens when it gets wet? Can I touch it?' It never dawned on them that I found these questions offensive. Why would it? If you are a kid born with a silver spoon in your mouth and grew up on a big estate with servants, then no one has ever said no to you in your life. That's the problem with the white wealthy in this country: they don't know any limits. If you are black, you are there for their pleasure. To provide them with 'an experience.' Sometimes I think that's how these scholarships are sold to white parents. By God, their kids are going to be well-rounded. They're going to have Rossignol skis and Lange boots and a black roommate for 'an experience.' '' There was much more said, a good deal of it harsh, unforgiving, heatedly rhetorical. [Edmund Perry] is described at one point as becoming ''schizophrenic,'' as going ''crazy.'' ''That's what they had taught him,'' the film maker asks, ''wasn't it?'' But no one, not Perry's family, not his friends or Exeter teachers, had any reason to believe he had lost his mind; quite the contrary, he was a tough, disciplined person who seemed more solidly grounded than many other students - white, from well-to-do and prominent families - some of whom might well have been on their way to schizophrenia, a mental illness that by no means spares white youths of the haute bourgeoisie.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: ANSON, ROBERT SAM / COLES, ROBERT