WFB begins by positing that "the alliance between American Jews and American

blacks is at least fraying, if not actually ruptured." The ensuing conversation is lively, indeed at times obstreperous, but more enlightening than not. MFB: "Blacks didn't start voting Democratic in Roosevelt's first election; they waited to see what was going to happen that was different from what happened with the Republicans. And as old black people tell me in Tennessee, 'What was different 'bout the Roosevelts was: when they had programs, we could be in 'em.' "... NG: "What kind of interest basis is there for the black-Jewish alliance? The old interest basis has disappeared. It's true in the '40s and '50s Jews and blacks were fighting together for anti-discrimination laws--in colleges, in employment, in housing--but Jews don't have to worry much about discrimination now ... It's not a big thing. For blacks, of course, it's a big thing."