[The Hidden Wound] is one of the finest documents on the racial question that has been published in recent years. It is a sincere, moving and inspirational account of one man's attempt to comprehend the ways in which racism has influenced him. Berry's central thesis is: "If white people have suffered less obviously from racism than black people, they have nevertheless suffered greatly; the cost has been greater perhaps than we can yet know. If the white man has inflicted the would of racism upon black men, the cost has been that he would receive the mirror image of that wound into himself."… (pp. 374-75)

The book is devoted to the author's attempt to discover the depth and nature of his wound and find a way to cure it. The most striking point of the volume is that this is a man who realizes the sickness of racism...