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Title: The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson ISBN: 0-375-42157-2 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 2.83 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Critics help make her case
Comment: As a Black American it's refreshing to read from someone who actually cares about Black America really 'keeping in real' and backing up the sentiments with quotes and references from the likes of F. Douglass,Albert Murry, Carter Woodson & Franklin Frazier. She does a good job of invoking the wisdom of our ancestors, then playing her own riffs. Instead of the stale categoris of Social Science research, she relies on her intellectual ancestors, her life experience and her own common sense to explain life as she sees it.
The critics that scurry out from the usual ideological corners to attack her only proves her point that it's Blacks that want to narrowly define and limit other Blacks.
Implying that having whites enjoy her book proves that what she writes doesn't have merit is nonsense, avoids the premise and misses the fact that she invokes quotes from Black ancestory who weren't Uncle Toms.
The critics that rely heavily on traditional liberal vs conservative labels also misses the point by saying she's a retread. Her propensity for the references seems to imply that she isn't claiming any new information only her take on perspectives that need to continue as part of national dialogue. The emotional knee-jerk simplistic label of neo-con. is a coward's ploy to censor voices within the 'Black community' voices that aren't in the pockets of the liberal community.
Voices like Debra need to be a part of the national dialoque. One implication from her book is that sadly many Blacks find more power in victimization. Her critics make her case.
Rating: 5
Summary: 5 stars for saying...
Comment: ...some of the tough things that we, as black Americans, should have been saying for many many years.
Ms Dickerson deserves full marks for having the courage to skewer many of the sacred cows that we have been praying to for so many years. Further, she doesn't shrink from taking stab at today's almost-useless civil rights leaders.
It is time, and past time for us to be proud of who we are for what we are and what we have done in this country. Not because white people will acknowledge it... some will, some won't. So what?
It is time, and past time for us to stop seeing ourselves only in comparison to how we are treated by white people... or any other people, including other black people.
It is time, and past time for us to stop pretending that we exist outside of American society. This is our country, we are full citizens... let's act like it. We should walk tall, be proud, look others in the eye and smile, or don't... your call, but we ought not wait for the approval of that other person to feel good about ourselves.
Dickerson is right... the mind truly is the last plantation, and all we need do is walk out through the open gate.
Rating: 4
Summary: Seizing Opportunities
Comment: "The End of Blackness" is a book of hope for young blacks. The book is not perfect...there are a number of generalities and easy platitudes that are a detraction. But the great value of the book is in its valid and cogent message of self-fulfillment. It is a call to young minorities to shake off the culture of being a victim and, disregarding the naysayers...both black and white, seize the opportunity to start fulfilling their potential. For further encouragement along the path to self-realization, read "Stanford Professor John McWhorter's 2000 book "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America."
Following is an excerpt from a review of Professor McWhorter's book by Dutch Martin, a black columnist and political activist:
"As a child, the greatest gift my dear-departed mother ever gave me was an appreciation of the value of an education. As one of six children, this appreciation helped me rise from our poor surroundings in inner city Cleveland to become the successful black professional that I am today."
"Heeding this lesson, however, was also the genesis of years of verbal abuse, ostracism and criticism I was forced to endure from other black people from elementary school through graduate school. During these years, I was accused by my black brethren of "acting white" for using correct English, making good grades and having a sincere love of learning for learning's sake."
"I could not understand why this happened until I read John McWhorter's 2000 book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. To quote John 9:25, "Where once I was blind, now I see."
"In Losing the Race, Professor McWhorter outlines in surgical detail three aspects of modern day black American cultural mentality, or "cults," that hold us back as a people. First is the Cult of Victimology. In it, victimhood is not seen as a problem to be overcome but an identity to be nurtured. In the Cult of Separatism, the uniqueness of our history is used as a justification to exempt us from the rules that govern the rest of American society. Lastly, in the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism, an affinity toward education is seen as running counter to an "authentic" black identity. I have witnessed first-hand the manifestation of each cult and the masterful job each does in preventing blacks from realizing their full potential."
The message of these books is one of hope. Ignore the bricks and arrows of peers and black 'leaders.' Don't wait for someone else or the government to fix all the wrongs of the past before you can self-achieve.
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Title: An American Story by Debra Dickerson ISBN: 0385720289 Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 18 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television by Don Hewitt ISBN: 1586480170 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: 27 March, 2001 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Breaking The News : How the Media Undermine American Democracy by James Fallows ISBN: 0679758569 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Surrendering to Yourself: You Are Your Own Soul Mate by Iris Krasnow ISBN: 0786869135 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 02 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The Natural : The Misunderstood Presidency of Bill Clinton by Joe Klein ISBN: 0767914120 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 11 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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