August 1, 2015
The recent shootings in South Carolina (among so many others). The gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Financial losses incurred during the Great Recession, which sent a disproportionate number of African Americans tumbling down the social ladder. No, we're not in a postracial society, and black Americans still experience discrimination. Chair of the Center for African-American studies at Princeton, Glaude blends historical account, personal experience, and careful observation to move the conversation about race in America to the next stage.
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Starred review from November 15, 2015
It has been more than 70 years since Gunnar Myrdal, in An American Dilemma, probed our racial consciousness by showing the gap between promise and performance. It has been only a few months since Ta-Nehisi Coates struck the American nerve, in Between the World and Me, by pointing out that our racial history is more deeply ingrained in racism than Myrdal suggested. Here Princeton scholar Glaude adds to that debate by equating our racist history to a basic gap in values, the notion that black lives matter less in this country and always have. He proves his point cogently, perhaps with less passion than Coates but with more than enough documentation to move the argument along this new and painful track. His ending is unsatisfactory because the problems he pinpoints are so intractable, soas he demonstratesinextricable from American history, that their solution is necessarily utopian and, so, very unlikely. This is every bit as important a book as Coates' more personal account. Essential reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)
November 15, 2015
Glaude (William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies and chair, Ctr. for African American Studies; Princeton Univ.; In a Shade of Blue) breaks down the structures surrounding racism, beginning with the threats that exist simply for having black skin. Next, fear and politics become the primary focus of what Glaude maintains are the racial and socioeconomic discrepancies in American social history. Where he may lose readers is his discussion of blacks living in two worlds. Duality has been a topic of black intellectual thought since the late 1800s, when living in both the white world and the black world were part of the daily struggle. Now, these worlds seem to be blending as African Americans belong to all economic classes and have the social space to finally identify as individuals. The progress that the civil rights era begat is evident; class is an ongoing issue in the black community as individuality can be expressed as something outside of the collectively perceived image of blackness. In the midst of this progress, Glaude reminds us that progress won't continue if we don't remain united. The onus falls on everyone to defend equality in the same way as generations before us. VERDICT Glaude's well-organized, thoughtful, and succinct manifesto will inspire healthy debate and further inform people's perspective of how race affects African Americans today. [See Prepub Alert, 8/1/15.]--Cicely Douglas, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL
Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.