Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority

Rating:
Summary: Essays Needing To Be Read
Review: "Authentically Black" by John McWhorter is an extension of his book "Losing the Race" and in this text he zero ins on some important issues in American black culture. There have been many fine reviews of the book. Well, then write another review? First, a previous review in June 04 must be corrected, in telling that the author should spend more time in the "hood" presumes to know too much about the author; after all, maybe the author does spend a lot of time in the hood. Secondly, such a statement in no way negates the message and arguments presented in the book. As an example, I do not have to travel to Gettysburg to know some fundamental facts and truths about the battle that took place. In addition, while living among a subset in an overall culture is helpful in understanding the conditions of which one lives and in developing a heart for the people one comes to live with, it does not negate the solutions to the problems.

Although there are some passages in the book I disagree in part with such as his chapter on the "N" word and general broad swipes he makes about certain things, it is worthy of great respect. I think his chapter on Profiling is very good, but I do wish he would have put a little more responsibility on the neighborhoods themselves; he tends to place some of the blame on the war on drugs, but I don't think he provides a cogent argument against eliminating this policy or even the prospect if it should be eliminated. This should have been drawn out a little further, possibly in two chapters. With this aside, the chapter is otherwise excellent. He writes about "getting past" the race issue and it is here that the chapter succeeds.

His chapter on the "reparations movements" is probably the best essay I have read on the subject. Even though the author David Horowits devoted an entire book on the subject, I think this chapter is more direct and he shows how a re-payment in sorts has already taken place in the 1960s welfare movement instituted by President Johnson.

His chapter on "We Don't Know Our Own History" is simply outstanding. He makes a perceptive and insightful observation that white America has become "blacker" in the years which is evident in such things as music (his examples are from Elvis Presley to Britney Spears). This, he asserts and I concur, is a form of flattery.

Another very strong chapter is on Black Academics, which is largely focus on the Prof. Cornel West incident at Harvard a couple of years back. I remember at the time thinking exactly what McWhorter writes. The author here is dead on in dealing with the subject. His last chapter is too short but very powerful. It involves three people who are examples of black leadership and that the black community should not be looking for pone black leader - but I assert, buy writing about three people, how he doesn't agree with on all items, is that each black person themselves should be leaders. They can all make a difference if the can get past being the puppets of the leftists agenda.

Lastly, McWhorter is unfairly, I think labeled a conservative. Although he is not a leftists, he like many people, holds to some conservative views (against reparations) and some liberal ones (pro-abortion, although to what extent I do not know). With some reservations about a couple of places, I am still giving this book five stars.

Rating:
Summary: Picks Up Where "Losing the Race" Leaves Off
Review: Black leaders in America have an unflinching allegiance to the political left and are part-and-parcel to the Democratic Party. They see no reason to change or reform existing race-based affirmative action or other preferential policies and programs. They are also out of step with the times.

This is the premise of University of California-Berkeley Professor John McWhorter's new book "Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority." Picking up where his bestseller "Losing the Race" leaves off, it is a series of essays that argue (rightly, in my opinion) that the civil rights era is over, and that the new battleground against racism requires individual initiative as opposed to collective action.

McWhorter critically dissects the icons and issues of the black establishment from Randall Robinson's reparations book "The Debt" to Jesse Jackson's lucrative shakedown deals for himself and his wealthy black friends (as reported in investigative journalist Kenneth Timmerman's book "Shakedown") to Al Sharpton for perpetuating notions of victimhood.

According to McWhorter, African-Americans in this country still remain "a race apart" nearly 40 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act. He feels that modern blacks internalize a tacit message: "authentically black" people stress initiative in private, but publicly cloak the race in victimhood to protect black people from an ever-looming white backlash. This done, he says, so as to not let white America "off the hook."

Such is the focus of his opening essay, in which he identifies this "New Double Consciousness" in homage to W.E.B. DuBois' description of a different kind of double consciousness in blacks a century ago.

One of the most important themes of Authentically Black is that the author wants us to stop emphasizing and exaggerating our plight and misery while treating our successes as anecdotal "exceptions" (a constant theme in more liberal black American discourse these days). In other words, let's focus more on the ubiquitously palpable examples of black American achievement today (Powell, despite of people Belafonte feels, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice and education secretary Rod Paige being three shining examples).

Another dead-on McWhorter point is the fact that we cannot continue to stress how strong we are while still going to pieces in public displays of emotional histrionics, as some blacks are apt to do, upon hearing the word "nigger" uttered by a white person (no matter the context).

John McWhorter proves he is not afraid to turn the microscope on black America, forcing us to take a hard look at how current radical groupthink hinders us from being the absolute best that we can be. Asian, Jewish, African and Caribbean immigrants serve as his examples of what a strong work ethic and love for education can accomplish. For this reason, however, black liberal critics like Ishmael Reed resort to such childish tactics as labeling him 'a rent-a-black who only writes and says what conservative whites want to hear" instead of trying to offer thoughtful rebuttals to his arguments.

Critics can't refute him, quite frankly, because they know deep down that McWhorter is telling the truth. Period.

In "Authentically Black," John McWhorter represents the most refreshing and eye-opening contribution to the dialogue on American race relations since Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele. Learned men like these, who dare challenge left-leaning sacred cows of political and social thought in our community are not sellouts. They are heroes. Ours is a better, more enlightened society because of their scholarly contributions.

Rating:
Summary: Picks up where LOSING THE RACE leaves off.
Review: John McWhorter's "Authentically Black" picks up where his best-selling tell-it-like-it-is "Losing the Race" leaves off. He is not afraid to turn the microscope on black America and force us to take a hard look our current ways of thinking and how they hinder us from fully realizing our potential as the powerful people that we are. In fact, the author does so with surgical precison in this book, which is why black "flaming leftist" critics like Ishmael Reed have basically resorted to such childish tactics as calling the man names (e.g. "a rent-a-black who only writes and says what conservative whites want to hear." Give me a break!) instead of trying to offer thoughtful rebuttals to his arguments. They can't refute him, quite frankly, because deep down people like Reed know that McWhorter is telling the truth. Period.

One of the most important themes of this book is that the author wants black Americans to stop emphasizing black plight and misery and all the negative aspects of our history, while treating our successes as anecdotal "exceptions" (a constant theme in more liberal black American discourse these days). In other words, let's ACCENT THE POSITIVES: i.e., focus more on black American achievements of yesterday and today (two notable examples being that the current U.S. secretary of state and national security adviser are both black). As he states poignantly, a people cannot continue to stress how strong it is if it constantly focuses on the negative aspects of its history and current state of affairs. McWhorter blasts such an oxymoronic way of thinking, while reiterating a point he made in "LOSING THE RACE" that black American success stories nowadays are not longer "the exception" - they are THE NORM.

John McWhorter represents the most refreshing and eye-opening contribution to the dialogue on American race relations since Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell. This book along with "Losing the Race" should be required reading in every African-American studies and sociology college curriculum in the country.