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America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans

America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans

List Price: $25.95
Your Price: $16.35
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hope for All of Us
Review: About Gates' new book:
When families are torn apart and an culture is destroyed, the damage goes on for generations and generations. I have worked on an Indian reservation, and it took me a year to see the truth--that many of these people are caught in a cycle of poverty, addiction, and despair because the meaning of life, for them, was destroyed in 1860, and their society has never recovered.
Like the air we breathe, we are not even aware of the culture that supports our very lives until it is destroyed.
Likewise, slavery destroyed fatherhood and manhood by definition. If you want to find the roots of poverty and dependance and illegitimacy today in the black ghetto, look no further than the slave ships. Thus all Americans, as individuals, families, and yes--as a government--must intervene to save young black men, who are now overflowing our prisons. This books says it well. Please read it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good read with several points lacking
Review: Despite the title, this book doesn't seem to go very far beyond the color line. Although the venerated author does tackle class, a very important issue, the book doesn't seem to draw the obvious conclusion. Here we see many of the familiar terms like "white money" or "white society" and yet this isn't America in 1950. Today's America is no longer white, in fact society at large is far more Hispanic and Asian then it ever has been. And yet there is still the racist stereotype that anything wealthy is white and that to succeed people must conform to `whiteness'. Such is the lie and such is the sad state of affairs that even the many educated and successful people interviewed in this book seem incapable of getting past.

I was most unhappy not to se Condi Rice interviewed since I think her take on these things would have been most profound. Nevertheless this was a good start, finally admitting that class sometimes trumps race. The problem was that that conclusion didn't seem to draw this factuality out. Poverty is endemic, its not racial, it's a sickness and a culture. The culture of the trailer park mirrors the culture of the ghetto, and although racial lines may be drawn, they have little to do with success. Success is also a culture and it turns out that wealth breeds wealth. Thus the interviewees and this study should have drawn that idea out more, asking people to do what Booker T. asked them to do so long ago, namely, to succeed despite everything. Dr. King asked us to judge people by the `content of their character rather then the color of their skin' but it seems that in some points made here skin color is still paramount. And unless people heed Dr. Kings words, we will still be having `conversations beyond the color line' in 50 more years.

Seth J. Frantzman

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good read with several points lacking
Review: Despite the title, this book doesn't seem to go very far beyond the color line. Although the venerated author does tackle class, a very important issue, the book doesn't seem to draw the obvious conclusion. Here we see many of the familiar terms like "white money" or "white society" and yet this isn't America in 1950. Today's America is no longer white, in fact society at large is far more Hispanic and Asian then it ever has been. And yet there is still the racist stereotype that anything wealthy is white and that to succeed people must conform to 'whiteness'. Such is the lie and such is the sad state of affairs that even the many educated and successful people interviewed in this book seem incapable of getting past.

I was most unhappy not to se Condi Rice interviewed since I think her take on these things would have been most profound. Nevertheless this was a good start, finally admitting that class sometimes trumps race. The problem was that that conclusion didn't seem to draw this factuality out. Poverty is endemic, its not racial, it's a sickness and a culture. The culture of the trailer park mirrors the culture of the ghetto, and although racial lines may be drawn, they have little to do with success. Success is also a culture and it turns out that wealth breeds wealth. Thus the interviewees and this study should have drawn that idea out more, asking people to do what Booker T. asked them to do so long ago, namely, to succeed despite everything. Dr. King asked us to judge people by the 'content of their character rather then the color of their skin' but it seems that in some points made here skin color is still paramount. And unless people heed Dr. Kings words, we will still be having 'conversations beyond the color line' in 50 more years.

Seth J. Frantzman

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Good Portrait of American Life
Review: Dr. Gates' book isn't a strict scholastic piece; instead, this is a collage of sketches of African-American life in the U.S. For this reason, this book is a great read. There is no overarching thesis, no trendy sociological analysis. In this book, Dr. Gates is more concerned with how diverse the day to day experiences are in the African-American community and what can be learned from individuals' personal stories, struggles and thoughts. He removes himself from the limelight and allows those he interviews to have center stage. This book is very human and very real. In an academic culture that likes broad, over-generalized theories, this book is a challenge to bring our thoughts back to the individuals who really struggle with societal problems and what life looks like outside the academic bubble. This book has a pulse and should be read by all those looking for the faces and the humanity behind the academic theories.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Okay, But One Book Can't Cover All the Issues.
Review: I was very delighted to hear that Henry Louis Gates was releasing another book, so as usual I grabbed the first copy at my job. I read this book in two days, and I found it very interesting. I liked the way he divided the community into four sections. The sections that affected me the most were the Ebony Towers and Chicago's South Side. I loved the Ebony Towers section because those are the people that I look up to most in my life and they really inspire me, especially Colin Powell. Chicago's South Side was the saddest thing I have read to this date. It was the magnifying glass into what is wrong with the African-American community today. I have to agree with the previous poster that stated Gates needs to really think about classes being separated as the root of the problem because I disagree also. I have lived in a working class urban area since I was 10. I have never lived next door to a doctor, lawyer, or a corporate executive. That fact has never discouraged me from maintaining high academic standards, or from striving to do my best in all areas of my life. Why? Because I have parents! I have parents that are involved in every aspect of my life. They took time to expose me to things beyond the hood, they nurtured me, and they were hard on me. Because of their determination combined with mines, their daughter will be a college graduate in May 2004. I believe any set of good parents would do that for their child. That is the biggest problem in the community today. Where are all the parents? In the Chicago chapter, I saw nothing but dependency and hopelessness. I can't blame anyone but them, not the black doctor that decided to move to the suburbs. Instead of focusing on why successful African-Americans do not live by less fortunate African-Americans, focus on the ways they do try to give back to the community. I know that many do not, but there are a large number who do. If anyone wants to make it out of the ghetto, they can if they really wanted to. Like my title said, the issues are deeper than this book can ever get. This was a nice effort and I appreciated the honest dialogue. I look forward to seeing the documentary.
P.S. Kudos to John Singleton for giving the NAACP the finger. They are so consumed with Hollywood's artistic endeavours, that they forget about the ordinary citizens that really need them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A pleasure to read, yet thought provoking too
Review: The media often tries to appear balanced and diverse by bringing on somebody to present the "black point of view." As this book of dialogues amply demonstrates, there is no such thing...there are only African Americans with opinions as diverse as the individuals themselves.

Gates wondered "how far have we come since the Civil Rights Movement." To get some sense, he interviewed movers and shakers like Jesse Jackson and Vernon Jordan, but also those the Great Society left behind, like Kalais Chiron Hunt in the Cook County Jail and residents of Chicago's infamous Robert Taylor Homes . Familiar entertainment figures like Bernie Mac, Alicia Keys and Don Cheadle weigh in, with refreshingly candid interviews not commonly found in Hollywood hype. We meet activists on the front lines, like Lenora Fulani who uses theater to teach kids how to succeed in business. And we meet everyday people like Dierdre and Jerald Wolff who joined the new Southern Migration by moving to an affluent, predominantly black community in Atlanta, and Lura and Chris, a biracial couple living in Birmingham..

I'm always impressed with Gate's ability to capture his subject's words without imposing his personality...he shares his own story in the introduction. Each of the 39 stories is told with clarity and fluidity; you read one and can't resist moving right into the next.

A thought provoking book and for many white readers, a glimpse of black America not represented elsewhere.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A pleasure to read, yet thought provoking too
Review: The media often tries to appear balanced and diverse by bringing on somebody to present the "black point of view." As this book of dialogues amply demonstrates, there is no such thing...there are only African Americans with opinions as diverse as the individuals themselves.

Gates wondered "how far have we come since the Civil Rights Movement." To get some sense, he interviewed movers and shakers like Jesse Jackson and Vernon Jordan, but also those the Great Society left behind, like Kalais Chiron Hunt in the Cook County Jail and residents of Chicago's infamous Robert Taylor Homes . Familiar entertainment figures like Bernie Mac, Alicia Keys and Don Cheadle weigh in, with refreshingly candid interviews not commonly found in Hollywood hype. We meet activists on the front lines, like Lenora Fulani who uses theater to teach kids how to succeed in business. And we meet everyday people like Dierdre and Jerald Wolff who joined the new Southern Migration by moving to an affluent, predominantly black community in Atlanta, and Lura and Chris, a biracial couple living in Birmingham..

I'm always impressed with Gate's ability to capture his subject's words without imposing his personality...he shares his own story in the introduction. Each of the 39 stories is told with clarity and fluidity; you read one and can't resist moving right into the next.

A thought provoking book and for many white readers, a glimpse of black America not represented elsewhere.

Curator, AfroAmericanHeritage dot com

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A pleasure to read, yet thought provoking too
Review: The media often tries to appear balanced and diverse by bringing on somebody to present the "black point of view." As this book of dialogues amply demonstrates, there is no such thing...there are only African Americans with opinions as diverse as the individuals themselves.

Gates wondered "how far have we come since the Civil Rights Movement." To get some sense, he interviewed movers and shakers like Jesse Jackson and Vernon Jordan, but also those the Great Society left behind, like Kalais Chiron Hunt in the Cook County Jail and residents of Chicago's infamous Robert Taylor Homes . Familiar entertainment figures like Bernie Mac, Alicia Keys and Don Cheadle weigh in, with refreshingly candid interviews not commonly found in Hollywood hype. We meet activists on the front lines, like Lenora Fulani who uses theater to teach kids how to succeed in business. And we meet everyday people like Dierdre and Jerald Wolff who joined the new Southern Migration by moving to an affluent, predominantly black community in Atlanta, and Lura and Chris, a biracial couple living in Birmingham..

I'm always impressed with Gate's ability to capture his subject's words without imposing his personality...he shares his own story in the introduction. Each of the 39 stories is told with clarity and fluidity; you read one and can't resist moving right into the next.

A thought provoking book and for many white readers, a glimpse of black America not represented elsewhere.


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