Resumo de More Black Non-fiction - Christopher Kendalls

Even more books on race politics from two acclaimed black writers today. "Why Black People Shout" from Ralph Wiley and "Authentically Black - Essays for the Black Silent Majority" by John McWhorter.

The short version is this, Wiley is a pretentious, indulgent, New York a*hole who is indifferent towards the South and areas like Washington D.C. who finds joy in noticing how "clean" and "bourgeois" blacks are in the city. His essay on the south, written in dialect, is offensive and unprofessional. He also seems to find joy in outsiders moving to New York and being taken advantage of, like 2 by 4s landing on their head while walking down a city street, or hesitating and giving someone an opportunity to pick your pocket.

On the other hand, he does bring up many ugly and valid truths about the African American experience, even if it is out of his twisted, deluded experience. He starts off with some rather venomous assassination against Alice Walker for her portrayal of black men in The Color Purple, going to lengths to explain how she hustled the committee to win the Nobel Prize in the first place. That is nothing in comparison to McWhorter's assassination on one of his peers, which takes up the better part of what must have been 20 or 30 pages on the subject. McWhorter does bring up rather interesting points, noting that the individual, at over 60 years of age, might be biased in his efforts not to see the changing political and socio-economic landscape. No blacks are not all poor; in fact, it is the exception rather than the rule. No blacks do mix races, and not all blacks that do are inauthentic, in fact, many "true" and "real" blacks marry outside of the race. No, the idea of owning up to and admitting racial progress is not selling out, in fact, it is progress. No, using the word n*, is not crippling, it isn't that big of an idea that whites use it, even if to describe each other, as long as the usage of the word is not denigrating.

Despite McWhorter's attempts to suggest the possibilities of a world in which blacks do not feel and express subconscious beliefs that whites will take back, and erase all progress that has been made since the civil rights era, it isn't an idea that will sit well with most blacks. Blacks can push forward without holding onto the emotional scars of their past, or can they? You can psycho-analyze the issue all you want, but at the end of the day it is an individual choice, whether or not African Americans are willing to face the world with a new optimism or the same pessimisms that has clouded our vision over most of the twentieth century.

As aggressive and poetic as Wiley's writing is, which, despite its offensiveness and bourgeois (intellectually, not monetarily) overtones, it is not slick enough for the average reader. At the end of the day, the academically uninitiated will skip over Wiley's book because it is simply LOUD, in every aspect of the term. His intelligence is contradicted and undermined by his writing style. If he were as serious about getting his point across as he claims he is, he would find a way that is more accessible and less sensationalistic. Sometimes a nonprofessional wants something academic, because they can respect the research that went into the text. Wiley's prose is obviously more personally motivated, and based off his limited experiences. Limited not because they lack depth, but because they are HIS experiences, not those of all African-Americans.

If I were to rate both books, I would give them both a five, because they are both rather thought provoking. However, if you are looking for a text that does reference some data or information that can be of use to you, stick with "Authentically Black". If you are looking for someone with similar opinions to yours, that finds little or no reason to support his claims with any hard data, stick with "Why Black People Shout". It is not that Wiley is anti-academic, or scholarly, that is anythithe case, but he is a serious observer of human behavior, and his theories are often so emotionally advanced he simply assumes that you are with him, rather than attempt to bring you into his fold.

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