Black and White Books

This book was required reading by a professor. His superior intellect decided this was a good book so I am compelled to agree... even if I didn't read it.

This was required reading for a graduate course in American history.

In his book The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America, author James N. Gregory proceeds thematically, rather than chronologically. His intent is to use a stereoscopic method (stereoscopes set two similar but different images next to each other, thus tricking the eyes and the brain into fusing the images in a way that makes them three dimensional) in order to achieve a third dimension (page 8): not only to examine the great internal movements of black and white peoples from the American South to the American North and West, but also to examine the social, cultural, economic, and political impact that this massive internal movement of peoples had on the history of America during the twentieth century.

Gregory's The Southern Diaspora is divided into nine chapters: Chapter 1, "A Century of Migration," is an overview of the of the migration cycles and the changing economics and demography of these migrations over the course of the twentieth century, concluding that the Southern Diaspora was numerically larger than previous scholars have understood; Chapter 2, "Migration Stories," surveys the public meanings of the two sets of exoduses and highlights the unique role that media institutions and social scientists played in shaping the expectations and interactions of southerners on the move; Chapter 3, "Success and Failure," answers questions about the economic experience of black and white southerners, dismantling the maladjustment paradigm that had been so prominent in previous scholarship while also showing the critical differences in the opportunity structure facing black and white southern migrants; Chapter 4,
"The Black Metropolis," examines the communities that African Americans built in the major cities, resurrecting the label "Black Metropolis" and mapping the new and powerful cultural apparatus of those communities; Chapter 5, "Uptown and Beyond," examines the very different community formations of white southerners who spread out through suburbs and rural areas as well as big cities, struggled with confusing issues of social identity, and developed cultural institutions of historical import (e.g., diaspora country music and the white diaspora literary community would help to reshape understandings of both region and race); Chapter 6. "Gospel Highways," explores the diaspora's impact on American religion as both racial groups built Baptist and Pentecostal churches and helped to revitalize and spread evangelical Protestantism, with important political as well as religious implications for America; Chapter 7, "Leveraging Civil Rights," develops the issue of black political influence, demonstrating how important geography was to the initial phases of what ultimately became the civil rights movement;
Chapter 8, "Re-figuring Conservatism," brings the white migrants into the story of race, class, and regional transformations, exploring contributions to white working class conservatism on the one hand, and to new formulations of white liberalism on the other. Chapter 9, "Great
Migrations," brings te diaspora to a close in the 1970s and 1980s, and summarized some of Gregory's major findings (pages 8 and 9).

One important point made by Gregory is that for as long as there was something called the American South, southerners in significant numbers had been leaving; the South itself expanded through migration as white southerners in the early 1800s carved out new states for cotton and
slavery, while others moved to places north and west that today are understood to be regionally separate from the South. White out-migration was especially heavy in the two decades after the Civil War, with many leaving for farming opportunities and others settling in the North's big
cities-New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago-where the nation's commerce was concentrated. By the end of the nineteenth century, there were more than 1 million southern-born whites living outside their birth region. Census takers also counted more than 335,000 southern born African Americans living in the North and West in 1900 (page 12).

African Americans had left the South in the nineteenth century for different reasons and in different directions. Before the Civil War, some had been taken west by slaveholders who dared to move their human property into places like California and Kansas; others had escaped
northward, typically to Ohio, upstate New York, Massachusetts, and Canada. There was also something of an exodus of free black people from the South after 1830, with many of them settling in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. Emancipation increased out-migration among black southerners, much of it directed toward northern cities (New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago were key destinations for freed people from Virginia and Maryland after the Civil War), but rural destinations were also and equally important: black southern migration, frequently organized by "colonization" or "emigration" societies, moved north into Indiana and west into Kansas from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee in the 1870s and 1880s (pages 12 and 13).

The central thesis of Gregory's Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America, is threefold. First, the size of the black and white southern diaspora was much more substantial than previously reported: over the course of the
twentieth century, close to 8 million black southerners, nearly 20 million white southerners, and more than 1 million southern-born Latinos participated in the diaspora (page 14). Second, the twentieth century southern diaspora can be divided into two periods: the first phase of migration . starts during the initial decade of the century, grows in the second decade when at least 1.3 million southerners leave home, reaches a peak in the 1920s with 2 million new black and white southern migrants, then tapers off in the 1930s; a much bigger second wave begins with World
War II when more than 4 million southerners move north or west, grows even larger in the 1950s when at least 4.3 million leave the South, remains near that level through the 1960s and 1970s, and then declines in the 1980s and 1990s (pages 14 and 15). Third, white southern out-migrants
outnumbered black southern out-migrants during every decade of the twentieth century, and usually by a large margin. But the southern black exodus had the more important impact: blacks were leaving the South at much higher rates than whites, and many were going to geographic
regions that had known little racial diversity (pages 15 and 17). The largest number of black migrants lived in the Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin); they were also the key destination for white southerners. The Middle Atlantic states (New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey) were second as a destination for African Americans, but-with the exception of New York City-much less popular with whites. The Pacific states was the third important area of settlement for both groups, especially California: by 1970, more than 1.6
million white and 571,000 black southerners lived in that state. California was also the chief destination for Tejanos and other southern-born Latinos, 213,000 of whom had settled there by 1970; Hispanic southerners had also migrated to Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana (pages 18 and 19).

Gregory challenges the image that southern migrants in the north and west were merely helpless and poor. While they faced many cultural, social, and economic challenges from within and without their culture, these migrants also had a substantial support system of family relations, organizations, and institutions that enabled them not just to survive, but even to thrive and succeed in differing environments despite tremendous odds. Financially, the majority of southern migrants did much better than their contemporaries who chose to remain in the South.

Whites and blacks left the South for related but somewhat different reasons, and found very different opportunities in the North and West. Those differences turned on the central issue of race, and from that flowed other significant differences derived from geography, class dynamics, and community formation patterns. Racial privilege granted southern white migrants significant economic and spatial advantages (i.e., the choice of where, how, and with whom they settled) over their black counterparts; that advantage was used to choose the best housing they could afford in the least dense neighborhoods, often in outlying, rather than central, urban areas. The fact that black and white southerners settled in different sorts of places, in different
concentrations would have implications not just on southern individual and group experiences, but on the North, the West, and the nation as a whole. Despite the fact that white migrants had greater numbers, black migrants gained capacities to influence cultural and political institutions that would ultimately dictate profound historical changes; The fact that whites chose dispersion over concentration, and opted for places that initially would not be centers of political and cultural power, worked against the construction of physically defined southern white communities. The loyalties and activities of elites and middle-class migrants became a key resource for African American communities, while white, middle class expatriates kept their distance from working class migrants, limiting the possibilities for group institution building and political influence. White southern migrants were influential in the promotion of evangelical churches, the development and spread of country music, and in the particular brand of racial conservatism and white working class politics that benefited from southern white symbolism.
African American influence was more comprehensive and consequential: the building of communities in the major cities in America during a period when those cities monopolized important forms of power, especially in media (publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, record companies, theatre, and film), inspired African American literature and artistic endeavors in a myriad of forms and in a slow, but steady and meaningful acknowledgement of its worth. Politically, the particular arrangement of parties, unions, and municipal and federal governments in northern metropolises, especially during the "long New Deal," gave black voters and activists opportunities to leverage governmental power. By working with allies that were available only in those places, by finding balance-of-power openings that appeared as urban regimes reorganized (and as the northern democratic Party tried to consolidate its hold on federal power)-while using tactics that were safe and effective only in those settings-the seams of power were loosened in a governmental system that previously had rarely responded to the demands of socially despised minorities (pages 325-327). Finally, regional reconstruction was the other
important legacy of the Southern Diaspora. Over time, black and white migrants southernized aspects of the regions they settled by introducing tastes, practices, and institutions-including food, music, religion, accents, and political styles-that moderated the differences between the
South and the rest of the United States (page 327).

In my opinion, Gregory has successfully presented a thematic history of the black and white disapora from the American South to points North and West. The only weakness, as I see it, is that this examination could not have been made in a more chronological, and less thematic fashion. Or given the daunting nature of his effort, if the had been more satisfied to provide a more intensive examination of only one or only several of his intended themes, the work would not give this reader a sense of being "all over the place." Nevertheless, Gregory has contributed a
necessary work of revisionist history of scholastic depth and eminent readability.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history.

By now, several historians have looked at the experiences in the massive migrations of Negroes from the American South to its northern cities from 1900 to the post World War 2 era. But of course, many poor southern whites also voted with their feet and moved north. The unifying theme Gregory has chosen is to look at both migrations. And to compare and contrast the experiences of both groups.

For studying whites, he goes beyond looking at the so-called hillbilly ghettos that sprang up in various northern cities. In the popular (white northern) imagination of the times, these were considered well nigh akin to the often neighbouring black ghettos. Gregory points out that most southern whites had quite different experiences, though they were still invariably stereotyped by white northerners.

We see examples of blacks and whites struggling to improve themselves. Often politically. While there were indeed many common facets, what persistently emerges is that blacks had to work harder to overcome obstacles.

This book has a cute idea in that the pages make a fun image at the end. However, it only has eight pages and the artwork is not that great. I sell artwork and this did not impress me. In fact, the black cat has a big pink [...]! Gross! That's not a part of our cat's anatomy I want my 17 month old to focus on. There are so many more wonderful books than this one with even better images. A fantastic interactive progression book is Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug. And, by the way, most of my son's books about color DO mention black and white.

Every young child 4month - 2years that came over and saw this book was mesmerized by it. It is simple, but fun and a great book for introducing reading to very young children!

Being an art person, I find that there are tons of books on all the colors of the rainbow. Black and white are just as important to recognize as all of the other colors. It is refreshing to find a book with such a simple concept that is so well thought out - making it all the more impressive! The clever layout of the pages and the wonderful illustrations made this a must have, along with all of this authors other books, in our library and at our playgroup!

Although this book has some good pictures
The content info and the boring discussion
makes one come to the conclusion it is definitely
not worth the high price of 100 dollars or more
Good only for a library shelf

This classical work is the definitive reference for any medical professional working with arthritis patients.

No other character lends itself to a variety of visual interpretation as the Batman does, and this book - although I wasn't sure what to expect - is a breath of fresh air. It won an Eisner award for best anthology and I can see why. The sheer amount of talent contributing short tales of Batman makes this a worthy read: from Richard Corben to Katsuhiro Otomo - this is a rare look at how others see the Dark Knight - yet each story stays true to the Batman ethos. Recommended for a different read.

Okay, I admit I am a Batman fan, but I just picked this up on a whim at a store. The stories are richly diverse in the drawing styles and storylines, but each piece added something to the whole Dark Knight world. I have reread it since and loved the tales more with the retelling.

Wow! It doesn't get much better than this. All the best talents in the industry exploring the Dark Knight in short stories from the 4 issue original series. Neal Adams, Brian Bolland, Neil Gaiman, Klaus Jansen, Archie Goodwin, Joe Kubert, Ted McKeever, Dennis O'Neil, Frank Miller, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, Kevin Nowlan, Matt Wagner, Alex Ross, Alex Toth, Walter Simonson and many more!

The main problem with this collection of tales from BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS is that many of the artists don't understand that drawing for B&W is different than for color. While these short stories exhibit more storytelling experimentation than most mainstream comics (and the lack of adherence to strict continuity is refreshing), the first two volumes are much better.

"Spiritual realization is a process of learning who we are and what we are not. It can take years to throw off the yoke of social condition, but the reward is in realizing your eternal constitutional position as a child of God, not as a pawn in the game of racial identity politics."

A lot has been done with the Gita in our little movement. And I think that's great. Take the Legend of Bagger Vance. Not bad. I totally don't get the golf thing, but that's not important here.

What's important is that yesterday the book The Bhagavad-Gita in Black and White; From Mulatto Pride to Krishna Consciousness came into the bookstore I own. It's authored by Charukrishna dasa (Charles Michael Byrd) who is, bodily, of black, white and Cherokee heritage. Charukrishna, before becoming a devotee, was a proponent of mixed-race pride.

The book is laid out into 18 chapters, each titled as the corresponding Bhagavad-gita chapter (Ch. 7 is Knowledge of the Absolute). Charukrishna prabhu then picks out a verse or two, gives a very nice explanation based upon Srila Prabhupada's gita. After he finishes his purport, he then explains how it relates to our society's perception of race.

I started picking through the book last night, figuring that since I'm white and have very little experience with the black community, I couldn't possibly relate. But after reading a bit, I'm really getting it.

It's amazing that even through all this social conditioning that I, a white boy from farm country, was having the same realizations about race, racism and race pride that a mixed-race fellow from Virginia turned mixed-race pride advocate was having.

A lot of what he is saying in the book is fairly politically incorrect. But I challenge anyone to say he's wrong about how the race card is used against us ("us" meaning all people).

For example, in his Bhagavad-gita 7.5 section, he first explains, exactly as Srila Prabhupada does, that living entities are of a superior energy of the Supreme. He also quotes the same Srimad Bhagavatam verse (10.87.30) as Prabhupada. He discusses false ego and how to become fully Krishna conscious. Just like Srila Prabhupada's purport.

He next applies this to race-consciousness. And this is where it can get a bit dodgy for the liberals amongst us.

"The clamor over hate-crime legislation is a perfect example of how competing racial and ethnic divisions - brought about by impious souls diverting their minds to illusory pursuits such as racial pride and superiority - are tearing our country asunder. In the aftermath of the vicious dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. in 1998 by three white supremacists in Jasper, Texas, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said the case "clearly shouts across the world for the urgent need of this Congress to move quickly to strengthen and to pass anti-hate legislation." As I wrote in "A Guilty Verdict in Jasper," Mfume's remarks border on the preposterous, as if to say that Byrd would still be alive today if Texas had anti-hate legislation on the books and if his killers knew of it beforehand.

"Although anti-hate legislations may result in courts meting out heftier sentences after the face, these laws won't resurrect the dead. Why is there no emphasis on reconstructing race, on teaching our children, from first grade on, that it is a social construct, that difference between human beings - whether between white and black or between Serb and Kosovan - are largely perceived? ....

"Once this country's race leaders cease exploiting the gross and subtle inferior energy (matter) for their own financial and political purposes, the superior energy (the living entity) will have a better chance to remember its real spiritual mind and intelligence and transcend this senseless race-consciousness. Only by developing htis spiritual insight will we be able to co-exist on this planet and gradually work toward understanding our common source, God."

And folks, that is one hell of a Bhagavad-gita class.

My one critique of the book is that he doesn't connect this enough. He doesn't link this as much as he could to our philosophy. For example, at the end of the last paragraph, he could have ended "...whose identity is firmly ensconced in a racial essence, a racial consciousness, a bodily concept."

Doing that would not only link what he's saying directly to Srila Prabhupada's words, but would also give devotees a better understanding of what he's talking about. Not that we're too dim to get that racial consciousness is a bodily conception, but seeing it there on the page really drives it home.

In the final paragraph in the section above, he does, of course, connect the two, but, at least to me, it seems clunky. While he explains what inferior and superior energy is, he doesn't really let on how it relates to what he's talking about. In race-consciousness, the superior energy (the living entities) is manipulating superior energy (other living entities) by using inferior energy (bodily concept - in this case, race).

He then jumps right back into a Bhagavad-gita purport, writing "Continual study of the Bhavad-gita leads to the firm understanding and realization that Krishna alone is the ultimate limit of para-tattva (the science of understanding the highest truth), the Supreme Absolute Reality, and that there is no more exalted knowledge than knowing Him. Only by surrendering exclusively to His lotus feet can one become free from the bondage of maya."

While I certainly agree with that, it seems to almost come out of nowhere.

Now I didn't come here to rip apart this book. Not at all! I'm really excited about it. This is my new favorite thing ever! Sure, I have a few critiques, but overall, the whole of this book is amazing.

Take, for example, his critique of Jesse Jackson's "Keep Hope Alive!" campaign from Chapter 9 - The Most Confidential Knowledge.

"Inasmuch as "hoping" is the same thing as "postponing" - i.e., it is not "doing" for oneself - what is Jackson actually advocating that black folk do? Think about that, won't you?"

That quote alone speaks volumes. Hoping is postponing. When taken in light of something as heavy as revolutionary thought, that's some pretty scary stuff. Just who is Rev. Jackson working for?

However, my critique of his work comes back in Chapter 10 - Opulence of the Absolute. Charukrishna prabhu writes "America's success is by the grace of God, but our nation tends to neglect this truth. Moreover, we seem to ignore our virtues as a nation and prefer, instead, to break into small factions and warring groups."

This is true. But the conclusion which he's hinting at is, in my opinion, flawed and simply not spiritual. He is saying that instead of being a united America, we are splitting ourselves into groups according to (among other things) race. But isn't America, or any nation, inferior energy? Isn't patriotism a by-product of bodily consciousness? Essentially, we are not American or Russian or Chinese anymore than we are Black or White or Mulatto. These labels are illusions. And our so-called leaders use these labels, these illusions, to manipulate us. It is true of black leaders, it is true of national leaders.

He goes on to say, "Whenever one sees some extraordinary power, one should understand that it is derived from God's power. It logically follows, therefore, that America's predominance in the world is due to God's favor."

But this is faulty logic. A rapist, for example, rapes to have power over his victim. Is this power, this predominance over the victim due to God's favor? No. It's due to the rapist's freewill and misuse of God's energy. This is an extreme example, but I don't see how either could be from God's favor.

In the next paragraph, however, he and I are back on track.

"Recall the dismay expressed by many Africa-Americans when the Census Bureau reported in 2003 that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as the largest minority in America. Observe also the increasing warfare between black and Latino street gangs in many of our nation's largest cities - particularly Los Angeles.

"This is due to a depraved devotion to race-consciousness. In fact, it would not be far off to say that in our country - and throughout most of the modern world - race-consciousness has replaced God-consciousness."

All this is true. But all this could be extended to national-consciousness, patriotism, as well. His book isn't about that, so I wouldn't expect him to draw that connection. However, I didn't expect him to so awkwardly bring up that America's power is due to God's favor.

Again, I feel as if I'm criticizing too much. This is a very important book. I think it should definitely be read. Not only that, I feel that books like this should be written more often. We always talk about spiritual solutions to material problems, but we never see examples of them (aside from a few here and there that often seem pointless and very out of touch). But this book really is in touch with its audience. It's grounded enough in Bhagavad-gita philosophy to please nearly any devotee and its critique of the equal rights movement is, often, brilliant.

And maybe that is where my own problems lie. I have little to no interaction with the equal rights movement. While I've always felt a comradery with black culture (starting way back with Sesame Street and continuing through the 80's hiphop movement), I've not actually worked hand-in-hand with these folks.

Maybe my critique of his nationalism is premature. Maybe his audience is nationalistic and not yet ready to throw off the yoke of that particular social condition. Or maybe it's Charukrishna who is not yet ready.

And maybe my ignorance of the inner workings of the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan prohibits me from understanding why Charukrishna prabhu slags on Farrakhan's February 2007 speech where he states "How come we, the people of God, cannot embrace each other?" The author criticizes Farrakhan for not being realized enough. Farrakhan doesn't see Krishna as supreme, only Jesus and Muhammad. But shouldn't Farrakhan be praised (at least in this respect) for coming as far as he has?

Charukrishna praises Malik El Shabazz's (Malcolm X's) transformation at the end of his life. Malcolm traveled to Mecca and realized that he no longer believed in the separation of the races. Farrakhan, now, seems to be preaching the same thing. Charukrishna's politics again seem to get in the way. Or maybe my own politics are getting in the way of me seeing what this devotee is actually saying.

I did, however, particularly enjoy this quote:

"We should school our children from kindergarten by teaching them that race is not real, but we won't. We'll continue to focus on battling racism, race-based violence and race-hatred, but we'll be content to leave the construct of race standing as if it has a basis in reality. It sounds good and noble, but it's akin to fighting the symptoms of a disease without giving a damn about combating the root cause."

His spiritual conclusions are perfect. They are directly from Srila Prabhupada's Bhagavad-gita: As It Is. He explains the Gita in usually common terms and is very clear and concise.

However, what he is also saying is very politically incorrect. It will take some amount of understanding by those of us who have been brought up believing in the equality of races. But Charukrishna explains that races don't exist and therefore cannot be equal. Why waste times trying to equate zero to zero?

Politically, he is a Libertarian (note the capital L). Libertarians are generally capitalistic isolationists. However, in this book, he is arguing against isolationism, at least on the basis of race. I personally don't feel that devotees should enter into the political spectrum. We do not belong in Washington DC. Just as Srila Prabhupada said about the Mantra Rock festival in 1967, "This is no place for a brahmacari."

But, as is the nature of his book, Charukrishna prabhu must be political. It's a book about politics. However, sometimes his arguments seem contradictory. In one chapter, he's down on Marx, but in the next he praises the idea of empowering the nation's poor and oppressed (though not with "venomous diatribes" or "separatist ideology"), which is a Marxist idea (albeit, more Marxist than Marx).

These lead me to believe that Charukrishna had a spiritual crisis and solved it with the Bhagavad-gita and Krishna consciousness. That is, naturally, a great thing. Who among us will object? But he also seems to be having a political crisis. Maybe he didn't work through it prior to becoming a devotee. I personally didn't either. I was a social democrat, but that never sat well with me. I dabbled in the libertarian thing, but capitalism seemed too creepy and directly opposed to what we, as devotees, fundamentally believe (that everything, including wealth, is Krishna's). That's when I figured out that I was an anarchist and it fit perfectly within the Krishna conscious philosophy.

And my critiques (the political ones anyway), come from my anarchist background. My critique of his patriotism, especially. Of course, I feel that most anarchists miss the conclusion of the "we are not this country" philosophy, which is also, "we are not these bodies." But that's for another time.

In conclusion, I'll let Charukrishna take us out on a high note...

"Our highest calling is the clarion call to return to God. We do ourselves a disservice to think in terms of race and ethnicity. We do the world a disservice to think in these terms, too. Violence begins at home, and if we identify with our bodies, we commit the greatest violence to ourselves and to others as well. Unless we recognize our spiritual birthright, our relation to every living being in existence, we cannot recognize our common Father. If we do not recognize Him, we recognize nothing."

Charles Michael Byrd is the bravest, most original thinker and writer currently fighting on the racial front. In The Bhagavad-Gita in Black and White, Mr. Byrd makes a sincere attempt to blend Vedic teachings from his beloved Bhagavad-gita, the so-called Hindu Bible, with a modern, multiracial perspective. In so doing, he wants readers to avoid a pitfall he states clearly and repeatedly: religion without philosophy is sentimental and therefore fanatical; philosophy without religion is mental speculation.

Throughout the book, Byrd maintains a delicate balance between traditional religion and multiracial philosophy--not an easy task. Along the way, he offers many valuable insights. For instance, he urges those experiencing hatred born of skin color to realize that God loves them and that their happiness will not come from being loved by everyone in the world, but rather from "the One who is the source of everyone and everything in the world--the Father of every living being." In this passage, he clearly identifies the origin of his own phenomenal strength and individualism.

In addition to racial hatred, Byrd takes racial love to task. He discounts the contemporary racial self-esteem movement (aka black pride) as "meaningless and do[ing] nothing to combat racism." And he boldly asserts ongoing legislative solutions to curing racism are akin to treating "cancer with band-aids."

Another of Byrd's many telling observations pertains to America's most segregated hour, church service on Sundays. He calmly states the following: "It indicates that the people who lead the churches and the followers who attend them are all racist, because they all identify the body as the self. The ones who go to the black churches identify themselves as being black, and the ones who go to the white houses of worship identify themselves as being white. This is ignorance."

Zeroing in on religious leaders--including Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Joseph Lowery--Byrd asks this question: "If we define religion as the development of love for God, or if we say that religion is about all of humanity finding relationship to one higher source, what business, then, does any religionist have engaging in the sordidness of racial identity politics?" Amen, brother!

Expanding on his longstanding concept of racelessness, Byrd warns everyone against pledging allegiance to any racial, ethnic or cultural group, as well as any political party supposedly serving identity-centered interests. He says of group members and supporters that "what matters at day's end is what they think about themselves as individuals, not what official racial or ethnic representatives tell them they should think."

Lest anyone assume this book is all seriousness and devoid of humor, there are humorous passages. When discussing his role model, author Jean Toomer, Byrd proposes that if Mr. Toomer lived today and chose his controversial, non-black identification, the NAACP who probably declare, "While we're sensitive to Mr. Toomer's right to not locate himself within traditional definitions and classifications, we feel that, if it became popular, his philosophy would have a deleterious effect on the black community in the aggregate and would signal the end of Affirmative Action!"

Byrd also recalls a conversation with his maternal grandmother, who gave him this advice: "Even though I was white-complexioned, I was really black. It's just that God didn't leave me in the oven long enough." (I suppose that was also her way of saying that so-called white folks are half-baked.)

This book is on its firmest footing when Byrd discusses his multiracial experiences, whether they be appearances on Tony Brown's Journal or The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, or his ground-breaking Multiracial Solidarity March on Washington in 1996, and some of the many conferences that followed. If there is a problem with this book, it is the lack of more anecdotal content to offset its preponderance of Hindu religious thought. As a longtime admirer of Mr. Byrd, this reviewer is keenly aware of his rich history of salient racial experiences and published commentary. Therefore, this could have been a meatier serving of first-person experiences and thoughts seasoned with only a dash of Vedic teachings. But maybe that's too much to ask of a devout vegetarian who really wants to expose the rest of us to the life-changing wisdom of Vaishnava philosophy. In that sense, Mr. Byrd, Namaste! (I bow to the divine in you.)

I was somewhat skeptical at first of this book, but once I began reading I didn't want to put it down. I bought it in the first place because I was looking for a new genre of literature, and these two high school authors have most definitely stunned me with their writing style. The authors portrayed a vivid picture of each of the characters, and made humor out of any scenerio. It was interesting to see how Abplanalp and McCloskey developed their writing skills as I progressed through the book; the later chapters were the best. There are a few minor typo flaws, but nothing serious. In my opinion, the only major downside is the length of the book. Once again it's nothing serious, I just think it would have been better if it were longer. It will be 100% worth your money, I recommed this book to any open-minded person with a sense of humor.

McCloskey and Abplanalp create a modern-day Alice in Wonderland with their debut novella. Not for the easily-offendable but enjoyable for those who can suspend political-correctness for a while. Think South Park and Stone and Parker -- if you like them, you'll like this work. The authors importantly note in the beginning that they love everyone and the book was not intended to be hateful but to make people laugh. The boys could have used an editor, but overall produced a fine first book on their own. Kudos to such young talent and let's hope it grows as they continue to grow.

George Fredrickson's book, "The Black Image in the White Mind," is an intellectual history dealing with the rise of formalized racial ideologies in nineteenth century America. The author argues that these anti-black intellectual concepts, far from forming in a vacuum, arose in concert with other significant trends occurring in the American political, economic, and social arena. Moreover, Fredrickson points out the significant role the American North, an area not usually associated with overt racism, played in this emotionally charged discourse. Many of the ideas articulated in the North reinforced as often as they countered the extremely hostile invective circulating in the South. Most importantly, "The Black Image in the White Mind" stresses the underlying themes that all of these theories, regardless of northern or southern orientation, shared between 1817 and 1914: the author convincingly avers that every racial hypothesis assumed the idea of black inferiority, that blacks differed significantly from whites "physically, intellectually, and temperamentally," that animosity between whites and blacks was inevitable, saw miscegenation as a sublime evil, and viewed a biracial society as an impossibility best remedied by the outright removal of African-Americans from United States territory or through various forms of subordination to the dominant white society. It is not surprising this book is still a standard assignment in graduate seminars about race history.

Fredrickson begins his analysis with the emergence of the colonization movement in the 1820s and 1830s and concludes with the plight of the American black under the Progressive movement of the early twentieth century. Along the way, the author discusses in detail various racial ideas: scientific racism, romantic racialism, recurring incarnations of Southern white paternalism, white nationalism, Negrophobia, and Accommodationist racism. In the American South, Fredrickson argues that a major tenet of racialist thought was Herrenvolk democracy, or a type of political theory that gave the dominant white population in the South all the fruits of democracy while denying blacks equivalent rights. Herrenvolk democracy informed much of the racial thought in this region during the nineteenth century because it created a hierarchical biracial system justified by slavery and later segregation systems. "The Black Image in the White Mind" proves that white racist thought in the nineteenth century was never a constant, monolithic ideology but a set of basic assumptions capable of adjusting to changing economic, political, or religious circumstances in the larger society. Just when one branch of racialist thought died down, another sprang up in an entirely different place and time with just as much virulence as the previous manifestation.

Perhaps the most compelling argument in Fredrickson's book is his formulation of romantic racialism. This idea, which posited that blacks were docile, childlike creatures whose attributes allowed them to attain a level of Christianity unavailable to "naturally aggressive" Caucasians, had great appeal among abolitionists in the North who believed slavery was wrong on religious grounds. Moreover, romantic racialism arose as a response to emerging ideas about perceived Anglo-Saxon superiority and the need for a homogeneous white nation. Fredrickson brilliantly develops this idea primarily through a literary analysis of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novels "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Dred." The articulation of romantic racialism explodes any lingering myths regarding abolitionists as rock ribbed anti-racists because it shows that these moral crusaders still argued for forcible removal of blacks from American territory.

Fredrickson addresses what is arguably his book's most serious problem in a new introduction to the 1987 reprint. He confesses that he focused more on what white intellectuals thought about blacks than what blacks said or did about their own situation in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Admittedly, the title of the book should blunt some criticism directed towards the author on this point: a title like "The Black Image in the White Mind" leaves little doubt as to what viewpoint the author will take. Still, the author does leave significant gaps in certain places of his book that beg for elaboration. For example, at one point the author refers to a correspondence between Salmon P. Chase and black writer and intellectual Frederick Douglass, a correspondence revealing in succinct detail what Chase thought about racial separation. Surely, Douglass responded to Chase's arguments in some way, but what that response might have been does not appear in the book.

More problematic is the section on Southern Negrophobia, where the author spends a great amount of time discussing how intellectuals in the South at the turn of the century began arguing that the black was a subhuman beast whose greatest social accomplishments consisted of crimes against whites, specifically white women. Was there an enormous explosion in violent crime at this time in this region? If so, what underlying factors contributed to an expansion of crime in the South? The author's analysis of Negrophobia fails to provide any concrete data about the number of violent offenses in the South. Ultimately, Fredrickson resorts to psychohistory to explain the possible reasons behind Negrophobia, arguing that this scurrilous from of racial hatred arose from "a projection of unacknowledged guilt feelings derived from their [white southerners] own brutality towards blacks." Perhaps this claim does have some merit, but Fredrickson cites no sources to back up this particular argument. By looking at Negrophobia relying solely on the sources, Fredrickson might have discovered more relevant reasons for why specific racial ideologies arose when they did. As it stands now, "The Black Image in the White Mind" offers an intriguing, if incomplete, analysis of American intellectual racism.

Fredrickson defines racism as a reasoned theory that posits the "innate and permanent inferiority of nonwhites" (xvii). He argues that racism in some form has plagued American thought throughout the nation's history, and in this volume he traces the different forms it has taken in the period from 1817 to 1914. He thus arranges his study chronologically, progressing methodically through the nineteenth century. Fredrickson begins by showing that the underlying arguments for the colonization movements were based on the recognition of white prejudice in American society. Colonizationitsts argued that black people would never have the opportunity to integrate into the society because of deeply ingrained racial prejudices. The abolitionists answered this position by arguing that whites should be able to overcome their prejudice and achieve the ideal of Christian brotherhood. Then, as more abolitionists based their attack on moral grounds, proponents of slavery searched for ideological justification for their position and argued for the innate racial inequality and permanent inferiority of the black slaves. From this emerged a Herrenvolk democracy in which the creation of a permanent underclass (slaves in this case) protected the radical equality of the higher class (whites). Scientific theories emerge in the 1840s and 1850s to support the position of the innate inferiority of the slaves and gave rise to the theory of polygenesis which holds that only whites descended from Adam, while God created blacks as an inferior species. Romantic racialism also emerged at the same time moving focus from seeming social and intellectual deficiencies of black people and emphasizing their lightheartedness and willingness to serve, qualities of natural Christians. This position finds its fullest expression in Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Thus, in the 1860s the more conservative romantic racialists pushed again for colonization, arguing that these "natural Christians" could only flourish back in their native Africa. The ideal of white America had again become a racially homogeneous society. Frederickson argues that Reconstruction was therefore merely a political tool because the attitudes of racial superiority prevailed among whites. This renewed racial superiority then gave rise to a sense of paternalism in the period from 1877 to 1890. At the end of the nineteenth century Darwinian thinking came together with racial superiority to spawn the idea that black people, as the weaker race would be wiped out in this country. Finally, he concludes with a chapter on the accommodation that flows from progressivism which manifests itself as a return to a paternalism and a sense of treating black people with a modicum of decency as the "white man's burden."

Frederickson gives flesh to the above sketch of this argument in his well-documented and carefully nuanced book. The work is an excellent intellectual history of the phenomenon of racism in the United States.

With Obama's candidacy, this valuable discussion, both personal and penetrating, becomes newly relevant. The authors, both psychologists, explore the issues facing Black men in America through case histories and biographical sketches, offering insights on racism, power, religion, family, Black consciousness movements, employment and education, and mentor programs, among other topics. Although some years have passed since its publication, their observations and recommendations still have power. Of particular importance is the final chapter on interventions, as well as the exploration of peer group influence, and the subject of macho identity. Includes bibliographic notes, index.

Black Man Emerging: Facing the Past and Seizing a Future in America is a seminal text on the issues facing black men today.

I read this book for a class of mine on education. As a class we were impressed that statistically speaking, a small group of black Americans were given a huge educational opportunity and sent to elite private schools and possible an Ivy League education. This book is somewhat difficult to read, yet it is interesting for people understanding the impact of higher education on marginilized and low-income students. It was very interesting how these people excelled in highly competitive schools and found a better life. The biggest criticism my instructor said of the ABC program was it educated the few and leaves behind the rest; yet, my class argues back it was better than nothing. Personally, it is amazing these people were allowed to go through; they did well and demonstrated blacks can be in the white establishment. The newer version, "Blacks in the White Elite" has a newer afterword at the end, but is essentially the same book.

I was assigned to read this book for my Sociology 101 class. However unlike your ordinary textbook, I found this overview of the program known as A Better Chance, quite entertaing. The personal stories keep you intrested, and at the same time you learn the sociologists view of race and class. Overall one of the best "textbooks" I've been assigned.