To be suddenly white

Sample

Phillip Brian Harper

In 1995, popular anxieties about black masculinity became evident in public reactions to the conclusion of the OJ Simpson trial and the Million Man March on Washington. The nation's divided response to the OJ verdict, together with the controversy surrounding Louis Farrakhan's call to black men to come together for a "day of atonement", brought issues of race and gender to the forefront of national debate. In his timely and incisive book Are We Not Men? Phillip Brian Harper explores issues of race and representation and shows that ideas about black masculinity have always played a troubled role both in the formation of African-American identity and in the mass media at large. Using examples from a variety of cultural contests, ranging from sports and pop music to literature and television, Harper shows the ways in which narrow definitions of black manhood have failed to acknowledge real differences within the African-American community - to grave social and political effect.

Sample

Dinaw Mengestu

Two young friends join an uprising against Uganda's corrupt regime in the early 1970s. As the line blurs between idealism and violence, one of them flees for his life.

Sample

J.A. Rogers

"A fearless and penetrating discussion of America's Greatest Problem The most debated points of the race question as the relative mentality, physical and facial beauty, sex instinct, chastity, odor, truthfulness, health, honesty, of negro and Caucasian; as well as politics, the slavery of white people in Colonial America and elsewhere, intermarriage, religion ancient Negro civilization, race attraction and repulsion, lynching and other aspects all scientifically dealt with in an interesting argument between a southern United Sates Senator with pronounced views and a polished, well-educated, universally travelled Negro when the two happen to meet under peculiar circumstances."--Back cover.

Sample

Bell Hooks

"For bell hooks, the best cultural criticism sees no need to separate politics from the pleasure of reading. Yearning collects together some of hooks's classic and early pieces of cultural criticism from the '80s. Addressing topics like pedagogy, postmodernism, and politics, hooks examines a variety of cultural artifacts, from Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing and Wim Wenders's film Wings of Desire to the writings of Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. The result is a poignant collection of essays which, like all of hooks's work, is above all else concerned with transforming oppressive structures of domination"--