Tag Archives: racism
** Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness by Toure
Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? starts with a simple observation that, with 40 million Black Americans there has to be more than one way to be “Black” and proceeds to share stories from the author’s life and many others’ about experiences … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand is a delightful story of a stodgy retired officer who falls in love with the local Pakistani shop owner and eventually sheds his obsession with his father’s inheritance and some of his friends to live a … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
How Free is Free? by Leon Litwack
How Free Is Free? is the pessimistic history of racism in America since reconstruction and it is a stark contrast with the hope generated by the current president’s election. The author recalls horrific events of lynching and violence, and how … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Levittown by David Kushner
Levittown touches on the story of the famous suburbs, but only to tell the tale of the integration of the falsely perfect community, which not only rejected African-American buyers but also prohibited renting to African Americans. When the Myers family … Continue reading
Filed under True story
Orange County by Gustavo Arellano
Orange Countyis a memoir of Gustavo Arellano’s upbringing mixed with a history of the much-maligned Orange County, which, as Arellano points out, is much more than either orange groves (which have been replaced by houses anyway) or right-wing republicans (who … Continue reading
Filed under True story
Black in Selma by J.L Chestnut & Julia Cass
If you wondered about the allusion to the bridge in Selma during Obama’s acceptance speech last night, here’s the book for you: Black in Selma is the candid memoir of the first black lawyer in Selma who rose from modest beginnings … Continue reading
Filed under True story
How does it feel to be a problem? by Moustafa Bayoumi
How does it feel to be a problem? presents portraits of seven young Arab-Americans, both men and women, who illustrate the difficulty of existing as a Arab in the US since 2001. The author’s sample is far from random since … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
Not a Genuine Black Man by Brian Copeland
Not a Genuine Black Man is a memoir by an African-American comedian that poignantly recalls his family’s move to San Leandro, CA, at a time when the city was almost completely white. He gets picked up by the police on … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
