| The End of BlackNess by Debra Dickerson. |
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| Saturday, 24 July 2004 | |||||||||||||
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The End of Blackness by Debra Dickerson. Books by black people dont get any more nauseating than this. This lofty attempt by Ms. Dickerson to chart the course into the future for blacks in America is compromised by that one and single fault which besets every intellectual - The search for a false sense of balance. This book is said to be un-selfserving. It is said to be visionary. In my opinion; it is tepid and tasteless. It makes a mockery of all that blacks have ever struggled to achieve and it makes a mockery of the black institutions of America. Ms. Dickerson claims that the way for blacks to progress is for them to "surrender". What must blacks surrender; she asks?Blacks must surrender the very idea that they can be made whole from the centuries of depredation encountered at the hands of European racists. Fair enough - But then Ms. Dickerson goes on to say that this is the only way out of what she calls "Blacks being at war with white people." Surrender as a tool of victory? Sounds oxymoronic - especially in the compromise of motive. Ms. Dickerson reserves her sharpest barbs for Afrocentrists. She mocks Iyanla Vanzant; She mocks Afrocentric scholars who "claim that Africans in the Middle Ages were building AirCraft" - the employment of such strawman strategies to denounce a school that she obviously doesnt fit into is juvenile at its very best. Not only that - In her attempt to prove that blacks are "Americans" - she resorts to Africa bashing of the same sort that she tries to excoriate "white people" for in later chapters. The book is contradictory and poorly written. She claims that Africa was and still is the least urbanized continent - a fallacious claim; that were it even true would be meaningless with respect to the arguments she tries to make. To her; Africa today is about as divorced from the Black Diaspora as Heaven is from Hell - Her best images of Africa are the massive crowds surging at the TV sets - offering a grim reflection of the bestial nature inside black folk. Her best anecdote is two children; smuggled aboard a plan from some African country who died enroute paradise but not before they had left a note plaintively wailing for a "rememberance of those in Africa". This book is nonsense and crock. In a particular telling statement - she villifies Iyanla Vanzant for invoking the spectre of Yoruba Priestesses; she queries - "And why couldnt the Yoruba Gods save their Children from Slavery" - A ridiculous question no doubt - One might as well ask for the whereabouts of Zeus in the many Millenia of Greek humiliation or the whereabouts of the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego during the Holocaust. The reality that the Yoruba culture survived the Atlantic enslavements and black Holocaust and was transplanted and took root in varying regions of the Diaspora seems to be lost on her. To Dickerson; the Diaspora, being divorced from Africa can still lay claim to Africas achievements. So the works of Medieval African scholars becomes "Our Work" - an appropriation to the Diaspora -while she tries to divorce it from other realities on the continent. rom her referencing of Thomas Sowell; to her garbled and angry one liners - Her book is filled with distortions and fallacies. She claims to be an unwilling seperatist - but what is she seperating from? rom the "nuisance racism"still encountered from day to day? From the void that is modern Africa? he tells Blacks to stop obsessing about the past but devotes many pages to angry yells about the same issue. She makes light of Black stereotypes then launches into a tirade against the whites who make them! This book is a jarring reminder of what vomitus proceeds from angry writers who have very little expertise about what they posit. ickerson obviously hasnt studied Medieval African History - and what little she quotes about Africa is not from Primary sources. In the final analysis - my reccomendation of this book comes with a caveat. It should be read so that the pathological conditions beseting many black writers today (Dickerson included) can be better understood. riting out of frustration and a lust for fame; they descend into intellectual cannibalism. Blackness will not end. Indeed; it cannot end. he end of blackness is thus another fallacious concept -for blackness isnt about Hue - It is about the story of a people and their resistance to centuries of oppression. his is obviously what Ms. Dickerson doesnt understand. Post your comments here: Similar products Customer who bought this product also bought: An American Story Book No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning Book America Behind the Color Line: Dialogues with African Americans Book Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television Book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America Book --> Explore similar items More Reviews interesting title, but NOT an interesting book Debra Dickerson has a misguided and jaded view of what is it to be Black in the United States, specifically African-American. The book is a poorly organized and reinforces several stereotypes instead of trying to break them down. Dickerson comes across as if she is a soothsayer and expert on "Black" culture and the "Black" experience in America. The book is very divisive, essentially breaking down African-Americans into two groups: the poverty-stricken, uneducated, criminal and disease-laiden supported by misguided liberal 40 acres and mule seeking neomilitant democrats AND the misunderstood, conflicted,upwardly mobile, conservatively moderate republicans. I personally found the book to be quite irritating because it is too polarized and often inaccurate. Firstly, I was annoyed that the title of the book is "The End of Blackness," yet the book only addresses her skewed dichotomy of African-Americans. All Black people are NOT African-Americans and the term African-American itself is a misnomer. (This is a point that should have been addressed.) There is a Black diaspora and Black people come from many countries with many different cultures. Where do Black Hispanics/ Latinos fit in? Where do Black Asians and Black Europeans fit in? (yes, these people do exist) Are West Indians also plagued with the same problems? Is there a difference between Black immigrants, 1st generation, 2nd generation, and African-Americans? Her book makes it too easy to label Black people in terms of good or bad, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, educated or miseducated, liberal orconservative, democrat or republican. There is a PLURALIZED Black experience in America and I frankly don't know what possessed her to write this book, besides the prospect of making a profit. How can so-called Blackness end if only African-Americans are addressed? The second thing that thoroughly annoyed me about this book was her emphasize on the black vs. white dichotomy. America is a multi-cultural society. There must be a discourse that is all-inclusive because progress will not occur without everyone's participation. Many of the attributes that Dickerson assigns to African-Americans can be just as easily applied to Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Whites, and other racial and ethnic groups in the same socio-economic bracket. I honestly cannot figure out what her message/ thesis/ proposal in this book is. However, whatever message she is trying to convey should NOT only be geared towards Black and White people because America is not a nation of only Black and White people. The third aspect of this book that has prompted me to return it to the bookstore is that Dickerson repeatedly contradicts herself. This book perpetuates the self-hatred in "Blacks" that it criticizes/ critiques. If Dickerson would like to see improvement in the status and condition of African-Americans, why are we even discussing/ proposing the end of Blackness in the first place? Blackness or the concept of Blackness does NOT have to end in order for progress and societal change to be made. There is no problem with racial mixing and diversity, however, racial mixing does NOT and has NOT solved the so-called problem of Blackness. All of the Spanish-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere are comprised of mixed peoples. Yet, a racial/ skin color hierarchy still exists. Differences will always exist. With differences come discrimination. People always want to feel superior at the expense of others. This also happens frequently in Asia and the Pacific Islands, i.e. the caste system in India. It's naive, illogical, and just plain dumb to think that racial mixing will "end Blackness." The system of oppression and discrimination is already in place and it merely adjusts over time to suit its needs. Besides, isn't wanting to end Blackness really just another manifestation of self-hatred? The last thing I wanted to point out is the chapter on the internet Black/ ghetto jokes. I am a Black woman and I have NEVER received nor have I ever seen any of those jokes. I honestly could not relate to them either. They are not representative of "Black" culture and were put in the middle of her book as a filler to compensate for her lack of original ideas. I thought they were pathetic and Dickerson should have dedicated more time to thinking over her thesis and writing something with more substance. An Inconsistent and Deeply Flawed Book This is an inconsistent book. In the author's introduction, Dickerson says that she aims at making the case that blacks should get away from obsessing over past grievances such as slavery and Jim Crow and take full responsibility for the choices that they make and accept the consequences. In other words, blacks should stop blaming white folks for everything that goes wrong. She then turns around and spends the first half or so of the book blaming whites for the state of black America. She presents horror stories of racism, such as the murder of Emmett Till, just as if she believes that they represent the state of race relations today. Indeed, she expends much verbiage on whites and on how they pretend to support civil rights while secretly doing everything that they can to undermine those same civil rights. Dickerson seems to have some racist tendencies of her own. She seems to resent the fact that Asian Americans generally live in mostly white, middle-class communities as opposed to having their own ethnic enclaves. Dickerson also has some weird ideas on how prevalent racism supposedly is in America. For instance,Dickerson complains about the fact that the movie "Saving Private Ryan" does not include black soldiers storming the Normandy Beach. However, she admits that no blacks participated in the D-Day invasion. Yet, she criticizes the producers for excluding a black presence in the film anyways. After her carnival of criticism of whites and Asians for their alleged role in keeping blacks down, she then gets into the second half of her book, which is a critique of blacks in modern America. In this part, she criticizes blacks for dwelling on the racist past and using racism as a crutch for blacks not making it in America. By doing so, she completely contradicts the first half of her book. This is an inconsistent and contradictory book on race relations in America. Definitely not recommended. Great no-prisoner take on racism, blackness Dickerson's body blow-dealing introduction is enough to wither most black intellectuals where they stand. Taken by itself, one would think the remaining 275 pages were a primer on how to get your butt-whupped at the company picnic of the NAACP. After plainly and deftly laying out in the first sentence the purpose of her book, she jabs, kicks and otherwise pounds on the kufi-donned heads of any black person donning race baggage without breaking a lip sweat, with such haymakers as: "[Blacks] have not been left out of America; they affect rejecting it while availing themselves of every morsel of its benefits." Ouch. Or how about: "If an upheaval on the scale of the civil rights movement couldn't do it, it is hard to know what it will take to satisfy the 'woe is me' race men that they are citizens; perhaps a giant Hallmark card signed by every Caucasian in America." Are your cowry shells ringing yet? Dickerson, however, isn't a simple race baiter. She just as easily spends the next 25 pages running white folks through the ringer, detailing the developmental history of slavery and racism as it has nurtured and been so nurtured in the west. From there, the rest of the book is open season on anybody without an open mind. Dickerson possesses a cool hand when it comes to capturing not only the academic side of the racial shebang, but is particularly stunning at pointing out the ridiculous foibles of a people who want freedom by as few means as necessary. Her codification and critique of popular public-passed emails such as "You Know You're Ghetto Corporate If..." and "Ghetto Resume" puts her research firmly in the front lines of the debate, and yet, just when you think she's Clarence Thomas in a dress, she lambasts whites for contributing politely to much of the same crimes of ignorance and fear-based rhetoric as blacks. A great example, among many, is the section on Africa-bashing by whites to slip under the radar of the homegrown racism they claim to no longer possess as it relates to Africa's American stepchildren. Dickerson plays for keeps, and despite what must be an obvious and careful noting of just-enough cases to make the points she wishes to make, she writes this book with more courage and brawn than any Dyson book, and with more on-ramps into her worldview than Cornel West has ever offered. You may not like what she has to say, but chances are if the rock hit you, well, you were the one in the pack she was aiming for. The question isn't how back is Dickerson. The question is, how black are blacks, and what does that mean 40 years out of the civil rights movement? This book reads as though Dickerson wrote it like it might be her only one. Hopefully, we'll not have to wait long for another dose of her medicine. It goes down tough, but you'll be better in the morning. (Review from KISO Books)
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Posted by Robot| 13.11.2005 09:57