The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)

Posted in Articles, Book/Video Reviews, Media Archive, United States on 2013-12-28 06:04Z by Steven

The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)

The AFRO
2013-12-24

Kam Williams, Special to the AFRO

The 10 Best Black Books of 2013 (Non-Fiction)

  1. (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race Edited by Yaba Blay, Ph.D. with photography by Noelle Theard
  2. Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities by Craig Steven Wilder
  3. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell
  4. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Dr. Donald Yacovone

Read the entire list here.

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Book Review of (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race

Posted in Articles, Arts, Book/Video Reviews, Media Archive on 2013-12-15 01:48Z by Steven

Book Review of (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race

The Skanner
Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington
2013-12-10

Kam Williams

Yaba Blay and Noelle Théard (dir. of photography), (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race (Philadelphia: BLACKprint Press, 2013)

Traditionally, in America, if you were just a teeny-weeny bit black, you’d always been considered black. This arbitrary color line was even codified by the Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, an 1896 case brought by an octoroon light enough to pass who sued for the right to sit in the “white only” section of a segregated train traveling through the South…

…This means that folks, who only a generation ago would’ve been forced to identify themselves simply as black, now feel much more freedom to avail themselves of an array of alternatives along the ethnic spectrum. (1)ne Drop: Shifting the Lens on Race is a collection of essays reflecting on racial identity by 60 introspective individuals who until relatively recently would’ve been labeled black in the eyes of the law.

This enlightening opus was edited by Dr. Yaba Blay, a professor of Africana Studies at Drexel University, and each contributor’s entry is accompanied by a proud portrait photographed by Noelle Théard, a professor at Florida International University. The book breaks down the contributors by three categories: “Mixed Black,” “American Black” and “Diaspora Black.”

Although “Black” Kathleen Cross has a black father and a white mother, she has resisted the invitations to join the “Multiracial Movement, which she sees as divisive. By contrast, Harlemite Jozen Cummings describes himself as “Mixed,” with parents who are Japanese, Puerto Rican and African-American…

Read the entire review here.

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