Download or read book In Search of Pretty Young Black Men written by Stanley Clay and published by Beyond Words/Atria Books. This book was released on 2005 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning new novel, which bestselling author E. Lynn Harris describes as "a provocative--often shocking--tale of lost love, good sex, and secret longings," written by the NAACP Image Award-winning playwright, filmmaker, and author of "Diva."
Download or read book A Search Past Silence written by David E. Kirkland and published by Teachers College Press. This book was released on 2015-04-24 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This beautifully written book argues that educators need to understand the social worlds and complex literacy practices of African-American males in order to pay the increasing educational debt we owe all youth and break the school-to-prison pipeline. Moving portraits from the lives of six friends bring to life the structural characteristics and qualities of meaning-making practices, particularly practices that reveal the political tensions of defining who gets to be literate and who does not. Key chapters on language, literacy, race, and masculinity examine how the literacies, languages, and identities of these friends are shaped by the silences of societal denial. Ultimately, A Search Past Silence is a passionate call for educators to listen to the silenced voices of Black youth and to re-imagine the concept of being literate in a multicultural democratic society.
Download or read book Everywhere You Don t Belong written by Gabriel Bump and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2020 Winner of the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence “A comically dark coming-of-age story about growing up on the South Side of Chicago, but it’s also social commentary at its finest, woven seamlessly into the work . . . Bump’s meditation on belonging and not belonging, where or with whom, how love is a way home no matter where you are, is handled so beautifully that you don’t know he’s hypnotized you until he’s done.” —Tommy Orange, The New York Times Book Review In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Claude just wants a place where he can fit. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights–era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change; yet when riots consume his neighborhood, he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new identity, to leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. But as he discovers, he cannot; there is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don’t Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.
Download or read book American Paradox written by Renford Reese and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over a half-century since Ralph Ellison wrote the classic book Invisible Man, black men have been trying to become visible. In various ways, black men have sought to get the attention of the world. An intense quest to become seen, heard, and felt has manifested itself in rebellious and counterproductive behavior. Whether it is the baggy pants, the bandana, the braids in the hair, the earring, or the tattoo, black men have desperately striven for visibility. Perpetual gang warfare and an overemphasis on living a glamorous lifestyle have derailed many young black men from achieving success in the U.S. Author Renford Reese examines how young African American males have unwittingly accepted one model of black masculinity. The acceptance of this "tough guy" model is having detrimental consequences on an entire generation of young black men. The book's thesis is supported by a survey the author conducted of 756 African American males from the ages of 13-19 in Los Angeles and Atlanta. This survey attempts to gauge the attitudes, perceptions, and basic knowledge of young African American men regarding black public figures. One component of this survey is a Realness Scale that the author constructed. Along with this survey, interviews were conducted with various young black males to find out why they, or many of their peers, have embraced the gangsta-thug persona. The results of the survey and interviews are fascinating. Although the primary focus of this book is on the young black male's acceptance of the gangsta-thug image and his enthusiastic embrace of society's stereotypes, this book also looks at the unkindness of the system. One would be naive to dismiss the historical impact of discriminatory policies and the systemic perpetuation of stereotypes in U.S. society. Hence, this book examines the internal and external influences on the current black male identity. American Paradox and Reese's vists to prisons in California have already begun to pay off. In the Summer 2004 issue of Cal Poly Pomona & the Community, writer Jennifer Parsons talks about Reese's efforts, mentioning that Reese keeps a note in his briefcase from a 31-year-old prisoner serving time for manslaughter. According to her article, the prisoner writes, "I used to love being looked up to for all the wrong reasons. Now, though, I'm on a whole new script. My goal is to turn my misfortunes into a fortune. I want to help inner city kids avoid situations such as my own." He goes on to say, "I look forward to your visit. There is so much in that book that I would like to speak with you on." "...Reese raises serious questions regarding the state of life among African American youth that cannot be ignored. The book, an excellent source for discussion of issues in the black community and race relations in the US, will surely be controversial. Summing up: Highly recommended." -- CHOICE Magazine, October 2004 "American Paradox: Young Black Men . . . is an eye-opening read that brings to focus some the contemporary social issues that black and white America are reluctant to discuss. I would highly recommend it for courses in sociology, political science, and black studies." -- Journal of Urban Affairs, November 2006
Download or read book Wrong Place Wrong Time written by John A. Rich and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named One of the Top 20 Books of 2009 by Cleveland Plain Dealer Medical school taught John Rich how to deal with physical trauma in a big city hospital but not with the disturbing fact that young black men were daily shot, stabbed, and beaten. This is Rich's account of his personal search to find sense in the juxtaposition of his life and theirs. Young black men in cities are overwhelmingly the victims—and perpetrators—of violent crime in the United States. Troubled by this tragedy—and by his medical colleagues' apparent numbness in the face of it—Rich, a black man who grew up in relative safety and comfort, reached out to many of these young crime victims to learn why they lived in a seemingly endless cycle of violence and how it affected them. The stories they told him are unsettling—and revealing about the reality of life in American cities. Mixing his own perspective with their seldom-heard voices, Rich relates the stories of young black men whose lives were violently disrupted—and of their struggles to heal and remain safe in an environment that both denied their trauma and blamed them for their injuries. He tells us of people such as Roy, a former drug dealer who fought to turn his life around and found himself torn between the ease of returning to the familiarity of life on the violent streets of Boston and the tenuous promise of accepting a new, less dangerous one. Rich's poignant portrait humanizes young black men and illustrates the complexity of a situation that defies easy answers and solutions.
Download or read book Opting Out written by Maya A. Beasley and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why has the large income gap between blacks and whites persisted for decades after the passage of civil rights legislation? More specifically, why do African Americans remain substantially underrepresented in the highest-paying professions, such as science, engineering, information technology, and finance? A sophisticated study of racial disparity, Opting Out examines why some talented black undergraduates pursue lower-paying, lower-status careers despite being amply qualified for more prosperous ones. To explore these issues, Maya A. Beasley conducted in-depth interviews with black and white juniors at two of the nation’s most elite universities, one public and one private. Beasley identifies a set of complex factors behind these students’ career aspirations, including the anticipation of discrimination in particular fields; the racial composition of classes, student groups, and teaching staff; student values; and the availability of opportunities to network. Ironically, Beasley also discovers, campus policies designed to enhance the academic and career potential of black students often reduce the diversity of their choices. Shedding new light on the root causes of racial inequality, Opting Out will be essential reading for parents, educators, students, scholars, and policymakers.
Download or read book Against the Wall written by Elijah Anderson and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2011-12-30 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Typically residing in areas of concentrated urban poverty, too many young black men are trapped in a horrific cycle that includes active discrimination, unemployment, violence, crime, prison, and early death. This toxic mixture has given rise to wider stereotypes that limit the social capital of all young black males. Edited and with an introductory chapter by sociologist Elijah Anderson, the essays in Against the Wall describe how the young black man has come to be identified publicly with crime and violence. In reaction to his sense of rejection, he may place an exaggerated emphasis on the integrity of his self-expression in clothing and demeanor by adopting the fashions of the "street." To those deeply invested in and associated with the dominant culture, his attitude is perceived as profoundly oppositional. His presence in public gathering places becomes disturbing to others, and the stereotype of the dangerous young black male is perpetuated and strengthened. To understand the origin of the problem and the prospects of the black inner-city male, it is essential to distinguish his experience from that of his pre-Civil Rights Movement forebears. In the 1950s, as militant black people increasingly emerged to challenge the system, the figure of the black male became more ambiguous and fearsome. And while this activism did have the positive effect of creating opportunities for the black middle class who fled from the ghettos, those who remained faced an increasingly desperate climate. Featuring a foreword by Cornel West and sixteen original essays by contributors including William Julius Wilson, Gerald D. Jaynes, Douglas S. Massey, and Peter Edelman, Against the Wall illustrates how social distance increases as alienation and marginalization within the black male underclass persist, thereby deepening the country's racial divide.
Download or read book Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life written by Baruti K. Kafele and published by ASCD. This book was released on 2010-02-12 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most vexing problems confronting educators today is the chronic achievement gap between black male students and their peers. In this inspiring and thought-provoking book, veteran educator Baruti K. Kafele offers a blueprint for lifting black males up and ensuring their success in the classroom and beyond. Motivating Black Males to Achieve in School and in Life offers proven strategies for getting black male students in middle school and high school to value learning, improve their grades, and maintain high standards for themselves. The author shows how simple but powerful measures to instill self-worth in young black males can not only raise these students' achievement, but also profoundly alter their lives for the better. This book will help you to help students * Reverse the destructive effects of negative influences, whether among peers or in the popular culture; * Surmount adverse conditions at home or in their communities; * Participate in mentorship programs with successful black male adults; and * Take pride in their heritage by learning about great figures and achievements in black history. Whether your school is urban or rural, all-black or mixed, you'll find this book to be an insightful resource that addresses the root causes of low achievement among young black males and offers a clear path to overcoming them.
Download or read book Searching for Black Confederates written by Kevin M. Levin and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, scores of websites, articles, and organizations repeat claims that anywhere between 500 and 100,000 free and enslaved African Americans fought willingly as soldiers in the Confederate army. But as Kevin M. Levin argues in this carefully researched book, such claims would have shocked anyone who served in the army during the war itself. Levin explains that imprecise contemporary accounts, poorly understood primary-source material, and other misrepresentations helped fuel the rise of the black Confederate myth. Moreover, Levin shows that belief in the existence of black Confederate soldiers largely originated in the 1970s, a period that witnessed both a significant shift in how Americans remembered the Civil War and a rising backlash against African Americans' gains in civil rights and other realms. Levin also investigates the roles that African Americans actually performed in the Confederate army, including personal body servants and forced laborers. He demonstrates that regardless of the dangers these men faced in camp, on the march, and on the battlefield, their legal status remained unchanged. Even long after the guns fell silent, Confederate veterans and other writers remembered these men as former slaves and not as soldiers, an important reminder that how the war is remembered often runs counter to history.
Download or read book Invisible Man Got the Whole World Watching written by Mychal Denzel Smith and published by Bold Type Books. This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller An unflinching account of what it means to be a young black man in America today, and how the existing script for black manhood is being rewritten in one of the most fascinating periods of American history. How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama. It means witnessing the deaths of Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Akai Gurley, and too many more. It means celebrating powerful moments of black self-determination for LeBron James, Dave Chappelle, and Frank Ocean. In Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, Mychal Denzel Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during these tumultuous years, describing his efforts to come into his own in a world that denied his humanity. Smith unapologetically upends reigning assumptions about black masculinity, rewriting the script for black manhood so that depression and anxiety aren't considered taboo, and feminism and LGBTQ rights become part of the fight. The questions Smith asks in this book are urgent--for him, for the martyrs and the tokens, and for the Trayvons that could have been and are still waiting.
Download or read book Black Man Rise written by Robert Gibbs and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Black Man Rise" is a collection of life lessons from Author, Robert Gibbs, which challenges today's Fatherless Black Young Men to rise above perceived limitations and get to the next level. It talks about the Black Man Struggle (BMS) experienced by his father and offers practical examples on how a fragile population can handle today's issues. "Black Man Rise" tackles issues such as the importance of Black men in the family, financial success, anger management , police interaction, decision making and prosperity in the Black community. It challenges today's youth to use their minds to unleash the greatness within them. This is a resource for anyone who has young Black men in their lives who are in need of mentoring, as it provides useful examples of what is takes to find a way out of the streets. It offers a clear set of solutions to issues such as fear, faithlessness and failure.
Download or read book Mighty Real An Anthology of African American Same Gender Loving Writings written by edited by R. Bryant Smith and Darius Omar Williams and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on with total page 740 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Between the World and Me written by Ta-Nehisi Coates and published by One World. This book was released on 2015-07-14 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NAMED ONE OF TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF OPRAH’S “BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH” • NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading,” a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN • NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son—and readers—the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
Download or read book Black Like Us written by Devon W. Carbado and published by Cleis Press. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles one hundred years of African-American homosexual literature, from the turn-of-the-century writings of Alice Dunbar Nelson, to the Harlem Renaissance of Langston Hughes, to the emerging sexual liberation movements of the later postwar era as reflected by James Baldwin. Original.
Download or read book The Minds of Marginalized Black Men written by Alford A. Young Jr. and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-30 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While we hear much about the "culture of poverty" that keeps poor black men poor, we know little about how such men understand their social position and relationship to the American dream. Moving beyond stereotypes, this book examines how twenty-six poverty-stricken African American men from Chicago view their prospects for getting ahead. It documents their definitions of good jobs and the good life--and their beliefs about whether and how these can be attained. In its pages, we meet men who think seriously about work, family, and community and whose differing experiences shape their views of their social world. Based on intensive interviews, the book reveals how these men have experienced varying degrees of exposure to more-privileged Americans--differences that ground their understandings of how racism and socioeconomic inequality determine their life chances. The poorest and most socially isolated are, perhaps surprisingly, most likely to believe that individuals can improve their own lot. By contrast, men who regularly leave their neighborhood tend to have a wider range of opportunities but also have met with more racism, hostility, and institutional obstacles--making them less likely to believe in the American Dream. Demonstrating how these men interpret their social world, this book seeks to de-pathologize them without ignoring their experiences with chronic unemployment, prison, and substance abuse. It shows how the men draw upon such experiences as they make meaning of the complex circumstances in which they strive to succeed.
Download or read book Race and the Invisible Hand written by Deirdre Royster and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2003-10-02 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the time of Booker T. Washington to today, and William Julius Wilson, the advice dispensed to young black men has invariably been, "Get a trade." Deirdre Royster has put this folk wisdom to an empirical test—and, in Race and the Invisible Hand, exposes the subtleties and discrepancies of a workplace that favors the white job-seeker over the black. At the heart of this study is the question: Is there something about young black men that makes them less desirable as workers than their white peers? And if not, then why do black men trail white men in earnings and employment rates? Royster seeks an answer in the experiences of 25 black and 25 white men who graduated from the same vocational school and sought jobs in the same blue-collar labor market in the early 1990s. After seriously examining the educational performances, work ethics, and values of the black men for unique deficiencies, her study reveals the greatest difference between young black and white men—access to the kinds of contacts that really help in the job search and entry process.
Download or read book Black Men in Science written by Bryan Patrick Avery and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2022-02-01 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Incredible stories of Black men who changed the course of science—for kids ages 8 to 12 All throughout history, Black men have made important contributions to scientific discovery. This collection of biographies for kids explores 15 of these intelligent men and the extraordinary scientific accomplishments they achieved—even when they faced huge challenges. You'll learn how they stood up against racism and inequality, and never stopped following their passions for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Meet talented Black men in history who have helped: Explore our world—Discover inventors like Lewis Howard Latimer and biologists like George Washington Carver, and find out how they expanded our understanding of the world around us. Advance medicine—Learn the stories of doctors like James McCune Smith and Leonidas Berry who helped stop the spread of disease and change the way we perform surgery. Change the game—Find out how people like geneticist Rick Kittles and engineer Roy L. Clay Sr. are still doing important research and breaking barriers. Dive into a world of inspiring men with this scientific entry into Black history books for kids.
