Amazon.com Review
In this massive anthology, Steven Barboza reveals the story of the African American as largely a story of good triumphing over evil, in a myriad of forms. "This book," he writes, "can give children, families, teachers and friends glimpses of values in action and provide moral examples that any reader can recognize." Culled from many short-story and novel excerpts, poems, and essays, the collection is divided into three distinct headings. "The Book of Self-Mastery" examines self-discipline, courage, honesty, self-esteem, work, tenacity, creativity, and faith through texts such as Ralph Ellison's "Little Man at Chehaw Station," historian Charles Blockson's heroic "The Ballad of the Underground Railroad," and Alain Locke's philosophical battle cry of the Harlem Renaissance, "The New Negro." Charles Chesnutt's "The Wife of His Youth," James Weldon Johnson's stereotype-smashing look at Harlem in "Black Manhattan," and Martin Luther King's immortal "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" illuminate many of the themes in "The Book of Empathy," including family, community and responsibility.
In "Survival Humor," we find the most vibrant examples of the mores that helped Afro-Americans endure slavery, racism, and discrimination, as evidenced by the Southern-spun tall tales of folklorist Zora Neale Hurston's "Big Ol' Lies," the hard-luck fable of Afro-vaudevillian funnyman Bert Williams's "The Colored Zoo," and the mother of all insult narratives: the ancient, blues-and-riff-based style of "The Signifying Monkey." Barboza writes that "humor has played more than just a funny role in the affairs of black folks. Truth is, for African-Americans, humor has always been serious business. It served its purpose well as a survival mechanism, used to defend, attack, counterattack and guide people through life's rougher spots." This section is the capper to an impressively diversified volume that may prove equally capable of guidance. --Eugene Holley Jr.
From Library Journal
This compendium of black values is intended to give children, families, and teachers glimpses of moral values in action. It focuses on the strength, versatility, and resiliency of blacks?both historic figures and relative unknowns. "The Book of Self-Mastery" focuses on self-discipline, courage, honesty, self-esteem, work, tenacity, creativity, and faith, while "The Book of Empathy" centers on family, community, love, friendship, compassion, responsibility, respect, loyalty, and survival humor. The material originates in the treasure archives of black experience?from the planting fields of pre-Civil War Mississippi to the sidewalks of Harlem and from the corner beauty parlor to the local church. This library of narratives, stories, letters, songs, folktales, and poems is by black folks about black folks for black folks. Barboza (American Jihad, Doubleday, 1995) relates his own experience and is deeply sensitive to the need to address the influence of drugs and violence on black culture. Recommended for all public libraries.?Leroy Hommerding, Citrus Cty. Lib. System, Inverness, FL
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
