Customer Reviews

BLACK POWER, WHITE BLOOD: The Life and Times of Johnny Spain

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Former Panthers and the academics that write about them are starting to seriously realize that the Panthers were never just about race alone. Biographies by Elaine Brown and Assata Shakur deal with gender and the Panthers. Edmund White's biography of Jean Genet discusses how the Panthers dealt with a gay, white, foreign supporter. Now, in this book about an Afro-European Panther named Johnny Spain, Andrews looks at how a mixed-race individual was affected by the Party. Andrews writes in a simple style that would make this biography accessible to almost any reader. By moving from the stereotyped tragic mulatto to becoming a "bridge person" and cross-racial activist, this book is about redemption. I can imagine it influencing mixed-race men in the same way that Malcolm X's autobiography has influenced monoracial black men (though X was one-quarter white). One major theme of this book is how inhumanely prisoners are treated in American jails. This book should be appreciated by prisoners' rights activists regardless of race and multiracial activists regardless of their views on prisoners. ... Finally, there is a book that works against this tide. I would strongly encourage every mixed man in the US to read this book.

This is an eye-opener and indictment of the United States prison system and particularly the horrifying way it treated black prisoners. Also of the FBI and media which vilified the Black Panthers and other black activists, in many cases unfairly. Most of all this is a wonderfully satisfying story of redemption. The detail obtained by the author and the subsequent depth of her descriptions and fleshing out of the main character are unparalleled and reflect the 7 years she spent relentlessly interviewing Johnny Spain. Black Power White Blood

I have met Johnny and talked with him at length. It's difficult to reconcile this story with the person that I know. He is the least bitter person I have ever met and he works tirelessly for a common good. He is a very bright spark in our world.