Black Misery [Paperback]

Langston Hughes (Author), Arouni (Illustrator), Jesse Jackson (Introduction), Robert G. O'Meally (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2001 | Age Level: 7 and up

Black Misery was first published in 1969, but the gentle, funny, and sometimes melancholy words of Langston Hughes still cause a blink of recognition. After 25 years, it remains relevant in our own time. As you turn the pages you may say, "I remember feeling like that!" You may say, "I feel like that now."
As you look at Arouni's black and white illustrations and read the short but powerful one sentence captions, you feel the predicament of a black child adjusting to the new world of integration of the 1960s. You feel the mix of hope and dismay that characterized the decade.
Langston Hughes was a writer who often made his readers ask hard questions about life. In Black Misery he wrote about prejudice and indifference, but he wrote with humor and compassion. Today--just as we did 25 years ago-we smile and even laugh, and we also understand that some things are more than hard, are more than sad. They are pure misery.
Black Misery was the last book that Langston Hughes wrote. He died in May 1967, while working on the manuscript.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Gr. 6-12. The title is ironic. This small 1969 volume of captions and pictures has been reissued by the Opie Library of Children's Literature, but it's not really a children's book. As Robert O'Meally says in his excellent afterword, these are some of the kinds of jokes blacks tell among themselves. Teens interested in the civil rights movement, then and now, will get Hughes' wry, understated wit, his lyrical honesty about bigotry and hard times. Some things are straight from the 1960s ("Misery is when you find out your bosom buddy can go in the swimming pool but you can't"). Some things haven't changed ("Misery is when the taxicab won't stop for your mother and she says a bad word"). There's a rueful candor about private feelings ("Misery is when you heard on the radio that the neighborhood you live in is a slum but you always thought it was home"). Stereotypes are mocked all around: What if you do like watermelon? Great for group discussion of values, these scenarios make you grin, even as you wince at their painful truths. Hazel Rochman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This timeless classic...explores a black perception of what it means to be happy."--American Visions

"Hughes's captions for Arouni's watercolor illustrations were written in the heat of the integration battle, but their perceptive snapshots of the more subtle effects of racism do not date."--Times Educational Supplement

"Hughes's wry, understated wit, his lyrical honesty about bigotry and hard times...make you grin, even as you wince at their painful truths."--Booklist

"Langston Hughes captures the daily trials of growing up black in his endearing but pointed book."--MetroKids

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 7 and up
  
• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195142985
• ISBN-13: 978-0195142983
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.2 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,678,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book about Privilege for Adults and Children, March 20, 2001

By 

Elderbear (Loma Linda, Aztlan) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Black Misery (Paperback)

Most white people rarely think about racial discrimination except as something that happened "back then" "down south". We're (I write this as a white man) far more likely to whine about "reverse discrimination," about how unfair affirmative action is and how confusing PC speech has become (Are "they" black, African-Americans, people of color or *what* ?). We tend to think of black people three ways:

1) We see them as white people with extra pigmentation. We don't really notice any difference and blithely assume that they're "just like us".

2) We see them as gods and superheros, running faster, jumping higher, dancing better, and better endowed in various ways.

3) We demonize them--welfare mothers pumping out babies, gangstas, crack ho's & that junkie pulling a smash 'n' grab to feed his habit.

Rarely do we ever try to understand what it's like, growing up different. Langston Hughes, in this powerful little book, opens a window for us. Although aimed at children of all races, perhaps the people who benefit most from this work will be white "liberals" who think racism is horrible until an African-American family moves in down the block.

"Misery is when the taxi cab won't stop for your motoher and she says a bad word."

"Misery is when you first realize so many things bad have black in them, like black cats, black arts, blackball."

"Misery is when you go to the Department Store before Christmas and find out that Santa is a white man."

"Misery is when you start to help an old white lady across the street and she thinks you're trying to snatch her purse."

These, and a whole host of others, are poignantly illustrated by Arouni. The book is introduced by Jesse Jackson, who points out that some things are dated (society has evolved a bit since 1967), but that plenty of room for progress remains. Historical events, such as the presidential election of 2000, demonstrate that deep and systematic racism still pervades American life. This was the last work that Langston Hughes wrote. He died in 1967, while working on the manuscript.

Both my 13-year-old son and my 8-year-old daughter have found the book touching. Reading it with them has helped them to have a better understanding of what it might be like to be "different." I believe this book opens the way for genuine dialogue between people of different races, instead of maintaining projections and biases.