Customer Reviews

The Blackwoman's Guide to Understanding the Blackman

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The guide to understanding the black man, by Shahrazad Ali, is not really a guide. It is a distorted commentary of the behavior of black men and a narrow-minded/moralist view of the black community as a whole. And a comtempt for white people.

One of the few areas she was accurate in was her comments on the ignorant and self-destructive behavior of most black men trying to prove their manhood through senseless violence, but I question the way this information is presented in this book, because most of it is false, lacking in facts or commonsense.

Ms. Ali, quickly, distance herself from the title and goal of this book in Understanding the black man. At random I picked out five of the many false and poorly researched claims made in this book.

False Claim: Sister Ali accused Essence, a magazine for black women, of defaming the black family by promoting lesbianism. Claiming three to four issues a year is devoted to this.

Truth: Essence does feature stories on noted black women and men. Tips on beauty, fashion and life style for african american women. There is no evidence from the issues I have read that they have a of gay or lesbian agenda.

2. Claiming God is against interracial Relationships.

Truth: Unless God has talked to her and told her this himself I doubt it is true.

I would want proof and pictures.

There is nothing in the bible or any religious document that says anything about interracial relationships. Her view are identical to white racist view on the same relationships. Some years back a Klan organization made the same claim with no proof to back it up.

3. Saying that the civil rights movement was a failure.

Truth: If that was true my race of people would still be riding in the back of the bus with no right to vote. This is another false and strange view by Ms. Ali.

3. Falsely accusing two other black magazines, Ebony and Jet, of promoting Interracial relationships.

Truth: It is obvious that she has not read any of these magazines she is making the claims against. Like Essence both Ebony and jet concentrate on Feautures and Issues, and has never promoted an agenda toward interracial relationships.

4. Giving failure mark to every civil rights leader except Booker T. Washington and Elijah muhammad.

Truth: Civil Rights Leaders got more accomplished than they were given credit for by Ms. Ali.

On the other hand the Nation of Islam was responsible for the betrayal and murder of Malcolm x after he left the nation. Men from the nation were convicted of this crime.

Ms. Ali denies the real reasons of what was done to Malcolm, and does her best to Vilify him along with other black mainstream leaders, which included Dr. King. She also refuses to deal with the fact that one of her leaders, Elijah Muhammad, was sexually involved with women who worked for him. When they got pregnant they were kicked out of the nation.

Muhammad broke his own rules, he developed, on sexual involvement and respect for Muslim women. He also refused to take care of children he helped create, which was reported in jet magazine to be 13. These women were forced to file paternity suits against him.

There is nothing in this book that can help blackwomen understand us better. It is impossible for any one person to understand the mindset of every black man in this country. I also think that she has not interview any blackmen, for their views, in writing this book. Sensible or helpful information will not be found here.

first let me say, every statement in this book is not true, and she cites very early on that alot of it is simple observation combined with historical research, the state of the black man in america is a serious one, and it demands a real look at what role the black man is playing in the lives of his ch ildren community and his own life. The book does not cut corners nor does it sugarcoat, it is a dose of reality, not every black man is doing the things she discusses and if you are not, then do not take it personally, but on a whole, especially in the inner cities it may be more true, both sides have some culpability in this black female and black males, there will be times when you will say to yourself while reading this book' yeah thats true, even if you don't want to, because chances are you have seen or been subjected to this behavior. If you are a black man in america and a black woman i really suggest you read this book, whether you agree with anything she says or not at all, it is worthy of reading.

This book was the topic of our book club. One of our members had read it; and, recommended that we read it. The women in the book club was absolutely flabbergasted by the comments in this book. It was not indicative of black women as a whole!!!!! The men in the group praised it, of course!!!! It gave them justification for their wrongdoing. I was in total disagreement with this book and it was a typical Nation of Islam book.

In her second offering of the type Ms Ali attempts to dissect the ego of the Black male. In a manner similar to The Blackman's Guide she chooses to focus her analysis on the least civilized specimen in society. However, unlike the previous book she chooses to evoke feelings of sympathy, rather than contempt, toward the subject of this work. Like most of her writings her ideas are beneficial, but you have to be careful to take the best part and build from there.

The Blackwoman's Guide IS useful, in that it describes the world that my children will inherit. For future generations who will raise and educate Black men she points out those character flaws common to many in our society, thereby providing a guideline of those traits that we may want to stress or reinforce more often with our male children.

Ms. Ali ends this work with an analysis of male leaders from history. While her ideas may seem biased she opened the door toward honest criticism of Black leadership in America. While I don't agree with all of her conclusions, I do see her point in evaluating various characteristics and techniques of leadership, and intend to pass this on to my children.

I recommend every Black mother/father to make this a required reading once your child reaches age of reason.

Very Prompt service, fast shipping great product. A++++++ will definitely do business again. I Highly Recommend this seller :-)