Customer Reviews

The End of Blackness

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Dickerson's body blow-dealing introduction is enough to wither most black intellectuals where they stand. Taken by itself, one would think the remaining 275 pages were a primer on how to get your butt-whupped at the company picnic of the NAACP. After plainly and deftly laying out in the first sentence the purpose of her book, she jabs, kicks and otherwise pounds on the kufi-donned heads of any black person donning race baggage without breaking a lip sweat, with such haymakers as:

"[Blacks] have not been left out of America; they affect rejecting it while availing themselves of every morsel of its benefits."

Ouch. Or how about:

"If an upheaval on the scale of the civil rights movement couldn't do it, it is hard to know what it will take to satisfy the `woe is me' race men that they are citizens; perhaps a giant Hallmark card signed by every Caucasian in America."

Are your cowry shells ringing yet?

Dickerson, however, isn't a simple race baiter. She just as easily spends the next 25 pages running white folks through the ringer, detailing the developmental history of slavery and racism as it has nurtured and been so nurtured in the west. From there, the rest of the book is open season on anybody without an open mind.

Dickerson possesses a cool hand when it comes to capturing not only the academic side of the racial shebang, but is particularly stunning at pointing out the ridiculous foibles of a people who want freedom by as few means as necessary. Her codification and critique of popular public-passed emails such as "You Know You're Ghetto Corporate If..." and "Ghetto Resume" puts her research firmly in the front lines of the debate, and yet, just when you think she's Clarence Thomas in a dress, she lambasts whites for contributing politely to much of the same crimes of ignorance and fear-based rhetoric as blacks. A great example, among many, is the section on Africa-bashing by whites to slip under the radar of the homegrown racism they claim to no longer possess as it relates to Africa's American stepchildren.

Dickerson plays for keeps, and despite what must be an obvious and careful noting of just-enough cases to make the points she wishes to make, she writes this book with more courage and brawn than any Dyson book, and with more on-ramps into her worldview than Cornel West has ever offered. You may not like what she has to say, but chances are if the rock hit you, well, you were the one in the pack she was aiming for. The question isn't how back is Dickerson. The question is, how black are blacks, and what does that mean 40 years out of the civil rights movement?

This book reads as though Dickerson wrote it like it might be her only one. Hopefully, we'll not have to wait long for another dose of her medicine. It goes down tough, but you'll be better in the morning.

(Review from KISO Books)

I too was inspired to buy this book after seeing the author on Bill Maher. I was very much looking forward to a frank, honest and convincing deconstruction of the essence of the black experience in America and a proposal to reform our ideas of race and identity in America. I finished the book not completely satisfied but consider the book worth a look.

Ms. Dickerson obviously is a well-educated, intelligent woman who has given much thought and study to issues of race. She does a good job of dissecting the underpinnings of white racism and "blackness," and our misperceptions about both. She seems to imply that blackness is borne of a reflexive, defiant attitude towards white racism that has been an effective "defense mechanism" but not a basis for true development within the black community. She dismisses the notions of blackness, identity and "realness" that have permeated our culture since the Civil Rights Movement. And she concludes with a call for black people to "disarm" themselves of such thought processes and attitudes so we can attain full membership in American society.

It is a powerful,counter-intuitive manifesto. But it has its drawbacks.

1. The book is not as well-written as I would have expected. At times, it reads like a string of personal and historical anecdotes and block quotes from other works which don't flow very well.

2. The author seems to want to ignore the virtues of black identity and culture, one of the most unique cultures in the history of the world.

3. By excoriating figures like Ms. Vanzant, the author engages in exactly the kind of behavior she seeks to eliminate. She mistakes personal judgments for valid criticism, and at times, she makes ad hominem attacks on those with whom she disagrees.

But this book's strength lies in the fact that it represents an alternative perspective on blackness and a provocative thesis that, at the very least, helps you think through your own philosophy on race and identity. Any book that makes you think can't be all bad.

...some of the tough things that we, as black Americans, should have been saying for many many years.

Ms Dickerson deserves full marks for having the courage to skewer many of the sacred cows that we have been praying to for so many years. Further, she doesn't shrink from taking stab at today's almost-useless civil rights leaders.

It is time, and past time for us to be proud of who we are for what we are and what we have done in this country. Not because white people will acknowledge it... some will, some won't, but so what? The acknowledgement of others shouldn't be the goal of ethnic pride. That said, it should also be said that ethnic pride shouldn't be a bar to the pride that comes from being an American.

It is time, and past time for us to stop seeing ourselves only in comparison to how we are treated by white people... or any other people, including other black people. Black Americans have done remarkable things. We are inseparably woven into the fabric of American history and society.

It is time, and past time for us to stop pretending that we exist outside of American society. We don't. This is our country, we are full citizens... let's act like it. We should walk tall, be proud, look others in the eye and smile, or not..., but not because of hostility, but because we are sure of ourselves and our great role in the building, and the success of this country. We ought not wait for the approval of other people to feel good about ourselves. This is childish behavior.

This book could have been written better, and I don't agree with every word that is printed here, but what Dickerson wrote needed to be said.

Dickerson is right... the mind truly is the last plantation, and all we need do is walk out through the open gate and decide to opt in.

I just read this book and I was blown away. She is one brave woman. The PC crowd is going to smack her around good, you watch and see. They do this to anyone who tries to leave their plantation of orthodoxies. She says we black folk got to move beyond the old civil rights paradigms because they just don't make sense anymore. Worse than that, they're keeping black people down. It's hard to let go of what's comfortable, but it's the only way we can climb higher. It truly can be said of Ms. Dickerson, she says what we've all been thinking, in our heart of hearts.

As a Black American it's refreshing to read from someone who actually cares about Black America really 'keeping in real' and backing up the sentiments with quotes and references from the likes of F. Douglass,Albert Murry, Carter Woodson & Franklin Frazier. She does a good job of invoking the wisdom of our ancestors, then playing her own riffs. Instead of the stale categoris of Social Science research, she relies on her intellectual ancestors, her life experience and her own common sense to explain life as she sees it.

The critics that scurry out from the usual ideological corners to attack her only proves her point that it's Blacks that want to narrowly define and limit other Blacks.

Implying that having whites enjoy her book proves that what she writes doesn't have merit is nonsense, avoids the premise and misses the fact that she invokes quotes from Black ancestory who weren't Uncle Toms.

The critics that rely heavily on traditional liberal vs conservative labels also misses the point by saying she's a retread. Her propensity for the references seems to imply that she isn't claiming any new information only her take on perspectives that need to continue as part of national dialogue. The emotional knee-jerk simplistic label of neo-con. is a coward's ploy to censor voices within the 'Black community' voices that aren't in the pockets of the liberal community.

Voices like Debra need to be a part of the national dialoque. One implication from her book is that sadly many Blacks find more power in victimization. Her critics make her case.

DICKERSON OPENS ON THE WHITE SIDE OF THE HOUSE
Dickerson begins this book by skewering whites (mostly conservatives seem to draw her ire) as folks who always wish to always appear in a good light- seeking to airbrush away the ugly facts of history before the closing credits roll. But black folk as Dickerson jokes, "have access to the Director's cut". They KNOW what parts are missing. Whites also she says, always desire to be at the center of attention- whether it be from the easy assumption of black inferiority, to the clutching of purses within the vicinity of any black male, to white South African tales of woe, doom and gloom. Black conservatives are not exempt, although she handles them gingerly. Curiously enough, Dickerson seems to have few bones to pick with white liberals apart from some mild boilerplate.

TAKING BLACKS TO THE WOODSHED
Dickerson next heads to the woodshed with blacks. The bottom line is that she says blacks are focused too much on whites, who yet again, seem to be the center of attention. It is time that blacks concentrate on OTHER THINGS, like the hard work that needs to be done internally. Such a view of course is not the "correct" one to play up, and the "black politiburo" ruthlessly attacks those who fail to demonstrate the "right way of thinking".

DICKERSON LETS WHITE LIBERALS OFF THE HOOK
It could be a strategy of protective innoculation or flank cover, but Dickerson expends a lot of ink hurling barbs at "conservative" whites. Some are well deserved, but even in the book's ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS at the back, she is warning against the machinations of the Republicans and manages to squeeze in a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Easy targets include wavers of the Confederate Flag, right wing talk show hosts, racists of the old Jim Crow regimes, conservative scholars and various other "unreconstructed" whites.

--- --- Some of these criticisms are valid, but she fails to do the blunt speaking that is also needed towards white liberals, who are adept at manipulating blacks symbolically to cover their own agendas. The whites doing the most damage to blacks today are not those insensitive Confederate Flag people, but arguably, white liberals. Too often, the patronizing social policies they support have helped sap and preempt the initiative of the black community- from the dependency fostering welfare system, to the deceptive quotas of "affirmative action", to the cynical tokenism of some so-called "diversity", to the dismal and corrupt public "education" system and its obstructive (white dominated) unions. Any SERIOUS analysis of white society must acknowledge liberal deception. Malcolm X didn't shirk from it, but Dickerson by in large does, despite liberal quotations from Malcolm himself.

. . Dickerson asserts that the "black politiburo" tactily cooperates with those bad white right-wingers in exposing the negative side of black life, but curiously, downplays a much more relevant and substantial relationship- that of white liberals with said "black politiburo"- a link which demands that such negatives be played up endlessly.

. . Dickerson continually seesaws between pulling out yet another nugget of white hypocrisy or racism, while simultaneously urging black folk to frankly examine themselves. As a result the book sometimes seems to lose focus, and some of the plain speaking and central thread of her argument, is lost in the shuffle.

DICKERSON'S ANALYSES COULD BE BETTER
Dickerson too often resorts to sound-bite McNuggets, when meatier examples would make her case. She has very little substantatively, to say about religion, a key player in any realistic scenario of black uplift. She mentions black preachers successfully catering to "millions" of unmarried black women and points out that while women make up 75% or more of many congregation, they are only 5% of the clergy.
Fine, but such imbalances have been noted ever since the 1960s, and doesn't 4 decades of success by such preachers in the face of this imbalance (and numerous scandals) indicate that blacks still WANT and PREFER the male element to exercise spiritual leadership? The "Essence Sisters" crowd may not think much of this as they head to the salon for another hairdo, but it is the reality on the ground for millions. Doesn't the success of the "patriarchal" Nation of Islam also confirm this preference among blacks, unglamorous as it may be?

. . Furthermore the ancient Hebrew scriptures speaking of Jehovah as father to the fatherless, and a protector and husband to widows and the vulnerable female, finds strong resonance in historical black religion. And some of the most promising initiatives for black uplift today are found precisely in those churches. Doesn't all this call for more serious analysis and commentary, rather than yet another joke about "yo baby daddy?"

THE BOTTOM LINE
Dickerson's brief final summation notes that while blacks can't control the behavior of others, they can control THEIR REACTIONS to that behavior. Rather than attempting to change the hearts and minds of the insensitive, the racist or the indifferent, it is time to concentrate on changing what they can. Blacks must stop dreading and stop caring what white people think. No one should set higher standards for blacks, than blacks.

RATING
On the whole- 4 stars for some good writing and fresh material, but too often sound bites substitute for penetrating analysis, and white liberals- one of the most damaging groups to blacks, are essentially given a pass. Her avoidance of serious discussion of such topics as affirmative action also shows that the "courageous" declarations touted by some reviewers are rather less so. Dickerson too often plays it safe, and picks easy targets. This may offer some flank protection, but at the end of the day, the peeps will still holler "traitor", and white liberals will keep on feeling good.

NOTE: Some folks seem to have worked themselves into a lather over Dickerson's interracial marriage. Cut the hypocrisy and get over it people. Evaluate Dickerson's arguments on their own merits.

Polemicists love books on race. Everything is either black or white. There are never any shades of brown.

Fittingly, this book is devided into two sections. Dickerson begins by positing the the white supremacist dialectic that white behavior is the norm and that black behavior is the pathology. She goes onto argue that white supremacists and black polemicists work together to engage in this warped and ultimately self destructive dialogue.

Dickerson is at her strongest in discussing the deep narcisism that is at the heart of white racism. She believes that most white people are incapable of coming to grips with our nation's shameful history of race relations. Dickerson argues that blacks must recognize this deep seated intransgience and then move on. It is a waste of time and emotional energy to ask white America to acknowledge its failures.

The second part of the book delves into the unhealthy dance that black America has with white racism. In this post movement era, Dickerson believes the need for group action and group thought is over. She wants blacks to put white racism out of their minds. Dickerson argues the best remedy for white racism can be only found in individual black achievement.

Anybody who argues that Dickerson is some sort of neo-conservative has obviously not read the book. She has triggered anger in the black community because of her critique of the established black leadership. One should not be surprised that a Harvard educated lawyer in her early forties should have a different view of the world that her elders of the civil rights generation. In another twenty years, a younger generation will critique Dickerson's generation.

Debra Dickerson is a gifted writer. Her book is both thoughtful and entertaining. However, I think it would have been stronger if an editor had cut out 20-30 pages that wander off from her main points. I also think her book would have been much better, if she acknowledged that the United States is truly a multi-cultural nation. Ironically, her need to shape her arguments in a black white dialectic shows that she is a prisoner of the black white paradigm that she is attempting to escape. All and all it is a good book. It could have been a great book if Dickerson had a better editor.

Debra Dickerson has a misguided and jaded view of what is it to be Black in the United States, specifically African-American. The book is a poorly organized and reinforces several stereotypes instead of trying to break them down. Dickerson comes across as if she is a soothsayer and expert on "Black" culture and the "Black" experience in America. The book is very divisive, essentially breaking down African-Americans into two groups: the poverty-stricken, uneducated, criminal and disease-laiden supported by misguided liberal 40 acres and mule seeking neomilitant democrats AND the misunderstood, conflicted,upwardly mobile, conservatively moderate republicans. I personally found the book to be quite irritating because it is too polarized and often inaccurate.

Firstly, I was annoyed that the title of the book is "The End of Blackness," yet the book only addresses her skewed dichotomy of African-Americans. All Black people are NOT African-Americans and the term African-American itself is a misnomer. (This is a point that should have been addressed.) There is a Black diaspora and Black people come from many countries with many different cultures. Where do Black Hispanics/ Latinos fit in? Where do Black Asians and Black Europeans fit in? (yes, these people do exist) Are West Indians also plagued with the same problems? Is there a difference between Black immigrants, 1st generation, 2nd generation, and African-Americans? Her book makes it too easy to label Black people in terms of good or bad, rich or poor, educated or uneducated, educated or miseducated, liberal orconservative, democrat or republican. There is a PLURALIZED Black experience in America and I frankly don't know what possessed her to write this book, besides the prospect of making a profit. How can so-called Blackness end if only African-Americans are addressed?

The second thing that thoroughly annoyed me about this book was her emphasize on the black vs. white dichotomy. America is a multi-cultural society. There must be a discourse that is all-inclusive because progress will not occur without everyone's participation. Many of the attributes that Dickerson assigns to African-Americans can be just as easily applied to Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, Whites, and other racial and ethnic groups in the same socio-economic bracket. I honestly cannot figure out what her message/ thesis/ proposal in this book is. However, whatever message she is trying to convey should NOT only be geared towards Black and White people because America is not a nation of only Black and White people.

The third aspect of this book that has prompted me to return it to the bookstore is that Dickerson repeatedly contradicts herself. This book perpetuates the self-hatred in "Blacks" that it criticizes/ critiques. If Dickerson would like to see improvement in the status and condition of African-Americans, why are we even discussing/ proposing the end of Blackness in the first place? Blackness or the concept of Blackness does NOT have to end in order for progress and societal change to be made. There is no problem with racial mixing and diversity, however, racial mixing does NOT and has NOT solved the so-called problem of Blackness. All of the Spanish-speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere are comprised of mixed peoples. Yet, a racial/ skin color hierarchy still exists. Differences will always exist. With differences come discrimination. People always want to feel superior at the expense of others. This also happens frequently in Asia and the Pacific Islands, i.e. the caste system in India. It's naive, illogical, and just plain dumb to think that racial mixing will "end Blackness." The system of oppression and discrimination is already in place and it merely adjusts over time to suit its needs. Besides, isn't wanting to end Blackness really just another manifestation of self-hatred?

The last thing I wanted to point out is the chapter on the internet Black/ ghetto jokes. I am a Black woman and I have NEVER received nor have I ever seen any of those jokes. I honestly could not relate to them either. They are not representative of "Black" culture and were put in the middle of her book as a filler to compensate for her lack of original ideas. I thought they were pathetic and Dickerson should have dedicated more time to thinking over her thesis and writing something with more substance.

"The End of Blackness" is a book of hope for young blacks. The book is not perfect...there are a number of generalities and easy platitudes that are a detraction. But the great value of the book is in its valid and cogent message of self-fulfillment. It is a call to young minorities to shake off the culture of being a victim and, disregarding the naysayers...both black and white, seize the opportunity to start fulfilling their potential. For further encouragement along the path to self-realization, read "Stanford Professor John McWhorter's 2000 book "Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America."

Following is an excerpt from a review of Professor McWhorter's book by Dutch Martin, a black columnist and political activist:

"As a child, the greatest gift my dear-departed mother ever gave me was an appreciation of the value of an education. As one of six children, this appreciation helped me rise from our poor surroundings in inner city Cleveland to become the successful black professional that I am today."

"Heeding this lesson, however, was also the genesis of years of verbal abuse, ostracism and criticism I was forced to endure from other black people from elementary school through graduate school. During these years, I was accused by my black brethren of "acting white" for using correct English, making good grades and having a sincere love of learning for learning's sake."

"I could not understand why this happened until I read John McWhorter's 2000 book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America. To quote John 9:25, "Where once I was blind, now I see."

"In Losing the Race, Professor McWhorter outlines in surgical detail three aspects of modern day black American cultural mentality, or "cults," that hold us back as a people. First is the Cult of Victimology. In it, victimhood is not seen as a problem to be overcome but an identity to be nurtured. In the Cult of Separatism, the uniqueness of our history is used as a justification to exempt us from the rules that govern the rest of American society. Lastly, in the Cult of Anti-Intellectualism, an affinity toward education is seen as running counter to an "authentic" black identity. I have witnessed first-hand the manifestation of each cult and the masterful job each does in preventing blacks from realizing their full potential."

The message of these books is one of hope. Ignore the bricks and arrows of peers and black 'leaders.' Don't wait for someone else or the government to fix all the wrongs of the past before you can self-achieve.

This is an interesting and at times uncomfortable discussion of the issues that minorities have to deal with in the United States. Deborah Dickerson is an intelligent, insightful masterful author who tackles these issues with grace and wisdom. A book well worth reading.