Living to Tell About It: Young Black Men in America Speak [Paperback]

Darrell Dawsey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 1997

The statistics about young black men are familiar; homicide is their #1 killer, one fourth are in jail, on parole or probation, and theirs rates of unemployment, teen fatherhood, educational drop-out-and death-exceed those of any other demographic group. Moreover, in the public mind, even those who don't bear out the grim statistics have come to embody society's worst pathologies. When given the opportunity to speak for themselves, they report feeling as fearful of mere survival as they are feared, as threatened as they are threatening.

Living to Tell About It is the first book to look beyond the statistics and perceptions at the real lives and experiences of most young black men in America today. Over the course of a year, journalist Darrell Dawsey traveled across the country, listening to a mosaic of young men talk about their childhoods, relationships with parents and women, sexuality, self-respect, spirituality, ambitions, the race that binds them and the diversity of class, education and geography that distinguishes them. Interweaving interview material with powerful reflections on his own background as a single-parent child of the inner city and a young father, Dawsey portrays the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of young black men in a society where they have been the targets of disenfranchisement, neglect, racism, and hostility.

The result is a compelling portrait of a generation facing the manifold challenges and dilemmas of black manhood-and living to tell about it."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For this book, Dawsey, a 27-year-old Detroit native and writer for the Detroit News, visited nine cities to interview black men aged 15 to 24. Mixing vignettes with his own musings, the author addresses such subjects as childhood, relationships with parents, respect, work, spirituality and violence. Given Dawsey's own urban upbringing and his "ground level" black nationalism-"to be Black in America is to be political"-there's a hard edge to this book; most interviewees are from the 'hood, not the suburbs or the country-though a few have become professionals-and Dawsey warily evaluates subjects he considers on the edge of sellout, like a black cop, while uncritically accepting a rapper who claims "the white man is the devil." Given that, Dawsey's own anger-at a father who abandoned him and at a country that discounts his life-has fueled a deep sensitivity to the daily struggles of his peers, and he rightly sees the ghetto drug economy as a business, part of how black youth pursue the American dreams of individualism and wealth. In his chapter on sex, he gives voice to a gay man and a Christian virgin and has harsh words for the misogynist strain in inner-city black male culture.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Contemporary American society is rife with stereotypes of African American males as athletes, entertainers, criminals, or victims. Following in the wake of October's Million Man March on Washington are two myth-shattering books on African American men. Through writings or interviews, both titles explore the life experiences of black men struggling to survive in a white society. In Living To Tell About It, Dawsey, a Detroit native and writer for the Detroit News, visited nine cities and interviewed black men from the ages of 15 to 24. Interviews covered issues concerning parent/child relationships, work, violence, and respect. In most instances Dawsey blames the white power structure. In Speak My Name, Belton, a former Newsweek reporter, presents a diverse anthology of original writings countering many of society's stigmatized images. These essays touch upon African American men's self-image, family life, and personal relationships. Both books are essential selections for African American studies collections.?Michael A. Lutes, Univ. of Notre Dame Libs., South Bend, Ind.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; Reprint edition (January 20, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385473141
• ISBN-13: 978-0385473149
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,058,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Average book about a great topic, December 1, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Living to Tell About It: Young Black Men in America Speak (Paperback)

Dawsey is an African-American journalist from the East Coast. He interviewed thousands of young African-American males for this book. The chapters break down into such matters as parents (especially absent fathers), girlfriends, (being chased by) the cops, emerging political identities, etc. He provides stories from a number of his interviewees. Dawsey intends his audience to be the same group of people that he interviewed. Thus, this book is more for teenagers and young adults than academics or older readers. While Dawsey makes a decent attempt at condemning sexism, his discussion of homophobia is half-hearted and dismissive. I liked Belton's "Speak My Name" and Carbado's "Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality" much more than this book. However, this is a decent, beginning piece for people who want to read about young brothers.

5.0 out of 5 stars For all those who deny that racism is still a problem..., February 15, 2010

By 

Robert Reid (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Living to Tell About It: Young Black Men in America Speak (Paperback)

First and foremost, I recommend this book to all white people in America who don't "get" racism- which would be all of us. While it's far too easy for well-meaning Americans to take for granted the privilege of being born into the dominant race, it's very difficult to see the challenges that others, particularly blacks, face due to systemic factors built over centuries of racism. This book illuminates these challenges, not in vague and general terms that would trigger knee-jerk defensiveness in us, but via a series of short profiles about struggling blacks throughout the nation.

Much like Studs Terkel, Dawsey captures the dialect and raw sentiment of his many subjects, and in large part reserves judgment and leaves the reader to draw conclusions. Each chapter covers a distinct topic- the role of mothers, the role of fathers, sexism, violence, etc. and begins with a short autobiographical passage defining his own experience. Dawsey doesn't boast at all about how he not only outlived most of his friends but developed himself into a highly articulate and sensitive writer on one of the touchiest and divisive subjects of all. But, it's hard not to notice.

For all those who deny that racism is real... the genius of Dawsey's work is that he doesn't so much tell you that racism is real but rather shows you what he's seen- and leaves it up to you to decide. To be sure, he does introduce some heavy-handed and likely controversial sentiments- citing the church's manipulation of blacks through faith, blacks' role as sacrificial pawns in the drug industry which is ultimately run by whites, "white-run parasite industries that thrive off the misdirection of the ghetto", an explanation of blacks' tendency to physically punish children as part of "a tradition that has roots in our peoples' history as white folks' chattel... to teach them the common sense and safety of subservience in an era wherein brashness in Black kids often raised a murderous ire in slaveholders and overseers."

While these views are probably not palatable to many skeptical readers, the book as a whole is very palatable due to the author's own disarming honesty and self-awareness. Not only does he come clean about his days as a teenage stickup man (a product of his own "petty greed, a desire to earn props, boredom, mischief"), but he also labels himself as a sexist ("I feel a special need to address the issue of sexism as directly as I can, given my limitations as a beneficiary of the oppression of women.") before describing how he's worked to overcome it. So if Dawsey can acknowledge that sexism is real, who are we (whites) to deny that racism is real?