Customer Reviews

The Omni-americans: Black Experience And American Culture (Da Capo Press Paperback)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Although it's now 30 years old, Albert Murray's debut has hardly aged a day, and his potshotting at the shallow pieties of sociology remains all too relevant. The reader from Pittsburgh seems concerned that Murray isn't positive enough. But I think his central thesis--that we are all omni-Americans, sharing a hybrid, black-and-white culture--is one of the most hopeful things to come down the pike since Whitman hung up his versifying shoes. Add to that the fact that Murray is funny (not an easy thing to be when you're taking Daniel Patrick Moynihan down a peg) and you've got an essential volume on your hands. Three cheers for Da Capo for keeping this in print!

I totally enjoyed the spirit of this book. I might disagree with a few points and admit that Murry at times overstates to make a point. But he is allowed to signify! I disagree with the person from pittsburgh. I think Murry can be a skilled polemicist/intellectual himself, but think he'd rather not. But the book was speaking to polemicist and intellectuals in their terms. That's the whole point. They gotten so caught up in their rhetoric that they've forgotten how to see or speak about the human experience in any other terms. It is positive, the book continues to add a freshness and bounce to the stale social science dialogue about race, culture and particularly Blacks. As he says 'we (blacks) can't afford to be reduced to oppression and repression'. Murry would probably rather chop it up at a jazz bar or barber shop. That's why he gets to signify.

Murray condemns both polemic and intellectuals yet he only manages to look at things from an intellectualist viewpoint when he discusses things in-depth and he seems very skilled as a polemicist himself. Very critical of anyone except those with a similar background, including many shots at social scientists, northerners and whites as well as Murray's fellow writers even. Hardly a positive work, despite the subtitle "Some Alternatives to the Folklore of White Supremacy" which makes you think it will be more than it is.