Racism 101 [Paperback]

Nikki Giovanni (Author), Virginia C. Fowler (Foreword)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0688142346 | ISBN-13: 978-0688142346 | Publication Date: May 1995

In Racism 101, Nikki Giovanni indicts higher education for the inequities it perpetuates, contemplates the legacy of the 1960s, provides a survival guide for black students on predominantly white campuses (complete with razor-sharp comebacks to the dumb questions constantly asked of black students), and excoriates Spike Lee while offering her own ideas for a film about Malcolm X. And that is just for starters. She also writes about W.E.B. Du Bois, gardening, Toni Morrison, Star Trek, affirmative action, space exploration, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the role of griots, and the rape and neglect of urban schools. But to reduce Nikki Giovanni's essays to their subjects is to miss altogether their significance. As Virginia C. Fowler writes in her Foreword, "These pieces are artistic expressions of a particular way of looking at the world, featuring a performing voice capable of dizzying displays of virtuosity." Profoundly personal and blisteringly political, angry and funny, lyrical and blunt, Racism 101 will add an important chapter to the debate on American national values.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

These brief essays by poet Giovanni ( Sacred Cows and Other Edibles ) on subjects both personal and societal are fluid, often perceptive musings that beg for more substance. Written since she joined the English faculty at Virginia Polytechnic five years ago, the pieces contain her reflections on the path of her career and offer advice to black students on how to apply themselves scholastically, as well as how to deal with stupid questions from whites. Giovanni values the influence of W.E.B. Du Bois's intellectual honesty but also criticizes those whom she sees as his neoconservative progeny, writer Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Justice Clarence Thomas among them. She is harsh on Spike Lee's film, Malcom X , calling it a "sick joke," and lionizes novelist Toni Morrison. Asserting that she doesn't feel alienated from Western culture ("my people have contributed so much that is vital and good to it"), Giovanni adds, "I am alienated from the people . . . who think they own Western tradition." Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Her books having sold nearly 400,000 copies, Giovanni is proof that poetry remains vibrant. Here she forsakes verse for political essays touching on Malcolm X, affirmative action, and the Sixties.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Quill (May 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688142346
• ISBN-13: 978-0688142346
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,282,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great account, April 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Racism 101 (Paperback)

I though this was a great reader. The accounts of her life and the lesson that she is giving to her son and the readers kept me very interested in this book. She gives you the tools that one needs to combat racism. I especially like her critique of Spike Lee's movies!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Helpful Munuscript, February 14, 2001

By 

M.G. Long (Burlington, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Racism 101 (Paperback)

This was my first encounter with Giovanni besides her poetry, and I was amazed at her perspective observations. This book was recommended to me because of it's chapter about black college students. This single chapter did wonders for helping me with my adjustment into the college setting. If I had an opportunity to thank the author face to face, I would definately ask her what influenced the to shape philosophies about race relations on college campuses, ironically we agree for the most part. It is refreshing to me to find a person of her stature willing to voice her own opinions about important issues without holding back.I strongly recommend this book to every serious black student. The necessity of this book before you enter the college classroom is more than you could understand until actually encounter the writer's truths.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Better On Star Trek Than Spike Lee, April 25, 2010

By 

Lily Bart "lilybits" (The House of Mirth) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Racism 101 (Paperback)

Nikki Giovanni is an incredibly passionate, courageous, and imaginative poet. This book is full of amazing insights into the ways Black americans have contributed to American society. Even the more playful sections, like where she talks about how great Star Trek is and how much she admires Lieutenant Uhura, are full of important ideas.

Oddly enough, even though I've never been a big fan of Spike Lee, I think her attacks on his movie MALCOLM X are extremely distorted and unfair. She rages at Spike for five pages for "daring" to show Malcolm X chasing white women and wearing a zoot suit during his Harlem days when he was a small time gangster known as "Detroit Red." But what was Spike supposed to do? In his autobiography Malcolm completely admits to doing these things -- and he discusses his own mistakes with total frankness. Does Nikki Giovanni think black people are too fragile to handle the truth? Malcolm X didn't think so!

If Nikki Giovanni thinks Spike Lee is a third-rate filmmaker at best, that's fine. I agree with her completely. He's no John Ford. He's no Howard Hawks. He's no Alfred Hitchcock or Sam Peckinpah. He's not even a Steven Spielberg or a Martin Scorsese. What Spike Lee is (and I never thought I'd say this) is a determined, defiant black man in a smug, dishonest, all-white industry who defied enormous odds to get his Malcolm X movie made in the first place. In another part of the book Nikki asks that we remember that black slaves would never have got Sunday off if the black preacher hadn't been smart enough, and brave enough, to get the master's approval. It doesn't sound like much today, but it was heroic at the time. The same thing applies to Spike Lee's movies -- even if they really are pretty third rate as entertainment.

Another difficult moment occurs when Nikki Giovanni discusses Abraham Lincoln. She calls him "interesting" but swiftly ridicules him for not doing enough and not doing it fast enough -- opinions Spike Lee would certainly agree with. But like Spike Lee, Lincoln was facing real dangers and dealing with pressures that Nikki Giovanni either hasn't experienced or doesn't fully understand. And she misses the absurdity of ridiculing Lincoln while praising Star Trek. Without Lincoln there could have been no Gene Roddenberry, since the STAR TREK creator patterned his entire social approach on Lincoln's example. (See "The Savage Curtain" for a full discussion on Civil Rights between Kirk, Uhura, and Abraham Lincoln himself.)

As a black woman who lives and works in Virginia, I find it very strange that Nikki Giovanni has time to put down Lincoln -- but she never mentions a "gentleman" named Robert E. Lee. If Lincoln was no more than "interesting," does that make Robert E. Lee merely boring? What does Nikki Giovanni think of the millions of white Virginians who still revere Lee as a saintly hero? By trashing Lincoln all she does is let Lee off the hook, and enable the revisionism of southern whites who agree with her that Lincoln was no better than Lee. Does Nikki Giovanni have any idea what this implies? When do we get to read that essay?

Last but not least, I am extremely disappointed that an intelligent black woman who hopes to set an example for young black college students would openly brag about disgusting and destructive cigarette addiction. Anyone who's ever lain awake as a child listening to a beloved parent cough their lungs out will understand that smoking ruins lives and destroys families. Anyone who understands capitalist America will understand that white corporations love to make money off of black suicide. It's pointless to attack young black men for dealing dope and poisoning black children when the educated and life-affirming "Black Woman" of Nikki Giovani's dreams sets such a poor example.

And as Mr. Spock would say, it's not logical either.