Customer Reviews

In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America

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"Know it, but go on out the yard. Go on." --Baby Suggs, in Toni Morrison's Beloved

Glaude synthesizes his reading of John Dewey's version of pragmatism, U.S. Black history, U.S. Black religious thought, U.S. Black political thought, and the literature of genius U.S. Black writers, such as James Baldwin and Toni Morrison, in order to provide us with a new philosophical framework that should help guide our 21st Century political thought, political organization, and political action. He warns against popular oversimplified silver-bullet political thinking that assumes ideological, social, or cultural homogeneity among U.S. Blacks and that assumes the world is simpler than it actually is. He encourages us to be brave and wise politically, by facing the complexity and ambiguity of our challenges, while using all our intellectual resources and experiences.

In my opinion, this work is Glaude's strongest to date. Indeed, I rank it as the strongest work of Black-focused social and political philosophy in this early 21st Century. After the first chapter, in which Glaude displays substantial erudition and synthesizes several esoteric concepts, the work becomes more accessible to people who have not studied philosophy or Black literature. Invest in this book, and have a conversation with Glaude. You will profit from his practical wisdom.

I found this text to be incredibly challenging for the semi-academic mind and yet lightening bolts ahead of its time in the presentation of the author's position. It takes the effort of reading and then re-reading almost every page in the first full half of the book in order to appreciate the author's desire to delineate his position as an Deweyan pragmatist. Once able to appreciate the author's position, the suggestion and position offered as a response to what has been our nation's collective pattern of clumping Black America into very limiting icons of groups opens the reader's own mind to breaking out of the colloquial box (if you will) and to venture into the intricate unique differences of individuals once grouped as one icon and appreciate how their experiences, the outcomes of their efforts and the possibilities for what can be learned from moving forward in a new vein is available. More than a great read, this text is an academic awakening for new possibilities in appreciating the Black Experience in America and redefining who and what the politics of Black America really means.

The need for political options is huge. The use of an American Philosophical idea to solve some America's problems sounds like a very important and possible solutions. African Americans using our experience to shape are our future is not new but the course of pragamtism may be a help example of how we are to do that. I truely enjoyed the meaningful references to African American life and cultural. Glaude's use of the researched and relevant African American scholars help shape the arugment. His concern for our quality of life and the passion for us to work toward positive meaningful change in the troubled time is something to admire and be grateful when you come across it in book or hearing his interviews.