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What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace

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WHAT NEXT is a slim book that is chock full of large, common sense ideas about how world peace can be achieved. Walter Mosley starts off with a scene from his life. His father is explaining to him that he had never felt like an American even though he was fighting for America in the Second World War until he realized that the Germans were actually shooting at him. That must make him a real American. Finding that he could not live among people in the South who could not accept what he had become under fire, he left the South for Los Angeles.

Mr. Mosley gives us an idea of the perceptions of African Americans, being careful to note that African Americans do see themselves as Americans, they do not want to leave this country, nor do they wish to abandon its ideals of freedom. African Americans are aware of the pitfalls of unevenly applied laws and philosophies and they have never had the luxury of self-deception but they are still willing to work to make this country a better place.

He outlines several simple solutions to working for world peace. One such idea is getting several people into study groups. Each person takes a different aspect of the news and reports on it to the group. That way, everyone will have a wide range of knowledge about what is going on in the world without being burdened with searching out every detail for themselves. He feels that African Americans can use their many experiences to improve the world.

It is a book well worth reading and everyone, not just African Americans, would find it beneficial.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Walter Mosley's monograph What Next is an impassioned call to African Americans to use their collective experience and history to move this country and the world towards being a more peaceful place. Mosley uses his own history with his father as a jumping off point to help him sort out his feelings towards 9/11, the war on terrorism, and [what was then the impending] war with Iraq. In writing this monograph, Mosley is letting us in on his ruminations. And what wise ruminations they are. Even though I didn't always totally agree with Mosley and even though I'm not African American, I found a lot of good points to think about in this short, but thoughtful book.

Walter Mosley is one who moves beyond the tag of being a mystery writer. In this slender volume he shares his reflections and thoughts on how to achieve world peace.According to Mosley African-Americans hold the key in achieving world peace due to their unique experience in America.

How does Mosley get to this idea? He shares with us a story told to him by his father. LeRoy Mosley shares his epiphany of being an American through his World War II experience. He states, "It was the Germans and the Americans who were at war... I didn't know I was an American until they ( the Germans) started shooting at me." The senior Mosley reveals the paradox of being Black in America. Blacks are seen as outsiders by the majority population but those who are America's enemies don't make a distinction between Black and White. Regardless of ethnicity, Americans are seen as the enemy.

Using his father's story as the launching point, Mosley looks at the events of September 11th and sees that blacks are identified with the oppressor even if they are considered outsiders. Since Blacks occupy a precarious position in the society they can understand the anger of the enemy. As Americans Blacks can no longer remain silent about world affairs. They must become key players for America's fate is tied to African-Americans.

Mosley calls for grassroots organization, the utilization of the media and political action in order for African-Americans to engage America in promoting piece. You don't have to be a political science major to realize the need for such actions. Mosley has some good thoughts but he rambles and at times you wonder how he got from point A to point B. He speaks about the silence of Blacks concerning 9-11 but fails to point out that the so-called silence was due to the media and not passivism on the part of African-Americans. His ideas are so general as to be useless. After all, haven't these steps have already been taken?

I applaud Mr. Mosley for starting the conversation about peace but he needs to add more depth and detail into what he feels African-Americans can do to achieve it.

When I got on the chat room with The AALBC. com founder, Troy Johnson, Thumper and Linda, author of Althea, our topic of discussion was "What's Next" by Walter Mosley, a cleverly interwoven essay designed to encourage African Amercians to take action and bring the world to peace, among all of the latest world issues and tragedies evolving from September 11.

I am merciful that this world renown writer survived the tragedies and caught the glimpse of horror in New York on the eventful day from his high rise posh apartment in Manhattan. I am resolved that he tributes his book to Haki Madhubiti.

Okay, the man has clout, we're in for a conversation, and all is touching. Kudos go out to Mr. Mosley for listening to his grandpa who shares the irony of war, and plight of Black Americans being faced with the realization that even if Black and in American uniform, are discriminated against, shot and forcefully killed by opposing forces with the same anger and resentment toward White soldiers during World War 2 as an "American."

The question of Americanism fuels the reader's daunting emotions, who Mosley seems to sheepishly but intentionally question, " Are you proud to be American?" A gulp of hot fiery tension develops in the base of the readers neck, emotions fly, and before you know it, you too are lashing out at the brilliant writer with menacing anger, but it's really the issues you've been waiting to quell.

This isn't a conversation that unfolds, it's a war between those who debate the issue. After the debate is over, you cleverly realize that as an African American you have fallen into Mr. Mosley's trap which unveils the issues within the Black Community and even how we relate to one another.

The question is no longer, "Are you proud to be American?" but do you really love and respect your fellow Americans no matter what culture, ethnicity, race, upbringing and race enough to take pride in being an American citizen even with the tragedies bestowed upon Black America from slavery to social upheavals.

After all, many Black Americans are living the dream, and financially stable. Are these folks, like White America responsible for helping those not as well off? Are we asking for reimbursement from within our own community of successful Blacks in America to digress from retribution owed to Black America for the injustices and inequitable land bartering reminiscent of the sell out of Manhattan to Native Americans? Questions, questions, questions unfold, and the question of what do we do is so earthshaking, that between all of our responses on the chat room, cause the transcript to be lost forever. My computer also froze.

My last thought, "Did someone freeze my computer? Only being humorous. I hope Thumper, and I can make up, and I thank Troy Johnson for being a mediator of cyber war. I would have to blame Walter for this fateful mishap and forbid him to keep his questions to himself.

However, expect your heart to palpitate, emotions to fly, and true forgiveness of the eloquent Mr. Mosley, who only asked a question. Calm down, enjoy this thorough and poignant read. I hope you didn't think this question would be answered in one read? Expect many more debates and emotions run amuck from those who have missed the message. I hear you Walter. What is next?

Question: Was that Walter Mosley featured live on C-Span during The Harlem Book Fair 2003 blending in with the questioners of the panelists and just as charming as ever? Who would know the man is a humorous and light-hearted soul who can stir up controversy around the world with such powerful strength to affect a whole nation?

I will never know what it feels like to be black, let alone what it means.

As a child, prowling for candy with a pocketful of change, I never fell under the suspicious glare of a profiling store clerk. As an adult I haven't been passed over for a position for which I was qualified - nor for that matter passed by a cab I was attempting to hail - simply because of the color of my skin. I never got arbitrarily smacked by the short end of the stick, discriminately snatched by the long arm of the law - and when I eventually did - by both - it was due to my own damn foolishness. No, I've not suffered any of the myriad indignities that are the unwanted legacy of my forced-to-be-Founding brothers and sisters. But as a white man, and as a convict, I do know what it feels like - if not exactly what it means - to be a minority within a so-called minority, one of the fewest among the too-many few.

This puts me in a unique position vis-à-vis Walter Mosley's What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace (Black Classic Press $16.95), a book - and a call - that was intended neither for a white man nor a convict. On the one hand this is not my conversation; on the other I can't help eavesdropping when my ears start ringing. Mosley may not be talkin' to me, but he sure as hell is talkin' about something that concerns me and everyone else in the unfree world.

Excuse me if I wedge a word in edgewise.

Briefly, What Next is a deeply felt, deeply thought, softly spoken manifesto for the emancipated, a call for those who've gained their freedom to now turn their efforts to those still shackled to tyranny, both here and (especially) abroad.

Mosley makes and takes his case to "Black America, [and] its fine-honed attention to the etiquette of liberation," though it could just as well be meant for everyone. That he bases his argument upon examples set by his father, LeRoy Mosley - "a Black Socrates" whose words and ghost permeate the soul of this tome - makes it distinctly personal.

Like his father, Mosley found himself under attack for the color of his flag rather than his skin. For Pops it was across the pond in WWII, when German bullets turned out to be anything but race-based; for the son it was here at home, on 9/11. Both were targets because they were American, nothing more and nothing less; and both were forced to reconsider what it meant to be red, white, and blue - and black. The revelations left them with enemies they never even knew they had.

But why the hate? Why the hurt? Why the harm? Again shadowing Dad, Mosley digs "asking why, and then spoiling readymade replies." And he's not at all happy with the answers he's being given.

There's a root to all evil, all hate and hurt and harm; our enemies are there for some reason. We gotta get to the root - and the reason - before we rush to judgment. "How do we know when someone is our enemy?" Well, not because someone has told us so. And certainly not by becoming them. Again with Dad: "My father would never become his enemy to make a point." (Are you listening Mr. Ashcroft?) Now that's a creed for every color.

And don't think for a minute that Mosley's falling for the fear factor either.

"If we give in to fear or support the domination of the world's impoverished billions by our corporations," he writes, "then strife, war, and death are inescapable. And in that conflagration, we too shall be consumed." Mosley, the Good Soldier of Peace - responsible, alert, and astute - is takin' out a little fire insurance.

But what to do? Polls show - and Mosley knows - that most African Americans already - rightly - resist the strong arm approach to peace; it's high time to harness that sentiment and put it to work. Brace it with a well-informed community; advance it with a campaign of pressure, protest, and boycott. Put the PAC-squeeze on the shot-callers (begin locally); and if they keep spitting bullets, pull out the protests and - even better - the boycotts, because we all know how the powers-that-rule value their bottom line.

Mosley's goal is "unequivocal world peace and security, freedom from starvation, and respect for the sovereignty of all nations." A bold and - some might say - foolishly hopeful proposition. Mosley may be a hard-boiled Utopian, but he's no fool. He knows that hope is not a course of action and that action begins at home. This is his beginning. What Next may have come too late to stop the war; let's get beyond hope before it's too late to start the peace.

The question here is not whether you agree or disagree with all that the author, Walter Mosley, says in this thin volume. The questions are simple. Do you really want worldwide peace? Are you willing to do something about it?From the outset, the author states that all are welcome to read this, but that he did write it as a wake-up call to African Americans. This is good that the book is specifically aimed at this group, but that sure as heck doesn't mean that there isn't a lot for all of us to chew on. I wish I could make this required reading for all Americans, not only those of African heritage.

Mosley presents a highly readable story of coming to terms with an America troubled with racism, war policies, and inequitable society. From race riots in Watts to War in Iraq, Mosley's views are inspired by an often wise father. It is a humane yet realistic viewpoint. Common sense, so very rare in much public discourse, is refreshed by a perspective from black (with some Jewish roots too) and non-privileged society.

Fun to read, personal, simple, sometimes profound, his ideas put the rhetoric of Ivy elites and news casters to shame.

The gift of the George W. Bush presidency is a wake up call. With What Next, Walter Mosley contributes beautifully and practically to that awakening. Written in a readable voice that is like having a long cup of coffee with Mr. Mosley, this book needs to be spread far and wide --- not just for his specific thoughts and ideas, but also for the inspiration it provides for us all to think for ourselves rather than simply accepting what we are spoon fed.

Buy several copies and help spread the word.

- Thom Rutledge, author of Embracing Fear (HarperSanFrancisco)