Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views from a Black Man's World [Mass Market Paperback]

Ralph Wiley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

A collection of essays on popular culture as it relates to African Americans includes discussions of Spike Lee, Jackie Robinson, Bernhard Goetz, Marion Barry, ""What Black People Don't Like,"" and ""The Natural Superiority of Black Athletes."" Reprint.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In forceful discussions of work and business, aesthetics, public personalities and travel, Wiley turns a perceptive eye on the black experience in contemporary America. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wiley, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated , offers his opinions and observations on a variety of current concerns affecting black Americans. He discusses such topics as racism, AIDS, politicians, television, the South, IQ tests, culture, food, and athletics. He also profiles Michael Jackson, Meadowlark Lemon, Marion Barry, Jesse Jackson, and other noted black people. His essays offer brief lessons in literature, history, and sociology; especially provocative is his attack on the depiction of black men in Alice Walker's The Color Purple . Wiley's thought-provoking work is filled with amusing anecdotes and controversial commentaries that may help to dispel many misconceptions about black Americans. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
- Angela Washington-Blair, L.R.C., Brookhaven Coll., Dallas
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140168532
• ISBN-13: 978-0140168532
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,029,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why Black People Tend To Shout, February 2, 2000

By 

Y. Miller, MI (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views from a Black Man's World (Mass Market Paperback)

The book was a scream! It was full of anecdotes that most of us as Blacks folks have experienced. The stories were funny but they were also disturbing because so many of the situations were blatantly racist. Black people do have to shout just to be heard. Then people wonder what all the shouting is about. This book is an easy and fast read. You are left shaking your head but with a smile on your face.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Satire at it's best, February 5, 2007

By 

Curlz (Yemassee, SC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views from a Black Man's World (Mass Market Paperback)

As a white female teacher in a mostly black area, I often discover that the students are the worst stereotypers of each other. They call intelligent well-spoken kids "whitey," and often try not to see that there is value in education and knowledge. Ralph Wiley shows intellect, a gift of satire, and gets into their heads to vocalize what many feel but can't say. I teach his essays in English and encourage my students to use them in dramatic reading competitions, "freaking out" the middle class kids who also attend. My students and I admire his honesty, wit and in-your-face attitude. He not only "calls out" whites, but blacks who hold themselves down and who hold down others as well. As they remind me, he "keeps it real!"

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Social Critique Still Semi-Fresh, July 1, 2011

By 

Michael J. Strode "The AOMuse" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why Black People Tend to Shout: Cold Facts and Wry Views from a Black Man's World (Paperback)

When I was a young man in my early teens, I encountered this text as one of the first reads that my mother allowed me to pull from the shelves of African American literature at some local Waldenbooks or Barnes and Noble. It remains my favorite collection of essays for both nostalgia's sake along with how well it lent itself as the basis for a great deal of my early opinions and philosophical investigation. Wiley struck me as the curious and opinionated sort which are not bad qualities for a journalist and sportswriter. This is the sort of thing that was necessary for me who had spent much of his time seated in the company of more adults than children offering my views on current events.

As I review the text again with new eyes as I find myself doing with all previously studied works, there is much that finds itself outdated about the text. These essays live entombed in time where they were written and for what purpose they were intended. Not unlike any other published collection of column writings, but if one is a student of history as am I, they can find some wonderful gems in here which will connect readily with other points of study. Along the way, you will laugh and wince and occasionally feel odd shaped or uncomfortable for Wiley is witty and humorous and solemn and honest all throughout.

Social critique in the era of the blogosphere is fast becoming an undervalued art as everyone imagines that they are capable of doing such a thing, but here lies a study in a classical method of critique knowing that your ultimate goal is to assist your audience with understanding and comprehending the unfamiliar if they are daring enough to walk with you to the end. If we are not both made a little uncomfortable by the journey, we will not be able to readjust readily to one another's presence in a way that is fair and just to the both of us.