Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home [Hardcover]

Deborah Mathis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2002

In a provocative examination of the state of race relations today, Deborah Mathis provides personal and sociological perspective on what it feels like for African Americans who continue to be segregated spiritually and emotionally from the rest of the country. Mathis airs mutual fears and suppositions and shines a spotlight on how far we still have to go before black Americans can truly feel at home in a country that benefits so strongly from their many contributions. Topics of discussion include: * Affirmative action -- are we starting to move backward? * Racial profiling and the assumptions it involves * The poor state of education in low-income area schools * Blacks and their treatment in the judicial system * The dangerous sense of complacency about "how things are so much better than they used to be" * And more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Forty years after the civil rights movement, not only does racism still exist but it's become even more insidious for having gone underground, argues Mathis, a syndicated columnist appearing in USA Today. This more virulent strain of discrimination, less blatant and therefore harder to confront, pervades American society to the extent that black Americans feel defensive and uncomfortable in their own country, she argues. Mathis visits all of the major landmarks of racial tension: the O.J. Simpson trial, L.A. riots, affirmative action debates, nomenclature (she prefers black to African-American), Ebonics, multiculturalism, school vouchers, "hyperincarceration" and racism in the justice system, even the relationship between the contested Florida elections and discrimination against blacks and other minorities at the polls. These various hot-button issues have the undesired effect of further alienating blacks, Mathis argues, from the perpetrators of their oppression the media, financial institutions and the political system which could also be ways out of this unfortunate state of affairs. Mathis's grip on recent African-American history is admirable: she writes scathing indictments against corporations for dumping toxic chemicals in black neighborhoods, against police for profiling and making "living while black" a real hazard that black parents must impart to their children, and against well-meaning whites for suspicious looks and patronizing attitudes. She stumbles at times while trying to weave personal experience into the polemic, where it detracts rather than adds to her argument, and recycled material from her column could have been omitted. As is to be expected when discussing social problems of this magnitude, her solutions are well-meaning but fuzzy: she advocates that all American society adopt the principles of Kwanzaa, "unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith-worthy endeavors, year-round, twenty-four/seven." Readers can ask for more specificity on Mathis's East Coast book tour.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Mathis, a newspaper columnist, articulates the historical and current state of race relations in the U.S. with keen precision and insight. Tracking legal progress since the civil rights movement in eliminating blatant racism and discrimination, Mathis explores the "steady diet of indignities, disillusions, rejections, and suspicions" that poison the hopes and ambitions of African Americans and make them feel like less-than-welcome citizens of the U.S. Mathis comments on a range of racial encounters from the everyday ("the look" to which so many black youth in particular are subjected from suspicious whites) to the sensational (the Rodney King beating, the South Central Los Angeles riots of 1992, and the O. J. Simpson trial) to the trite (the tiresome and annoying question: What more do black people want?). Drawing on research, interviews, and her personal experience, Mathis observes the shifts in economics, politics, and pseudoscientific research that look askance at black people and cast them as the source of any lingering racial issues. Readers interested in race issues will enjoy this well-written, thought-provoking book. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (June 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446526363
• ISBN-13: 978-0446526364
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,591,700 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Home Alone? Yet another look of being Black in America!, June 30, 2002

By 

Alvin C. Romer "The Jackal" (Miami, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home (Hardcover)

When discussing race relations in America the Black community often asks, "Have things really gotten any better? Are there any reasons left to believe that change will elicit a way for equal parity?" Lest we forget, black Americans should share and be given equal billing for contributions directly and indirectly resulting in the building of this great nation of ours. This should be realized despite, and because of Thomas Jefferson's contradiction that "it was self-evident truth that all men were created equal, that they were endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness". Over three hundred years later race in America still flourishes within blatant circumstantial inequities that the institution of racism has permeated. No one knows this better than the author Deborah Mathis, who offers an insight to a personal view of the problems that have existed, continue to do so today, and an effort for reclamation in her book, Yet A Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel At Home. Though the title is a mouthful, there's still issues that need to be confronted head on so that progress will be justified for what need to be done. Ms Mathis is a national syndicated columnist and former White House correspondent for The Gannett News Service with yet another offering that will join other analogies and narratives that have delved and beat this subject to death with no solutions or answers that would allow home to be more hospitable. Books of this magnitude where extensive research, in-depth interviews, and gauging the real life experiences of those that have been at the forefront of change, rarely is the catalyst to bring about the balancing of the scales. Rather, they tend to form patterns where in the company of other books, apathy sets in with status quo doing more harm than good.

To Ms Mathis' credit though, her efforts to illustrate her points for the most part are adequate, but a few flaws in my opinion, made the book predictable based on some of the incidents researched. Also, the last chapter pales in comparison to the rest of the book in that no explanatory effort was made for solutions beyond what has already been reported. Nevertheless, it does give on a greater part of the whole, the idea that the author spent quality time to give her version of why there's no room in the house to feel at home. It forces you to understand why the alienation of black America is progressive, affecting each generation through policy, custom, and if nothing else, a perception that inferiority is the norm. The chapters give an expose of various multifarious conditions and maladies known exclusive to African-Americans. It's clear from the onset that the author focuses on the lively controversies leading up to problematic issues, and the aftermath for determining interpretive analysis. She reports the reason(s) why:

· The acquittal of four white police officers of beating Rodney King was expected

· The O.J. Simpson murder trial widened the gulf between whites and blacks...and why

· Blacks felt an affinity for him to win

· Integration was the worst thing for blacks

· Affirmative Action is still needed, and why white folk deplore it

She also touches on the Ebonics debate, Multiculturalism, school vouchers, racism in the justice system, and quite a bit of emphasis on other historical vestiges that brought attention to the confrontation of prejudice and racial injustices. What would make this book stand out would be viable dialogue from interested persons within our societal makeup that would want to continue to keep these issues hot, and for this country to acknowledge a need to change and be able to use it for meaningful intent.

If when reading this book you misunderstand the underestimation of history's long term effects, you may in turn miss the point of the author's reason for asking the question why blacks are on the outside still looking in. In reading an and rating this book, I couldn't help hoping that at the end of each chapter the author would render solutions to each plight she illustrated. This glaring omission is why others would want to feel a sense of loss, even though at the end she attempts to give weak, but well-meaning ways to end the state of discontinuity which have already been explored. Readers interested in race issues will enjoy this book, but for those that demand more than just rhetorical chatter would opt for more. This book is available at local books stores. Read it, and judge for yourself whether black Americans can solve the enigma of not being welcome at home!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TO BE READ AND ABSORBED, SANS CHIP ON SHOULDER, September 19, 2002

By 

"dljudson" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home (Hardcover)

If the day should ever come that America succeeds
İn heaing its racial wounds, that day will no doubt be
proceeded by a separation in our national debate
between diagnosis and prescription. Too often the
elements advanced in the making of one are used in
the polemical debate to attack the other. And much of
the debate stirred by Deborah Mathis' Yet a Stranger is
evidence of this prism in our national dialogue that
refracts and distorts reason.

And it is the diagnosis in Yet a Stranger that is
its greatest triumph. This debate stirred by this book
is evidence of how the elements on one are used to
attack the arguments of the other. Our debate on these
issues is all too often refracted through this prism
of distortion.

The point here is that reasonable people of any
ideological stripe can today applaud America's
successes, from the Emancipation Proclamation to the
Civil Rights Act, while condemning the horrors those
landmarks sought to remedy. A consensus certainly
exists here on both diagnosis and prescription.

But a consensus eludes us on the continuing struggle
for true equality and equity, as Mathis' book
effectively illustrates. Interestingly, the debate
accomplishes the same mission. In much of contemporary
black life, the hue of one's skin is equated with the
ability to pay a mortgage or cover the tab on a
sweater being examined on a store rack. In debating
Yet a Stranger, the critics will effectively ask us
to dismiss an analysis of racism's continuing menace
to education with an argument against the
effectiveness of school vouchers or their appeal to
many black parents. C'mon. In social discourse, it is
indeed OK to cast the first stone. Let's just get our
syllogisms straight beforehand.

Solving the problems Mathis examines is critical to
America's health and future. That this is the case
could probably be agreed by Rush Limbaugh and Jesse
Jackson. And then we move on.

Those sympathetic to the views and experiences of the
journalist Mathis will be probably agree with the
totality of her book. But those with a different take
on affirmative action, racial profiling or the concept
of collective guilt can gain a great deal from this
narrative as well. Sure, her prescriptions at the end
of this book, from the restoration of "Ninth Street"
neighborhoods to governmental scrutiny to chain store
credit policies may lack the power of the analysis
behind the facts with which they are proceeded in Yet
a Stranger.

But it is those facts that Mathis assembles that most
need to be absorbed and considered by all venturing
into the debate. If you must, take an imaginary eraser
to all the "prescriptions" in Yet a Stranger. There will
still be more substance than most of us can take.
Forget the medicine for now; the dıagnosis is
enough of a pill.

The reader who does this will do America a service.
Just as Mathis has done with her thoughtful survey, her
apt storytelling and her insight into so many
seemingly intractable problems.

David Judson.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars STRANGE BUT TRUE, October 3, 2002

By 

The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Yet a Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel at Home (Hardcover)

Yet A Stranger: Why Black Americans Still Don't Feel At Home is a provocative account by Deborah Mathis which explores the feelings and experiences of Black Americans. Ms. Mathis candidly writes about how the experiences of Black People in America have caused a prolonged feeling of alienation which has impacted their sense of community. She asserts that the progress that has been made in race relations is not enough and more needs to be done to dispel the feelings of displacement that many African-Americans continue to feel. She gives storical context and media examples of how racism continues to be pervasive in society. She shows how today's racism, although subtle, is just as damaging as in the past. Ms. Mathis proposes ways for the Black Community to heal itself and restore a sense community that was once evident in the neighborhoods of Black people. Practical ideas such as supporting Historically Black Colleges and Universities, creating financial collaborations, recreating the village model, and reconnecting with God are suggested.

Yet a Stranger is a thorough analysis that not only states the problems, but suggests solutions.

Reviewed by Diane Marbury