In books on race relations, quotidian documentary accounts often take a backseat to flashpoint polemics. But no struggle can be explained without the daily lives of the participants, and journalist Ross (The Diving Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities) gathers 35 profiles of black women and men from around the globe (notably the U.S., U.K., Ghana and Brazil). They run from the famous (Nikki Giovanni, members of Parliament) to the anonymously noble (a teacher in Rio), with the occasional soccer player and porn actor in-between. There's a real pleasure in hearing all the different voices, though they seem edited for consistency and risk running together. Finally, despite the book's lack of scholarly pretense, there's much to be learned from its traveling, open-eyed method.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Ross, author of The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities (2000), traveled nearly 150,000 miles for 14 months to capture the day-to-day varied experiences of Africans in the diaspora, including the U.S., Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, and Europe. The result is a startlingly diverse collection of interviews and reports on life for black folks: poet Nikki Giovanni, author E. Lynn Harris, former Atlanta mayor Bill Campbell, a black member of the British Parliament, an editor at Essence magazine, a car designer in Detroit. Ross includes journal entries from a single mother and full-time college student in Charlotte, North Carolina, raps and rhymes from a coffeehouse in London, and the ponderings of an Arizona State coach about basketball as a metaphor for life. A fascinating look at the variety of experiences, lifestyles, perspectives, and sensibilities of black folks worldwide. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
