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Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black |
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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Black Plague > Item 294
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Souls Looking Back: Life Stories of Growing Up Black
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by Andrew Garrod
Sales Rank: 584542
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List Price: $29.95
$29.95
At Amazon
on 8-5-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 300 pages
Published by: RoutledgeEdition: 1st Edition April 1999
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0415920620
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0415920629
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 15.5 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
In addressing the "formative influences of home, school, church and first awareness of racial difference," 16 black and biracial college students write with an unabashed honesty and directness that outshines the dense "explanatory" essays by the editors. No doubt, the students' candor was nurtured by the editors' judicious decision to allow them to write pseudonymously. "Maria," the only graduate student included, discusses the criteria her peers and community bring to the question, "What Is Black Enough?" The product of a mostly white, middle-class suburb, she notes the "iconic role of her white first boyfriend, whose attraction was fueled by their racial difference and the idea he was transgressing." Throughout the collection, students explore the contradictions and frustrations of the tensions associated with racial difference. "Christine," the daughter of an Austrian mother and an African-American father, was dismayed that her "allegiance" to blacks was questioned when she mentioned her Austrian heritage. As a gay black adolescent, "Claudio" faced the challenge of belonging to more than one minority, deciding finally to become a "vocal" gay rights activist because of homophobia in the black community. Though the editors' stiff essays interrupt the otherwise rhythmic flow of black and biracial students experiences across the class spectrum, the students clearly communicate the "transformative power in both the hearing and telling of [their] stories..
- stories."
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
The editors recognized an absence of African American voices in adolescent psychology. So they set out to collect autobiographical essays on childhood memories of adolescents of African descent. They approached approximately 50 students (males and females in equal numbers) and invited them to write about the experience of growing up as a human being of color in the United States, Canada, or the West Indies. This five-year project resulted in sixteen personal narratives from black and biracial (all of whom have black fathers) students who studied at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Simmons in Boston, and McGill University in Montreal. Each chapter--on social class and race, identity, and resilience and resistance--begins with an overview of the issue written by an African American scholar, followed by four to six personal narratives. The accounts are both thought-provoking and extremely intimate. This book is well done and sure to create a platform for discussion and reflection. Maybe through these voices we can all learn some compassion and understanding. Lillian Lewis
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This book is a very well-done sociological study of African American/bi-racial college students and the telling of their stories to get to this point in their lives. The stories are diverse yet similar. Bright, misunderstood, sticking out like sore thumbs because they were of color and intelligent. That is not the way it is supposed to be. Why is it African Americans are ridiculed for being smart. I read Kunjufu's book some years ago when my daughter was in middle school, Black Peer Pressure: To be Popular or Smart. Why must you choose. I am trying to remember my childhood experiences. I cannot remember being ridiculed for doing well in school. It seemed that was the norm for my group and the kids seem to have more respect for one another. I know this is unusual. I think about my brother who is now a well-known cardiologist in the Bay Area and when I look back on it, he must have felt isolated because he was one of those super-smart, gifted students. From the first story of Prince which was heart-wrenching. He was truly a testament to the poverty and hardship. He proved he could succeed against the oods. So, it is with Malik who had a drug-addicted mother. These young men's stories is in contrast to some of the more affluent of the group. Maria, Rob, and Steve had all of the amenities to have a good head start, well-eduacated, financially secure, and good neighborhoods. However I must say, I was disappointed that these students felt they had little in common with other black students because of their status. And it seemed their attitudes were reinforced by their parents attitudes who seemed to feel if it's white, its right. I am trying to reconcile these parents with the generation that had to strive for basic civil rights in housing and education. Where was the pride in being black. Why were they not going to black churches and putting their children in contact with other young black people with groups such as Jack and Jill or church youth groups? I always thought it was the generation these students that lost the black pride, not their parents who I guess are in their forties, fifties, and sixties. Claudio and Alessandro had to do with the problem of being both black and Latino and all the trials associated with being of a double culture. So often in Latin cultures, children are told they are Latino and then they get out into the world where no one will let them forget they are black. That can be a rude awakening when culture and color clash. The bi-racial students angst of being between two world, not knowing where they belong. This story was also very well told in "Black, White,Other" by Lise Funderburg. Christina and Susanna's black fathers evidently had problems with their black identities. It seems in these and many bi-racial families they do no discuss race, as if not talking about it, it won't be a problem. But as they find out, these issues need to be discussed. Sure these kind of parents say they just want their children to grow up to be good, healthy individuals, regardless of race. Not in America where race and race matters are so pervasive. The editors forewords before each chapter, Janie Victoria Ward and Tracy L. Robinson among them were provacative, intelligent studies. I would highly recommend this book to high school and college student of African descent as well as their parents and students of black sociology. Very well done.
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