Conversations In Black

Conversations In Black

Adult Social Justice IT
"...This book is intended to be a discussion starter, and I hope
you will form your own groups to extend the conversation about the
ideas expressed here. Have these conversations in your home, dorm
room, club meeting, barbershop, hair salon, church, workplace, and
anywhere else you gather. Each chapter ends with questions to help
you jump-start these discussions, and the goal is to prompt action..."
Career journalist Ed Gordon had conducted many award winning
televised interviews with national celebrities and leaders. However,
he found the most fascinating conversations to occur after the filming
stopped. What if the public had access to them? What if, through
virtual conversations, Black people had access to the thoughts of
Black influencers on a number of crucial topics? That is the exciting
premise his Conversations In Black so beautifully fulfills.
There are chapters on topics such as the Obama and Trump
presidencies and their implications for Blacks, voting, economics,
education, and media images of Blacks. Each chapter brings together
the thoughts of a wide range of Black influencers from a myriad of
fields and life experiences. Each is bookended by a list of
participants in the discussion and a list of questions through which
local discussion groups can relate the content to what is going on in
their own neighborhoods.
In the last chapter Gordon reminds Black readers that this time
we are all living in is a critical one. Racism on steroids is working
in both dramatic and systematic ways to turn black the clock on the
gains Blacks have fought so hard and sacrifced so much to attain. The
unacceptable must not be accepted.
"At the end of the day, we hold the power of change in our own
hands. I hope this book has inspired you to start your own
conversations and to look for ways that you can help create new
narratives of change. Black power and independence are in the air,
and finally grasping them may only be a conversation away. It's time
to start talking."
This is not a book to skim and set aside. The depth in which
issues are covered and the range of opinions give plenty of food for
thought and make reading it a marathon rather than a sprint. For
Blacks it could make a wonderful bridge from cognition and passion to
the action that is the end goal. For waking up Whites (like this
reviewer) it's a great opportunity to shut up and hopefully gain some
insights we would not otherwise be privy to, insights that can help us
better understand and relate to the Black people in our professional
and personal lives. While, as Gordon reminds us, it's a time for
Blacks to start talking, it's also a time for Whites to start
listening. If we do that enough maybe, just maybe, we can be part of
the solution instead of most of the problem.
On a purrrsonal note, my hate hate relationship with computers may
have taken a turn for the better. Wednesday I went to a multicultural
center lunch and learn. A woman was talking about digitalized
resources regarding Black history. She talked about periods in time I
learned about by reading books. I was all, I can learn more about
them and maybe even discover more books to read using my computer and
the list she gave me. Cool! It was the first time I have ever used
computer and cool in the same thought. I may be moving from hate hate
to hate tolerate or maybe even hate like a little.
A great big shout out to the people who go to all the challenging work
of locating and digitalizing really old records such as Civil War
enlistment records for people who want to trace their ancestry.
jules hathaway


Sent from my iPod