The end of respectability : notes of a Black American reckoning with his life and his nation

The end of respectability Notes of a Black American reckoning with his life and his nation

Anthony Walton, 1960-

Book - 2024

"Blending social history, bracing analysis, and autobiography in essays that investigate the hard realities and measured hopes of African Americans in the early twenty-first century, acclaimed author Anthony Walton arrives at fresh and startling conclusions. In this dazzling collection of essays, acclaimed author Anthony Walton reflects on the progress and setbacks-both the unprecedented opportunities and unrelenting opposition-that he has witnessed and experienced as a Black man in the last sixty years. Blending social history, bracing analysis, and autobiography, Walton investigates the hard realities and measured hopes of African Americans in the twenty-first century and arrives at fresh, startling conclusions. "The End of Resp...ectability" is Walton's phrase for the next iteration of African American existence, the confusing and often contradictory maze of progress and backlash. While many Blacks have assimilated into the mainstream, data indicates that some aspects are worse than ever. Born into the Civil Rights Movement, Walton observed firsthand the opening of opportunity and overtures of reconciliation. He also saw systemic racism and the vicious backlash against Black progress embodied in the Southern Strategy, Tea Party, and MAGA. Over time, Walton has come to believe that moving forward requires a "Third Reconstruction," yet another manifestation of the double-consciousness W. E. B. DuBois described. It will necessitate Blacks live, work, and love alongside those who embrace equality while never losing sight of permanent enemies. Only this approach will accomplish what remains unfinished for true African American equality: better health outcomes, secure voting rights, and sustained economic and educational opportunity. The End of Respectability features essays published in The New York Times and The Atlantic-including "Willie Horton and Me" and the much-anthologized "Technology vs. African Americans"-as well as new work that probes Walton's earlier thinking and delivers insights that wrestle with the hydra-headed, ever-changing realities of an American society in which the more things change, the more they stay the same. The End of Respectability illuminates recent American history as experienced by a Black writer who has remained open to hope, unfazed by failures, and unflinchingly dedicated to the truth"--

Saved in:
Place a Hold Save to List Email this
1 being processed

2nd Floor New Shelf Show me where

305.896/Walton
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 305.896/Walton (NEW SHELF) Checked In
Subjects
African Americans > Social conditions > 20th century.
African Americans > Social conditions > 21st century.
American essays > 21st century.
American essays > African American authors.
Essays.
Genres
Essays
Published
Boston : Godine 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Anthony Walton, 1960- (author)
Physical Description
xxxii, 223 pages ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781567927283
  • Some of Us Are Driving a Stolen Car: An Introduction
  • Willie Horton and Me
  • Riding with the Rev
  • William F. Buckley in Hell
  • Letter to Jack
  • Prima Facie
  • The End of Respectability
  • After Obama
  • Making Myths, Betraying Our Past
  • Speech at Ole Miss
  • Technology vs. African Americans
  • Reading, Writing, and the Risks of Failure
  • Willie Horton and Me, Again
  • Acknowledgments
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Sharp essays on race relations from the era between the Civil Rights Act and Black Lives Matter. Like many Black cultural critics, Walton (Mississippi: An American Journey, 1996, etc.) sees Trump-era racism as the culmination of decades of American bigotry, fueled by Jim Crow and the Southern Strategy. His goal is to show how persistent the problem has been even during what many perceived to be the calmer waters of the 1980s and Obama era. The opening essay, first published in theNew York Times in 1989, calls out the bigotry and fearmongering of George H.W. Bush's campaign ad featuring Willie Horton, a Black convict. A well-turned profile of the Rev. Al Sharpton focuses on his street-level appeal amid efforts to diminish his profile in the wake of the Tawana Brawley case. Walton explores how various occasions have given whites license to broadcast their racism, from a 1957 article by William F. Buckley defending segregation to a PBS documentary on George Wallace to the case of Christian Cooper, a demure New York City bird-watcher on whom a white woman called police simply because he wanted her to follow dog-leash laws. In the title essay, he explains why decades of "going along to get along" conduct by Black people haven't improved race relations, asking for a society "that no longer privileges white psychic stability and emotional comfort." Walton is plainly inspired by James Baldwin's fury and some of his rhetorical approaches--one essay is framed as a letter to a white friend. But Walton is too resigned to thunder for change the way Baldwin did. Nor does he call for broad policy prescriptions, though he does reasonably ask why Black people have been largely denied access to the economic boom within the tech industry. Only by claiming respect for themselves rather than waiting for whites to confer it on them, he argues, can Black Americans avoid becoming the "collateral damage of a public system that fails more often than it succeeds." A spirited and informed assessment of American racism beyond headlines and politics. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Similar Items