Reviews

Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

jilly7922's review

5.0

Overall I would rate this book 4.5 stars out of 5. This book I would put in the category of highly recommended books, and is a must read. It was eye-opening and quite inspirational. This book is one that everyone should read regardless of who they are. It is not even a matter of 'should read' it is one that everybody 'needs to read'. This review for me is going to be very difficult to write, because of the vast information, the content, and matter that is in this book. Basically, I want my review to do this book the justice that it deserves. So, where do I begin? Starting with the title, it is brilliant, it powerfully describes what this book is about. It is about the history of the struggle for equality among the black people and other minorities. It tells of the events that lead up to where we are right now in the issues that we are facing today. It discusses the every day life of how black people live. The unseen, ignored, hidden racism that this race of people live with. It gives a full definition of white supremacy, the value gap, and of what it means to be black. This book talks and discusses the changes that have been made, but as well as the changes that still need to occur. These changes have to come from every human being, and they are vital in becoming the true democracy that America stands for. You must go into reading this, in knowing that this book does not segregate race, it is a fair well balanced discussion of every race. You need to know that you may be uncomfortable while reading this book, you may even want to deny things that don't meet up to your beliefs or expectations of yourself or the community around you. All this book is asking for is a receptive, understanding, and compassionate mind. I chose this book to read mainly because I wanted to learn more and to come to an understanding of why things are the way they are. I chose this book partly due to the increase of police brutality. Mainly I chose it because I wanted answers to my questions. Why are the victims of police brutality always black? Why are the poorest neighborhoods usually compromise of black people? Why are so many unemployed? Why was I taught as a child to be afraid of black people because a lot of them were murderers? Why are they always being arrested? Why don't I see the same things in white people? This book will answer all these questions and present solutions on how to change.
This book brought forward the uncomfortable feelings, it brought forward issues of which many people don't like to talk about. It brought them forward in such a way that you couldn't ignore it, like many of us have before. It brought forward a self awareness that allowed me to refocus on being aware of my racial habits, how I too, keep the value gap from shrinking. This book is not about blame or fault. It is about change, about facing and addressing issues that need to be addressed before this change can be made. There will always be some who are going to be skeptical, reluctant and unwilling to change. We need to address the core, the blood and guts. We need to stand up, too see it at its face to address it with intent. Not until we face it and stand up to it will we be able to change.
This book brings up issues of white supremacy, racial habits, and white fear and this is the blood and guts that I am referring to. What this is referring to is first we need to open our eyes, and see, we can't be ignorant anymore. Ignorance is what creates and builds fear, fear of the unknown. Once you fought this ignorance can you challenge and not be blinded by white supremacy the belief that white people are valued more. Once your vision comes back then we can address and change our racial habits such as clutching your purse as you pass a black man/woman, or labeling unemployed black people as being lazy, and takers.
This book is a call to action. What are you going to do? Will the fear consume you or will it liberate you? It's your choice. We need to take the same risks that the author took in writing this book in order to be able to change. We need to be brave like him. We need to answer this call.
For those of you, who want to read an excerpt from this book CLICK HERE or to purchase a copy of this book CLICK HERE.
This book was published on January 12, 2016 by Crown Publishing Group.
I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review. I would like to thank Blogging for Books, Eddie S. Glaude Jr, and Crown publishing group for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Come and read my book review blog http://turnthepagereviewsbyjill.blogspot.com

anyacrittenton's review

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. It was mostly information I already knew but information that's so important it should be reiterated often and it's best to hear the information from poc.

One of my favorite parts of the book was its discussion about rethinking how we value government. Because we SHOULD want government in our lives - as long as the government is helping us. A hands-off government isn't helpful except to those already incredibly privileged. And that's why I don't believe in small government. But we should rethink how we make demands of the government and pressure it to work FOR us and actually help us.

The book doesn't hold up as well near the end as it vaguely references the 2016 election without have any idea that Trump would run and win and what that would mean for the country. A lot of the suggestions don't apply all that well to the Trump presidency. However, it's still well-meaning and there's a lot of great information here.

erincataldi's review

3.0

A book that really makes you face the harsh realities of racism in this country and for me a perfect read for Black History Month. I knew I took my "white privilege" for granted before, but reading this made me ashamed to be a white American. This is one of those books that will light a fire under your ass and make you want to do something. Author, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. compiles a collection of essays; part memoir, history, and manifesto. This nonfiction book seeks to impassion readers to take action and abolish the value gap, that is the whites are valued more than blacks. He writes, "...we must close the value gap and uproot racial habits by doing democracy, once again, in black." He is very critical of President Obama and other black liberals and voices concern that there aren't more to carry on the power, the youth must take on the movement. An empowering read.

I received this book for free from Blogging for Books in return for my honest, unbiased opinion.

adamrshields's review

4.0

Summary: Democracy in Black addresses the 'values gap' between the claimed idealism of equity and democracy and the reality of history.

One of the problems with many White people in thinking about issues of race is that Black and other racial groups are still ‘other’. That ‘other’-ness is otherness in part because of the assumption of monolithic thinking. As with every topic, the more you know about an issue, the more nuance that you can see. The more comprehensive your approach to an item, the more variance within the subject that you can identify.

If you discuss Christianity, you have to ask what about Christianity is universal and what is particular to a subgroup. Catholic and Southern Baptist responses to one issue may be virtually identical, but nearly unrecognizably different in another. The very nature of worship and what the centerpiece of worship service of oriented around is different between Southern Baptist and Catholics, but they do still both worship the same God.

Democracy in Black is a political philosophy of societal change. Glaude is the Chair of the African American Studies Department at Princeton. He is the current president of the American Academy of Religion. His Ph.D. is in religious studies, and this is a book informed by Christianity. However, it is more focused on the methods and theory of cultural interaction and politics. In some ways, I think this is probably a book written a couple of years too early. It is rooted in a discussion of the role of race in the Obama era, and that is a critical discussion. But it does not fully engage with the racial backlash that gave rise to Trump.

Glaude wants to talk about values more than racism. It is not that racism is not shaping our values, but that the gap in our values is more extensive than mere racism, at least as many conceive of the meaning of racism.

"We talk about the achievement gap in education or the wealth gap between white Americans and other groups, but the value gap reflects something more basic: that no matter our stated principles or how much progress we think we’ve made, white people are valued more than others in this country, and that fact continues to shape the life chances of millions of Americans. The value gap is in our national DNA."

Merely discussing racial gaps in wealth, education, health, or other areas often reveals how we think about race. There are those that continue to deny that actual disparities exist. Some admit the variations but place most of the blame on individuals. Others suggest that racial differences are rooted in history, culture, systems, resources, or some mix of many different causes. But Glaude, while not glossing over the complexity, wants to ensure that we see that these disparities are not abnormal, but ‘who we are’.

"Most Americans see inequality—and the racial habits that give it life—as aberrations, ways we fail to live up to the idea of America. But we’re wrong. Inequality and racial habits are part of the American Idea. They are not just a symptom of bad, racist people who fail to live up to pristine ideals. We are, in the end, what we do."

One of the most common complaints about the 1619 Project from the New York Times is that the project roots slavery as one of, if not the most important feature of US history. Glaude would fully embrace that rooting because slavery and the belief in the superiority of White skin and culture are pervasive in US history.

But like Michael Eric Dyson’s book The Black Presidency and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ We Were Eight Years in Power, part of what is most helpful for me is to see the internal discussions within the Black community about how to approach the world we live in. There is some uncomfortableness in being a voyeur on these discussions. The point is not to watch the talks abstractly but to genuinely learn about the history and systems of the Black as well as the White community.

One of the more critical sections of the book is Glaude’s discussion of the importance of the role of Black institutions, especially the church. That is, of course, not a new subject since the rise of Trump. Many people have been discussing the same issue because an unintended consequent of pluralism is the destruction of institutions that empower ethnic communities, not just of Black churches, but also institutions, languages, traditions, and cultures of many different ethnic groups.

"What will happen if these institutions disappear altogether? What will provide us with the space to imagine ourselves differently and to courageously challenge white supremacy in this country? Or, as James Baldwin put it, “what will happen to all that beauty?” Baldwin asked this question as he grappled with the political nature of race. Color, for him, “is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.” The political reality was and remains that as long as white people valued themselves more than others because they were white and refused to examine their habits and assumptions, others would have to come together, build institutions, and act politically on the basis of color. The question about the status of “all that beauty” is one about what our experiences tell us about being human, and how they offer a pathway for democracy in which the lives of black people matter as much as everyone else. As white supremacy digs in its heels, as the complexity of black identities betrays the lie that all black people are alike, and as the economic crisis continues to devastate black America, we can’t help but ask “what will happen to all that beauty?” We haven’t reached any kind of promised land. We stand between lands, desperately holding on as we see so many people we love fall into poverty, go off to prison, or end up in the grave. In other words, declarations that we no longer need black America without a systematic dismantling of white supremacy amount to requests that black people commit collective suicide."

One of the positive and negative features of Chicago, when I lived there, was the ethnic communities. There is excellence in that; cultural values are empowered, the restaurants are authentic and not just ‘fusion.’ But there is also ethnic prejudice that exists in those communities, as well as about those communities.

Democracy in Black is a call to empower Black (and other ethnic communities) while at the same time breaking down prejudices that keep neighborhoods or people apart. It is a clear call to see the inherent white supremacy (by this, I mean the overvaluing of white skin and culture in his understanding of values gap, and not just White Nationalism or racist organizations.) Part of the point of Glaude’s call to understand the values gap is to see that every time we view this gap as an aberration instead of intentional creation, we further entrench the intentional ‘disremembering.’ (For more about this understanding of disremembering, David Blight’s Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory is an excellent introduction.)

The irony, of course, is that the active forgetting—the disremembering—is one of the crucial ways white supremacy in the twenty-first century sustains itself.

ggbolt16's review

5.0

Fantastic, informative, hopeful

As a middle class, educated, cis, white dude in the Midwest this book gave me hope for the future of our democracy. It provides a direct call to action that might actually reset the broken democratic system that all working class folks are flounder under that especially burdens African Americans.

This is a great book.

swingdingaling's review

3.0

This is a very good primer on racial inequality in modern America. Unfortunately, I have read similar (both in quality and in content) works lately, so I won’t be finishing it. But for a quick and powerful read about the challenges faced by America’s more historically marginalized population and the way that history echoes into today, this (or other books like it) is a must.

mindfullibrarian's review

2.0

I'm glad I read this because I learned a lot about history and the oppression of black America, but I disagree so wholeheartedly with the author's claims that only voting down ticket in the 2016 election would make a difference. I just can not understand his audacity to denounce Trump when he refused to vote for president and encouraged others to do the same. No vote, no say. If you are looking for a book on race in America, I recommend Tears We Cannot Stop by Michael Eric Dyson instead.

erin_oriordan_is_reading_again's review

4.0

This book is excellent at describing what the problem is, but a bit lacking in practical solutions on how to solve the problem. Professor Glaude isn't responsible for single-handedly solving the race problems in the U.S.A., of course, but I did think that at the beginning of the book he said that he would focus on what could be done other than more preaching to the choir. The #1 problem, as summed up in this book, is that white Americans fundamentally need to change the way we view African-Americans before anything will truly change. Professor Glaude then goes on to describe how contemporary African-American politics, including the presidency of Former President Obama, exacerbate rather than deal with the problem. Namely, the Black Left is too worried about placating and catering to white ideas of what an African-American politician should be to be considered "acceptable." The result is that the Democratic Party counts on the support of the African-American voting block without actually creating policies that do anything to make Black life in America any better. It's a huge frustration, quite disheartening, and a problem that grass-roots activism is going to have to work really, REALLY hard to make a dent in.

ebony_renaissance's review

3.0

Overall I liked this book. His historical analysis on Black Librals was pretty eye opening and convincing. However Glaude's conclusion for me was a bit misguided. Without diving into too many details, for me the conclusion was an overestimation of the power of the black vote. Glaude's conclusion left me wanting and needing more evidence of how the numbers would work out to support his point. Definitely recommend this read for your library. But I think his conclusion needs to be fleshed out a bit more.

slightly_devious's review against another edition

4.0

You can't deny facts.