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Summary
Summary
A Finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay
Insightful and searing essays that celebrate the vibrancy and strength of black history and culture in America by critically acclaimed writer Jabari Asim
"A fantastic essay collection...Blending personal reflection with historical analysis and cultural and literary criticism, these essays are a sharp, illuminating response to the nation's continuing racial conflicts."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post
In We Can't Breathe , Jabari Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison has exposed as the "Master Narrative" and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community in the face of centuries of racism. In eight wide-ranging and penetrating essays, he explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life; the importance of black fathers and community; the significance of black writers and stories; and the beauty and pain of the black body. What emerges is a rich portrait of a community and culture that has resisted, survived, and flourished despite centuries of racism, violence, and trauma. These thought-provoking essays present a different side of American history, one that doesn't depend on a narrative steeped in oppression but rather reveals black voices telling their own stories.
Author Notes
JABARI ASIM was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. For eleven years, he was an editor at The Washington Post , where he also wrote a syndicated column on politics, popular culture and social issues, and he served for ten years as the editor in chief of Crisis magazine, the NAACP's flagship journal of politics, culture and ideas. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Creative Arts and the author of six books for adults, including The N Word, and nine books for children.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
In contrast to the whitewashed, abridged history books that have long dominated our historical narrative stands this collection from the renowned writer, scholar, and cultural critic. In eight smartly crafted essays of varying lengths, Asim shares his experience as a black man in America. Most notable is his talent for braiding past and present into a cohesive explanation that shines a light on ugly histories while being honest about how far we have or have not come. "Shooting Negroes" links the murder of Trayvon Martin with slavery and the school-to-prison pipeline. The tender depiction of Asim's father show his roots as a poet-both in the short verses he includes as well as in the descriptions of his family. Educators may be best served by selecting pieces most appropriate for their students, as some entries assume knowledge of historical and current events or use advanced vocabulary, and one contains a graphic sexual description. -VERDICT Sure to spur the conversation on race and identity, this is a strong addition to any collection for mature teens, especially as a supplement to history texts that have left out the stories and voices of people of color.-Lindsay Jensen, Nashville Public Library © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this small but expansive collection of essays, writer and cultural critic Asim (Preaching to the Chickens: The Story of Young John Lewis) draws on the full breadth of black history in the United States, illuminating the story of black resilience through the centuries. "Along with brutality, torture, and murder, a principal step in oppression, American style has long involved getting between the oppressed and their stories," he writes. To combat this oppression, he discusses depictions of blackness in art, black fathers and father figures, the meaning of representation in literature, the racist roots of neighborhood watch squads, and the limits of respectability politics. In one heartfelt essay, he wonders at the power of a brick wall-built in a Massachusetts town by an enslaved artisan in 1765-to act as a physical reminder of great sacrifice. In Asim's telling, Trayvon Martin, the black teenager who was murdered by a white neighborhood watch volunteer in 2012, lives alongside Pomp, the man who built that wall. Melding the personal with the national and cultural, this collection is a must-read for history buffs, activists, and students of societal power dynamics. (Oct.) c Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A collection of essays that go wide and deep into the black experience in America.As a former editor and columnist for the Washington Post and editor-in-chief of the NAACP's The Crisis, Asim (A Taste of Honey, 2009, etc.) brings an impressive breadth of experience to these pieces. He places current events within the context of a legacy that is literary, political, and cultural as well as racial, with a voice that is both compelling and convincing. "In ideal circumstances, the human body flows in a state of strut," he writes of the body confidence that white people too often find menacing in black males. "A jauntiness, an ease. A response to the rhythms that animate the earth.Strut is the body in motion, occupying, manipulating and moving through space. Strutting requires freedom, the liberty to flex and stretch." This prose struts in an inherently musical way that also seems integral to the black experience as the author delineates its rhythms. Some of these pieces are more ambitious than others and pack more of a punchparticularly "Getting It Twisted" and "The Elements of Strut" as well as the concluding "Of Love and Struggle: The Limits of Respectability," which counters Michelle Obama's strategy of going high when they go low. Others are slighter, such as one on black representation in children's literature, or more personal, like "Color Him Father," about Asim's family. Perhaps most problematic is the longest essay, "The Thing Itself," which ultimately offers a nuanced illumination of cultural appropriation but spends too much space on the old battle over William Styron's The Confessions of Nat Turner. Nonetheless, the author shows throughout how the past informs the present and how age-old fears and prejudices present themselves in new guises.A sharp vision that challenges readers to shift perspective and examine conventional narratives. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Acclaimed writer Asim (associate professor, director, creative writing, Emerson Coll.; Preaching to the Chickens; A Taste of Honey: Stories) writes an insightful, compact volume featuring eight pivotal essays that redress African American history and culture as it's commonly represented in America today. This latest work eloquently weaves a narrative rich with black philosophers, artists, and writers, juxtaposing the standard offerings of black history found in present-day classrooms. His essays transverse the difficulties of racism, violence, and oppression; however, a keen mastery of language and storytelling positively illuminates how African Americans continue to resist against injustice. Asim effortlessly opens the dialog by widening the lens on various issues such as black fathers as leaders, the appropriation of black tragedy by white artists, how the stories of African American heroes come to be misrepresented, and the misconception that love is enough to fight injustice. VERDICT A highly accessible book that would serve high school and college classrooms well in continuing the conversation about civil rights and social justice.-Angela Forret, Clive, IA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
Getting It Twisted | p. 1 |
The Elements of Strut | p. 21 |
Shooting Negroes | p. 49 |
Color Him Father | p. 69 |
The Seer and the Seen: On Reading and Being | p. 91 |
Brick Relics | p. 115 |
The Thing Itself | p. 127 |
Of Love and Struggle: The Limits of Respectability | p. 171 |
Acknowledgments | p. 189 |
Selected Bibliography | p. 191 |