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Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America
An incisive and candid look at how America got lost on the way to Dr. King’s Promised LandAlmost fifty years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, equality is the law of the land, but actual integration is still hard to find. Mammoth battles over forced busing, unfair housing practices, and affirmative action have hardly helped. The bleak fact is that black people and white people in the United States don’t spend much time together—at work, school, church, or anywhere. Tanner Colby, himself a child of a white-flight Southern suburb, set out to discover why.Some of My Best Friends Are Black chronicles America’s troubling relationship with race through four interrelated the transformation of a once-racist Birmingham school system; a Kansas City neighborhood’s fight against housing discrimination; the curious racial divide of the Madison Avenue ad world; and a Louisiana Catholic parish’s forty-year effort to build an integrated church. Writing with a reporter’s nose and a stylist’s flair, Colby uncovers the deep emotional fault lines set trembling by race and takes an unflinching look at an America still struggling to reach the mountaintop.
311 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 5, 2012
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April 22, 2017
This is a book that should be more widely read. It's a look at the history of segregation and integration in America, and it doesn't look good.
The title Some of my Best Friends Are Black is meant to be tongue-in-cheek; Tanner Colby says he started thinking about how few black friends he had when Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election. As a member of the white middle-class, he realized his life is a good example of how segregated much of our country still is, specifically in terms of education, housing, religion and jobs.
This book is broken into four main sections. The first two parts were my favorite: a look at the segregation/forced integration of schools in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama; and the history of segregated housing in Kansas City, Missouri, which has the dubious honor of issuing some of the first "racial covenants" in the country — meaning that blacks and Jews were forbidden from purchasing houses in certain parts of the city. The third part looks at the advertising industry and how difficult it was for blacks to break into the marketing field. The last part focuses on segregated churches in Louisiana.
In each section, Colby travels to different parts of the country and interviews residents to get their perspectives on integration, and researches the history of racial incidents in the region. There were some fascinating stories and details in this book, and it makes for a good overview of how we got to where we are today. While the sections on advertising and religion dragged a little, overall I would recommend this to anyone interested in social issues or history.
My rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Personal Note
Recently I had the chance to hear the author speak at a panel discussion, and he made some good points. One of them was that he doesn't consider himself a revolutionary, but is rather a pragmatist. He says revolutions rarely make change happen overnight — change (like the Civil Rights Movement) takes years and even decades, and it often happens at boring city planning meetings. Protests are fine and have their purpose, but Colby said you also need to get up every day and make good choices. You need to do work that you can be proud of and that helps others, and you need to do the right thing every day. If we all do that, our society will improve.
Favorite Quotes
"When you're white in America, life is a restricted country club by default, engineered in such a way that the problems of race rarely intrude on you personally. During the time of Jim Crow, it took a great deal of terrorism, fear, and deliberate, purposeful discrimination to keep the color line in place. What's curious about America today is that you can be white and enjoy much of the same isolation and exclusivity without having to do anything."
"As a slaveholding nation dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal, America built its house on two fundamentally irreconcilable ideas. We've been struggling to reach unitary status ever since."
"Trying to corral the suburban stampede with a bunch of school buses was like herding cats. Actually, it was worse than herding cats. It was herding white people, earth's only species with a greater sense of entitlement than a cat."
"There's only one way America's neighborhoods will begin to integrate: people have to want it more than vested public and corporate interests are opposed to it. And more people should want it. Mixed-race, mixed-income housing is a product we need on the market. It's the only real solution to segregated schools."
"The civil rights issue wasn't really a black and white problem [a Jewish community leader said]. It was a Christian problem."
"The Promised Land isn't the place where our problems are solved. It's the place where we find the courage to solve them. And that's all it ever has been."
The title Some of my Best Friends Are Black is meant to be tongue-in-cheek; Tanner Colby says he started thinking about how few black friends he had when Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election. As a member of the white middle-class, he realized his life is a good example of how segregated much of our country still is, specifically in terms of education, housing, religion and jobs.
This book is broken into four main sections. The first two parts were my favorite: a look at the segregation/forced integration of schools in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama; and the history of segregated housing in Kansas City, Missouri, which has the dubious honor of issuing some of the first "racial covenants" in the country — meaning that blacks and Jews were forbidden from purchasing houses in certain parts of the city. The third part looks at the advertising industry and how difficult it was for blacks to break into the marketing field. The last part focuses on segregated churches in Louisiana.
In each section, Colby travels to different parts of the country and interviews residents to get their perspectives on integration, and researches the history of racial incidents in the region. There were some fascinating stories and details in this book, and it makes for a good overview of how we got to where we are today. While the sections on advertising and religion dragged a little, overall I would recommend this to anyone interested in social issues or history.
My rating: 3.5 stars rounded up to 4
Personal Note
Recently I had the chance to hear the author speak at a panel discussion, and he made some good points. One of them was that he doesn't consider himself a revolutionary, but is rather a pragmatist. He says revolutions rarely make change happen overnight — change (like the Civil Rights Movement) takes years and even decades, and it often happens at boring city planning meetings. Protests are fine and have their purpose, but Colby said you also need to get up every day and make good choices. You need to do work that you can be proud of and that helps others, and you need to do the right thing every day. If we all do that, our society will improve.
Favorite Quotes
"When you're white in America, life is a restricted country club by default, engineered in such a way that the problems of race rarely intrude on you personally. During the time of Jim Crow, it took a great deal of terrorism, fear, and deliberate, purposeful discrimination to keep the color line in place. What's curious about America today is that you can be white and enjoy much of the same isolation and exclusivity without having to do anything."
"As a slaveholding nation dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal, America built its house on two fundamentally irreconcilable ideas. We've been struggling to reach unitary status ever since."
"Trying to corral the suburban stampede with a bunch of school buses was like herding cats. Actually, it was worse than herding cats. It was herding white people, earth's only species with a greater sense of entitlement than a cat."
"There's only one way America's neighborhoods will begin to integrate: people have to want it more than vested public and corporate interests are opposed to it. And more people should want it. Mixed-race, mixed-income housing is a product we need on the market. It's the only real solution to segregated schools."
"The civil rights issue wasn't really a black and white problem [a Jewish community leader said]. It was a Christian problem."
"The Promised Land isn't the place where our problems are solved. It's the place where we find the courage to solve them. And that's all it ever has been."
March 4, 2019
This book provides an insightful history into the American experience of attempted integration of the races. It does so by examining four aspects of everyday life—school, neighborhood, workplace, and church. Within these four sub-histories are revealed an abundance to good intentions, some success, plenty of unintended consequences, but many failures. There is much to ponder in this book of lessons learned and useful information that can perhaps be used toward bridging of racial divisions in the future.
The author, Colby, features himself as an example of the failures of post 60s racial integration. He is a product of twelve years of theoretically integrated public primary and secondary education that was integrated in compliance with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. He decided "to write a book about why I didn't know any black people." He admits that he actually does have one black acquaintance, but it so happens that he hadn't spoken to her for the past seventeen years. As part of preparation for writing this book he located this past African American school classmate of his and interviewed her. The vignette in this book about this black acquaintance was a fascinating story in and of itself.
School
He describes the history of busing for the purpose of integration at his alma mater, a high school in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. He visits his old school district to find out whether the black kids and the white kids still sit at different tables in the lunchroom. In the suburban school he found signs of racial integration between friends and activities that didn't exist when he went to school there. However, the inner city schools are now nearly all black.
Neighborhood
To explore the history of housing integration, Colby investigates the history of blockbusting, redlining, and racial covenants in Kansas City, Missouri. He also describes how one neighborhood (49/63 Coalition Inc.) was able to successfully fight white-flight and urban blight by finding liberal minded white folks who were not afraid of black neighbors. While reading this section I was impressed with their apparent success, but was shocked when the chapter ended with these words.
Workplace
Colby is a former adman so it's not surprising that he decided to investigate Madison Avenue as an example of racial integration in the workplace. One difficulty with the advertising profession is that there is no licensing procedure as with some other professions. Thus hiring of new talent has traditionally been done through the "good old boy" network which resulted in a non-diverse workforce. The book describes how early in the civil rights era there were hiring quotas utilized because of pressure exerted by the NAACP. Later there were efforts at contracting with minority owned ad agencies encouraged by Federal laws. But the separation of ad agencies into their abilities to reach various racial groups creates its own problems because it emphasizes cultural differences rather than commonalities.
Church
Next the book reported on the 40-year-long history of a Louisiana parish's efforts to integrate two Roman Catholic churches located blocks apart—one black, the other white. Their ultimately successful integration was a significant accomplishment because it overcame a history of self-segregation perpetuated by decades of silence and mistrust. It actually required an act of God to finally do it. After learning about the time, effort, and work that was required to finally achieve successful integration, it's not surprising to learn that the vast majority of Catholic Church parishes in Louisiana remain segregated. Ironically, Catholic churches in Louisiana were originally integrated and reluctantly divided into separate buildings after Jim Crow laws appeared during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
I was impressed with this Parish's mission statement, which in order to help make it sink into the hearts of the parishioners, they recite in unison along with the Apostle's Creed
The author, Colby, features himself as an example of the failures of post 60s racial integration. He is a product of twelve years of theoretically integrated public primary and secondary education that was integrated in compliance with the Brown v. Board of Education ruling. He decided "to write a book about why I didn't know any black people." He admits that he actually does have one black acquaintance, but it so happens that he hadn't spoken to her for the past seventeen years. As part of preparation for writing this book he located this past African American school classmate of his and interviewed her. The vignette in this book about this black acquaintance was a fascinating story in and of itself.
School
He describes the history of busing for the purpose of integration at his alma mater, a high school in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. He visits his old school district to find out whether the black kids and the white kids still sit at different tables in the lunchroom. In the suburban school he found signs of racial integration between friends and activities that didn't exist when he went to school there. However, the inner city schools are now nearly all black.
Neighborhood
To explore the history of housing integration, Colby investigates the history of blockbusting, redlining, and racial covenants in Kansas City, Missouri. He also describes how one neighborhood (49/63 Coalition Inc.) was able to successfully fight white-flight and urban blight by finding liberal minded white folks who were not afraid of black neighbors. While reading this section I was impressed with their apparent success, but was shocked when the chapter ended with these words.
There was only one hitch to the whole 49/63 integration experiment: nobody made any black friends.There was a social and cultural divide between the white urban professionals (many UMKC faculty) who dominated the neighborhood meetings and their black neighbors.
Workplace
Colby is a former adman so it's not surprising that he decided to investigate Madison Avenue as an example of racial integration in the workplace. One difficulty with the advertising profession is that there is no licensing procedure as with some other professions. Thus hiring of new talent has traditionally been done through the "good old boy" network which resulted in a non-diverse workforce. The book describes how early in the civil rights era there were hiring quotas utilized because of pressure exerted by the NAACP. Later there were efforts at contracting with minority owned ad agencies encouraged by Federal laws. But the separation of ad agencies into their abilities to reach various racial groups creates its own problems because it emphasizes cultural differences rather than commonalities.
Church
Next the book reported on the 40-year-long history of a Louisiana parish's efforts to integrate two Roman Catholic churches located blocks apart—one black, the other white. Their ultimately successful integration was a significant accomplishment because it overcame a history of self-segregation perpetuated by decades of silence and mistrust. It actually required an act of God to finally do it. After learning about the time, effort, and work that was required to finally achieve successful integration, it's not surprising to learn that the vast majority of Catholic Church parishes in Louisiana remain segregated. Ironically, Catholic churches in Louisiana were originally integrated and reluctantly divided into separate buildings after Jim Crow laws appeared during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
I was impressed with this Parish's mission statement, which in order to help make it sink into the hearts of the parishioners, they recite in unison along with the Apostle's Creed
We of St Charles Parish desire:There are additional lines to the mission statement, but I'm limiting the quotation to these lines because they explicitly address the concepts of family and community. I can imagine that anytime a member of that church feels miffed at the actions of another member, they pause and remember the mission statement, and draw on an extra measure of patience and acceptance.
To be one family in service to God and to each other.
To be one people through worship, reconciliation, and renewal who are present to the needs of all God's people.
To be a community that in faith welcomes all to be one with us in the Love of God.
... ... ...
July 5, 2012
*I won this book on Goodreads giveaway*
I so wanted to love this book, I thought all of my questions would be answered. Instead, it was more of a compilation of dull facts and figures concerning school, advertising, and church-going(Catholic church-going at that). I would love to have seen more polls or interviews.
In the forward of the book, the author wondered why he had no black friends,and I was so excited to discover the answer. I don't think he answered the question.
I so wanted to love this book, I thought all of my questions would be answered. Instead, it was more of a compilation of dull facts and figures concerning school, advertising, and church-going(Catholic church-going at that). I would love to have seen more polls or interviews.
In the forward of the book, the author wondered why he had no black friends,and I was so excited to discover the answer. I don't think he answered the question.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2015
I really wanted to LOVE this book because I think the title, as well as the premise, are pretty admirable. There were some parts that were really good, but more because I enjoyed the history lessons than the writing or some of the author's actual viewpoints.
Like I said, I think the history lessons are good, and I think it's commendable that the author was open to admitting that he didn't know much before undertaking this project. However, that being said, while I did feel like some of his observations are good starting points for dialogue, it also felt like he was making conclusions that some black Americans (and other people of color) might respond to with, "duh!" But, I suppose I should be happy that a white male author is open to examining the topic of race in America.
An okay book that had some great details in terms of history lessons, but overall, eh.
Like I said, I think the history lessons are good, and I think it's commendable that the author was open to admitting that he didn't know much before undertaking this project. However, that being said, while I did feel like some of his observations are good starting points for dialogue, it also felt like he was making conclusions that some black Americans (and other people of color) might respond to with, "duh!" But, I suppose I should be happy that a white male author is open to examining the topic of race in America.
An okay book that had some great details in terms of history lessons, but overall, eh.
February 12, 2013
An interesting premise, but, ultimately unengaging.
January 16, 2016
I won an advanced copy of Tanner Colby's Some of My Best Friends Are Black: The Strange Story of Integration in America from a Goodreads giveaway.
I found the book to be an eye opener. It took a different angle on the integration issue. I enjoyed his writing style but found myself having to read the book in small sections. The author often took a long time to make a point and while the little tangents would hold some value to the story, I would lose interest after a while.
I found the book to be an eye opener. It took a different angle on the integration issue. I enjoyed his writing style but found myself having to read the book in small sections. The author often took a long time to make a point and while the little tangents would hold some value to the story, I would lose interest after a while.
June 24, 2012
Didn't really care for this one. Never got my attention.
September 22, 2014
I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I initially picked it up because it seemed like the type of book that would speak to my students' experiences- and academic books about race can be dry.
The book was well written an easy to read but I had a few issues with it. The author admits that this wasn't meant to be a research book - I was happy that he put that out there but did feel like the book would have benefitted from a more systematic way of interviewing (and a bit more layered analysis about the interview data). For me, the biggest issue was that he never really answered his own question in a clear way-only hinted at it. And some of hints sounded a lot like he was putting the onus of failed interracial friendships on non-whites. At times this is subtle and other times more explicit--either way I was uncomfortable with that conclusion based on the historical data and interviews that he presented.
What did I like about it then? the author did good job giving brief summaries of certain pieces of racial history (the housing and madison avenue history sections were bright spots)
The book was well written an easy to read but I had a few issues with it. The author admits that this wasn't meant to be a research book - I was happy that he put that out there but did feel like the book would have benefitted from a more systematic way of interviewing (and a bit more layered analysis about the interview data). For me, the biggest issue was that he never really answered his own question in a clear way-only hinted at it. And some of hints sounded a lot like he was putting the onus of failed interracial friendships on non-whites. At times this is subtle and other times more explicit--either way I was uncomfortable with that conclusion based on the historical data and interviews that he presented.
What did I like about it then? the author did good job giving brief summaries of certain pieces of racial history (the housing and madison avenue history sections were bright spots)
August 6, 2014
Saw this in the library and thought it was an interesting idea for a book. It got decent reviews and even an endorsement from someone associated with the Richard Nixon Library, so I figured I’d give it a try...
In the preface the author refers to Obama as the “awesomest guy ever”. He also described his friends as “enlightened, open-minded, well traveled, left-leaning white folks like me” who nonetheless didn’t have any close relationships with African Americans. It became clear that this book was written for such an audience. Enlightened terms such as “whiteytown” were used to describe groups of old, white men. There was also quite a bit of convincing misinformation about Catholic Church history and doctrine.
In the preface the author refers to Obama as the “awesomest guy ever”. He also described his friends as “enlightened, open-minded, well traveled, left-leaning white folks like me” who nonetheless didn’t have any close relationships with African Americans. It became clear that this book was written for such an audience. Enlightened terms such as “whiteytown” were used to describe groups of old, white men. There was also quite a bit of convincing misinformation about Catholic Church history and doctrine.
July 29, 2015
I hate to give this book just a 2. I learned a lot but it took me forever to get through and I guess that might be because each section seemed so disconnected. It's somewhere between "ok" and "I liked it". His approach was extremely casual. I'd like to talk to a person of color who has read it. Is his approach too casual?
July 26, 2014
Meh. The first section starts out strong, but the book looses the author 1/3 of the way through. After that, though I find the topic worthwhile, I did not find the book compelling. There are better books about race out there.
June 1, 2015
I didn't care for this book.
June 25, 2012
I received this in a Goodreads giveaway and was delighted to have gotten it. I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960's/1970's. My parents were white Atheist liberals who owned a bookstore that was always fully integrated with one men's restroom, one women's restroom, and one water fountain. We had no Whites Only or No Coloreds allowed signs as I saw all over town. My all-white school was integrated by none other than Martin Luther King, Jr.'s sons Marty and Dexter and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy's son Ralph was my classmate from the first day of first grade in September 1965 to the last day of 7th grade in June 1972. The act of inviting him to my 7th birthday party caused an uproar as parents of my classmates threatened to not let their kids come if he did and our lily white neighbors on our classy tree lined street of Victorian homes in midtown threatened to set the house on fire if we did.
Tanner Colby is younger than me and apparently has a lot less personal experience with this issue than I do. He covers this subject from 4 angles- schools/education, neighborhoods, work (the advertising industry) and churches. He admits he had to limit the scope (as well he should) but he covers certain limited areas an example- schools in the Birmingham, Alabama area, neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri, the New York advertising agencies, and churches in Louisiana. I am glad he chose 4 different states for coverage instead of just limiting himself to one place.
He covers these areas pretty well but sometimes I think he doesn't have a clue. For example, he took an anonymous poll of students that asked two questions- How many black acquaintances do you have? (by acquaintances they really mean- How many black people in your school do you know by name?) and How many close black friends (the kind you call up to chat with, text to, and have over to your house/go over to their house) do you have. He then goes on to post the results and to comment on them. He says "Today more than 60% of the white kids are at least chummy with five or more (black kids) and half of them have at least one close black friend."
This isn't exactly what the chart shows. An acquaintance is someone you have met, you know his or her name and recognize him/her in class. This is NOT the same as being "chummy" which means being friends and associating with each other. There were a lot of people in elementary, junior high, high school, and college who I was acquainted with but was in no way chummy with. Most days I would not even speak to or with them. Saying that 60% of these white kids are "chummy" with their black acquaintances is ridiculous.
Then there is the part about half of the white students having at least one close black friend. According to the data presented, 49% have NO close black friends. 24% have 1, 13% have 2, 6% have 3 and 3% have 4. 5% have 5 or more. The biggest group are the ones with NO black friends. The second largest are the ones who have only 1. Few have more than one. This is not exactly a case of the white kids and black kids forming a lovely integrated pack of good close friends. My elementary school was almost all white and yet I had over 5 black close friends, both male and female back in 1965-1972! In junior and senior high, I had a lot more than that and in college even more.
There are some issues I was glad to see brought out. One of them is how Jesse Jackson and others like him had tried to be gatekeepers between blacks and whites, insisting that whites could never understand blacks without a "translator". Funny, I have never needed a translator to help me be friends with blacks and understand what they like yet Jesse Jackson and others have promoted the idea of blacks segregating themselves by going to historically black colleges, starting their own black focused businesses (including ad agencies) that serve only blacks, etc. Some "rainbow".
I have asked for all of my 53 years- why are we dividing ourselves up by skin pigmentation? There is only one race- the human race. We bleed red. We have the same body parts. What does it matter if I am a white Atheist and someone else is a black Christian? That should be no barrier. I have friends on 6 continents of every conceivable race, religion, and national origin, male/female, gay/lesbian/heterosexual, rich/poor, educated/not formally educated, and more. I love them for themselves and the differences, just respect the differences. We are not clones nor should we be. I like the differences that bring color and variety to life.
This book is a good place to start for a close personal look at the past and the present.
Tanner Colby is younger than me and apparently has a lot less personal experience with this issue than I do. He covers this subject from 4 angles- schools/education, neighborhoods, work (the advertising industry) and churches. He admits he had to limit the scope (as well he should) but he covers certain limited areas an example- schools in the Birmingham, Alabama area, neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri, the New York advertising agencies, and churches in Louisiana. I am glad he chose 4 different states for coverage instead of just limiting himself to one place.
He covers these areas pretty well but sometimes I think he doesn't have a clue. For example, he took an anonymous poll of students that asked two questions- How many black acquaintances do you have? (by acquaintances they really mean- How many black people in your school do you know by name?) and How many close black friends (the kind you call up to chat with, text to, and have over to your house/go over to their house) do you have. He then goes on to post the results and to comment on them. He says "Today more than 60% of the white kids are at least chummy with five or more (black kids) and half of them have at least one close black friend."
This isn't exactly what the chart shows. An acquaintance is someone you have met, you know his or her name and recognize him/her in class. This is NOT the same as being "chummy" which means being friends and associating with each other. There were a lot of people in elementary, junior high, high school, and college who I was acquainted with but was in no way chummy with. Most days I would not even speak to or with them. Saying that 60% of these white kids are "chummy" with their black acquaintances is ridiculous.
Then there is the part about half of the white students having at least one close black friend. According to the data presented, 49% have NO close black friends. 24% have 1, 13% have 2, 6% have 3 and 3% have 4. 5% have 5 or more. The biggest group are the ones with NO black friends. The second largest are the ones who have only 1. Few have more than one. This is not exactly a case of the white kids and black kids forming a lovely integrated pack of good close friends. My elementary school was almost all white and yet I had over 5 black close friends, both male and female back in 1965-1972! In junior and senior high, I had a lot more than that and in college even more.
There are some issues I was glad to see brought out. One of them is how Jesse Jackson and others like him had tried to be gatekeepers between blacks and whites, insisting that whites could never understand blacks without a "translator". Funny, I have never needed a translator to help me be friends with blacks and understand what they like yet Jesse Jackson and others have promoted the idea of blacks segregating themselves by going to historically black colleges, starting their own black focused businesses (including ad agencies) that serve only blacks, etc. Some "rainbow".
I have asked for all of my 53 years- why are we dividing ourselves up by skin pigmentation? There is only one race- the human race. We bleed red. We have the same body parts. What does it matter if I am a white Atheist and someone else is a black Christian? That should be no barrier. I have friends on 6 continents of every conceivable race, religion, and national origin, male/female, gay/lesbian/heterosexual, rich/poor, educated/not formally educated, and more. I love them for themselves and the differences, just respect the differences. We are not clones nor should we be. I like the differences that bring color and variety to life.
This book is a good place to start for a close personal look at the past and the present.
May 21, 2015
Weak!
September 5, 2015
Disappointing!
June 5, 2014
Disappointing!
I found this book very disappointing and, in fact, could not even finish reading it. The author is a mediocre writer at best. I've read some of his other writing recently but I will no longer read his work. One star.
I found this book very disappointing and, in fact, could not even finish reading it. The author is a mediocre writer at best. I've read some of his other writing recently but I will no longer read his work. One star.
July 8, 2012
[Won as a First Reads]
Looking for a book that will make you think about race in a slightly different way? Looking for a book that shows us how much progress has been made? Looking for a book that describes the true cost of that progress? In many ways, this is that book. Written in an easy style with structured history and memoir-esque reasons, SomBFaB plays out like a Michael Moore movie, only fair, balanced and truly important for everyone no matter what side of the divide you are on. This book is a great gateway to the race discussion and if you are involved in School, Real Estate, Advertising or Religion and tackling cultural diversity, it is a must read.
Obviously this does not come close to touching on all aspects of integration (according to this book, integration is between Blacks and Whites only, for starters). Tanner Colby, in his Preface (which is easily worth the price of admission) says that it would be impossible to even attempt a book that came close to discussing all aspects of integration. What SomBFaB does, though, is present a selection of anecdotes that are centered on four different regions and four different aspects of life: School, Home, Work, Church.
Below are reviews on each aspect (School is part 1, Home is part 2, etc.), but that is only a glimpse at the depth Colby tackles each topic. I don't know if I can recommend this book enough ... but I know I'm probably buying a couple of copies to give away to Administration at my school so they can understand why we have a dorm-day separation in the cafeteria and how tough it is to build up a diverse student body, especially with a majority white faculty.
Part 4: Colby ends the book with the story of Grand Coteau, Louisiana. To say much more would be to steal the power and message of this anecdote. Though it reads as its own separate entity to the book (the other sections all are quick to relate to previous sections and previous sections lead directly into the next sections), there are glimpses of why Religion must be discussed and how it is the most important of the four aspects described.
The brief epilogue helps right a wrong I had started noticing while reading the final section - a lack of citations. That may be due to the status of the copy I got (Advanced Uncorrected Proofs), and I hope that is remedied in the actual copies of this book.
Part 3 review: In my Advance Uncorrected Proofs copy it says: "Advertising now has to be culturally competent across the board. To get there, integrating the white hierarchy of the big agencies is going to take years. In the meantime, black agencies are still asserting ownership of black consumers, but their seventies-era, race-based business model isn't any better suited to the new media universe than the white guys'." Now, maybe I'm just crazy in my interpretation of this sentence, but it sounds like the only way you can get a culturally competent crew of people is if they are balanced racially. That is, that some sort of Affirmative Action HAS to take place for true cultural competency. Now, I would have lesser issues with this argument (besides a big one, namely that one race can NEVER know another race and that targeting specific racial identities in ads IS OK) had he not spent the last 10 pages describing how the internet has shown the need for racial targeting to be a moot point. That people will go to what they want regardless of the advertising (well, "regardless" is the wrong word, but "despite" doesn't work so well either). In other words, he just spent 10 pages describing how black agencies are unnecessary and then in two sentences describes that the reason they exist (paraphrasing: white people don't understand blacks, so only blacks can sell to blacks) IS A TRUE REASON! This is the first time that Colby has actually pushed a race button and seemed to completely misinterpret what came out of the food hole.
The rest of this section - focusing on advertising, since that's what Tanner Colby did before becoming a writer - is as interesting and intriguing as the entire book has been so far.
Part 2 review: After the school integration, he talks about neighborhood integration. The best pieces here were the backing information, where he discusses the creation of suburbia. I will say that it is unclear whether we are heading in the right direction in terms of neighborhood integration, or if there has been no progress made at all. Throughout this section, Colby goes on describing what are the various pieces of racism that exists today and that existed back then. What he doesn't discuss is as important as what is discussed, namely: white flight INTO black neighborhoods (as what is being done right now in Portland, Or around the north Portland area). Again, the lack of other races discussed thoroughly is a little bothering, but given his focus of Kansas City, Missouri, maybe that's fitting.
Part 1 review: Ok, I don't normally do this, but this book has definitely inspired me to write mini-reviews while reading. At the very least, it has been incredibly interesting and thought provoking. The only other book to have gotten me to think about Race as much as this one, and that was just the Introduction/Preface. There, Tanner Colby presents just a bare skeleton of an idea that any American (and this book really is meant for US race relations, though I'm sure other countries may have similar stories) needs to look at.
Then he goes on to discuss school integration.
While laying the factual framework for this section (chapters 1 and 2), it does get a little boring. Some of the information is old hat for anyone with a decent Government class (like mine from High School), but other aspects are definitely region-related and about that time is when the book really gets interesting. During the last three chapters in this section, we delve more into anecdotal evidence - and it is powerful to read. As a person of mixed race myself, it was moving to read about the "Oreo" idea and "Acting White." I had brought up to the faculty at the school where I teach how I've been "Treated White" for almost all of my schooling career and they didn't understand. This book explained it better than I ever could.
There's also some hope in the last few chapters, giving the sense that racism isn't holding back the schools in this particular region, but socio-economic factors instead. This is something that is very true in Oregon also.
This section also leaves me with the hope that the rest of the four parts of this book will be as illuminating and thought-provoking as the first. Tanner Colby may be white, he may have selected very specific areas to cover, but he's done a nice job of including the black voice in this book.
Now if only there were other races included in the discussion; racism isn't just a Black/White issue, after all.
Looking for a book that will make you think about race in a slightly different way? Looking for a book that shows us how much progress has been made? Looking for a book that describes the true cost of that progress? In many ways, this is that book. Written in an easy style with structured history and memoir-esque reasons, SomBFaB plays out like a Michael Moore movie, only fair, balanced and truly important for everyone no matter what side of the divide you are on. This book is a great gateway to the race discussion and if you are involved in School, Real Estate, Advertising or Religion and tackling cultural diversity, it is a must read.
Obviously this does not come close to touching on all aspects of integration (according to this book, integration is between Blacks and Whites only, for starters). Tanner Colby, in his Preface (which is easily worth the price of admission) says that it would be impossible to even attempt a book that came close to discussing all aspects of integration. What SomBFaB does, though, is present a selection of anecdotes that are centered on four different regions and four different aspects of life: School, Home, Work, Church.
Below are reviews on each aspect (School is part 1, Home is part 2, etc.), but that is only a glimpse at the depth Colby tackles each topic. I don't know if I can recommend this book enough ... but I know I'm probably buying a couple of copies to give away to Administration at my school so they can understand why we have a dorm-day separation in the cafeteria and how tough it is to build up a diverse student body, especially with a majority white faculty.
Part 4: Colby ends the book with the story of Grand Coteau, Louisiana. To say much more would be to steal the power and message of this anecdote. Though it reads as its own separate entity to the book (the other sections all are quick to relate to previous sections and previous sections lead directly into the next sections), there are glimpses of why Religion must be discussed and how it is the most important of the four aspects described.
The brief epilogue helps right a wrong I had started noticing while reading the final section - a lack of citations. That may be due to the status of the copy I got (Advanced Uncorrected Proofs), and I hope that is remedied in the actual copies of this book.
Part 3 review: In my Advance Uncorrected Proofs copy it says: "Advertising now has to be culturally competent across the board. To get there, integrating the white hierarchy of the big agencies is going to take years. In the meantime, black agencies are still asserting ownership of black consumers, but their seventies-era, race-based business model isn't any better suited to the new media universe than the white guys'." Now, maybe I'm just crazy in my interpretation of this sentence, but it sounds like the only way you can get a culturally competent crew of people is if they are balanced racially. That is, that some sort of Affirmative Action HAS to take place for true cultural competency. Now, I would have lesser issues with this argument (besides a big one, namely that one race can NEVER know another race and that targeting specific racial identities in ads IS OK) had he not spent the last 10 pages describing how the internet has shown the need for racial targeting to be a moot point. That people will go to what they want regardless of the advertising (well, "regardless" is the wrong word, but "despite" doesn't work so well either). In other words, he just spent 10 pages describing how black agencies are unnecessary and then in two sentences describes that the reason they exist (paraphrasing: white people don't understand blacks, so only blacks can sell to blacks) IS A TRUE REASON! This is the first time that Colby has actually pushed a race button and seemed to completely misinterpret what came out of the food hole.
The rest of this section - focusing on advertising, since that's what Tanner Colby did before becoming a writer - is as interesting and intriguing as the entire book has been so far.
Part 2 review: After the school integration, he talks about neighborhood integration. The best pieces here were the backing information, where he discusses the creation of suburbia. I will say that it is unclear whether we are heading in the right direction in terms of neighborhood integration, or if there has been no progress made at all. Throughout this section, Colby goes on describing what are the various pieces of racism that exists today and that existed back then. What he doesn't discuss is as important as what is discussed, namely: white flight INTO black neighborhoods (as what is being done right now in Portland, Or around the north Portland area). Again, the lack of other races discussed thoroughly is a little bothering, but given his focus of Kansas City, Missouri, maybe that's fitting.
Part 1 review: Ok, I don't normally do this, but this book has definitely inspired me to write mini-reviews while reading. At the very least, it has been incredibly interesting and thought provoking. The only other book to have gotten me to think about Race as much as this one, and that was just the Introduction/Preface. There, Tanner Colby presents just a bare skeleton of an idea that any American (and this book really is meant for US race relations, though I'm sure other countries may have similar stories) needs to look at.
Then he goes on to discuss school integration.
While laying the factual framework for this section (chapters 1 and 2), it does get a little boring. Some of the information is old hat for anyone with a decent Government class (like mine from High School), but other aspects are definitely region-related and about that time is when the book really gets interesting. During the last three chapters in this section, we delve more into anecdotal evidence - and it is powerful to read. As a person of mixed race myself, it was moving to read about the "Oreo" idea and "Acting White." I had brought up to the faculty at the school where I teach how I've been "Treated White" for almost all of my schooling career and they didn't understand. This book explained it better than I ever could.
There's also some hope in the last few chapters, giving the sense that racism isn't holding back the schools in this particular region, but socio-economic factors instead. This is something that is very true in Oregon also.
This section also leaves me with the hope that the rest of the four parts of this book will be as illuminating and thought-provoking as the first. Tanner Colby may be white, he may have selected very specific areas to cover, but he's done a nice job of including the black voice in this book.
Now if only there were other races included in the discussion; racism isn't just a Black/White issue, after all.
did-not-finish
September 30, 2012I enjoyed the first part of the book about segregation and integration in schools but then he lost me. I was bored and started skimming and then gave up on it.
Read
June 12, 2020Although not one of the newer books on the subject, I would highly recommend it to those who live in the Kansas City metro area.
This book revealed to me many aspects of the history of integration that I was not aware of. Colby chooses to focus on school integration in suburban Birmingham, the rise of the white suburban neighborhoods in Kansas City, the dividing line on Madison Avenue and the struggle to integrate the Catholic church in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. This book is chock full of dates and names. Truly each subject could and has been the subject of entire books.
The Kansas City section fascinated and frustrated me since that is where I live. My son is a student at Rockhurst University and drives down Troost to school making a stop at Go Chicken Go to bring gizzards home occasionally. The Grand Coteau story reminds us that although we have a long ways to go, progress continues. Reading this book helps me to see where I may have been blind to the problem and reminds me to keep my eyes open for ways I can love my neighbor as I should.
*Reviewed by Darla from Red Bridge*
This book revealed to me many aspects of the history of integration that I was not aware of. Colby chooses to focus on school integration in suburban Birmingham, the rise of the white suburban neighborhoods in Kansas City, the dividing line on Madison Avenue and the struggle to integrate the Catholic church in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. This book is chock full of dates and names. Truly each subject could and has been the subject of entire books.
The Kansas City section fascinated and frustrated me since that is where I live. My son is a student at Rockhurst University and drives down Troost to school making a stop at Go Chicken Go to bring gizzards home occasionally. The Grand Coteau story reminds us that although we have a long ways to go, progress continues. Reading this book helps me to see where I may have been blind to the problem and reminds me to keep my eyes open for ways I can love my neighbor as I should.
*Reviewed by Darla from Red Bridge*
November 11, 2018
This book revealed to me many aspects of the history of integration that I was not aware of. Colby chooses to focus on school integration in suburban Birmingham, the rise of the white suburban neighborhoods in Kansas City, the dividing line on Madison Avenue and the struggle to integrate the Catholic church in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. This book is chock full of dates and names. Truly each subject could and has been the subject of entire books.
The Kansas City section fascinated and frustrated me since that is where I live. My son is a student at Rockhurst University and drives down Troost to school making a stop at Go Chicken Go to bring gizzards home occasionally. The Grand Coteau story reminds us that although we have a long ways to go, progress continues. Reading this book helps me to see where I may have been blind to the problem and reminds me to keep my eyes open for ways I can love my neighbor as I should.
The Kansas City section fascinated and frustrated me since that is where I live. My son is a student at Rockhurst University and drives down Troost to school making a stop at Go Chicken Go to bring gizzards home occasionally. The Grand Coteau story reminds us that although we have a long ways to go, progress continues. Reading this book helps me to see where I may have been blind to the problem and reminds me to keep my eyes open for ways I can love my neighbor as I should.
November 12, 2012
The author discusses integration and how limited it is. He views it from the fact that he has no black friends. Acquaintances but not friends. He frames this exploration of modern America history through his own life and the places he's lived and their connection to integration. It's a great framing device, but he's inconsistent with it. It bounces around time-wise and the first and last chapter on school and church are the strongest.
School is the strongest chapter because you hear the most about his life and people who attended and are attending the school there at it's history as a white flight suburb. It's personal, funny, illuminating, and relevant. The survey filled out by current students is great, and the reunion with the black girl from his high school really resounded for me.
Next is the section about blockbusting, white flight, suburbia, and redlining. he distill the subject with clear and direct descriptions. It's not in depth, but still breezy. there's not much of him in this section and I wish there was more on the gentrification of the neighbor hood by gays and what life is like for those in East St. Louis.
The weakest section is work on Madison Avenue. It's wonderfully illuminating on affirmative action and business quotas, but it goes on too long and focuses too much on advertising. Another weak point is that there is little of him after the first chapter. It's all about advertising and suffers because it doesn't talk about other professions fields or employment, which could have made the section stronger. It feels repetitive with the constant talk of business relationships. It's true, but we got it the fifth time you said it.
The church section has the least amount about the author, but is the strongest because the focus on the longitudinal integration of a Catholic church with two parishes - one white and one black - in Louisiana. Again, the narrow focus on Catholicism both hinders the overall thesis Colby repeats but strengthens the section's narrative with its tight focus.
His final thesis boils down to the reason that integration hasn't work is because black people don't want to give up the few thing that are "theirs" even if its limiting and is financially less lucrative or important than integration with whites. Occasionally he'll bring up good points as to why they maybe be reluctant to integrate (the church section has the best and most insights) but he does try to delve into that discussion. the most insightful comment is about how when it comes to integration the biggest fight is among the pro- and anti- black groups, but white people are in a Catch-22 section because either way their motives and involvement is questioned, so they throw money at the problem and back away. He doesn't have much in the way of solutions or advice except the strong belief that integration is good. the final section does a great job of showing how full integration is achieved, but makes it all worth reading. So, at least read the first and last sections.
School is the strongest chapter because you hear the most about his life and people who attended and are attending the school there at it's history as a white flight suburb. It's personal, funny, illuminating, and relevant. The survey filled out by current students is great, and the reunion with the black girl from his high school really resounded for me.
Next is the section about blockbusting, white flight, suburbia, and redlining. he distill the subject with clear and direct descriptions. It's not in depth, but still breezy. there's not much of him in this section and I wish there was more on the gentrification of the neighbor hood by gays and what life is like for those in East St. Louis.
The weakest section is work on Madison Avenue. It's wonderfully illuminating on affirmative action and business quotas, but it goes on too long and focuses too much on advertising. Another weak point is that there is little of him after the first chapter. It's all about advertising and suffers because it doesn't talk about other professions fields or employment, which could have made the section stronger. It feels repetitive with the constant talk of business relationships. It's true, but we got it the fifth time you said it.
The church section has the least amount about the author, but is the strongest because the focus on the longitudinal integration of a Catholic church with two parishes - one white and one black - in Louisiana. Again, the narrow focus on Catholicism both hinders the overall thesis Colby repeats but strengthens the section's narrative with its tight focus.
His final thesis boils down to the reason that integration hasn't work is because black people don't want to give up the few thing that are "theirs" even if its limiting and is financially less lucrative or important than integration with whites. Occasionally he'll bring up good points as to why they maybe be reluctant to integrate (the church section has the best and most insights) but he does try to delve into that discussion. the most insightful comment is about how when it comes to integration the biggest fight is among the pro- and anti- black groups, but white people are in a Catch-22 section because either way their motives and involvement is questioned, so they throw money at the problem and back away. He doesn't have much in the way of solutions or advice except the strong belief that integration is good. the final section does a great job of showing how full integration is achieved, but makes it all worth reading. So, at least read the first and last sections.
July 14, 2018
Communities are made and formed based on the relationships that we develop with each other. So what happens when schools, neighborhoods, and churches do not have the strong relationships to back them? Colby examines all kinds of communities (from the home front to the workforce) in order to determine how we relate or sometimes don't relate to each other. Confronting prejudices and past history head-on, Colby opens a dialogue that challenges readers to examine their own environment, their own way of looking at others.
August 21, 2012
This book was hit AND miss for me. Being a big fan of the urban planning field, I loved the first part of the book - it was a fascinating overview of historical patterns with modern day examples of what those patterns have wrought. So far, so great. And then . . .
came the whole middle section about advertising which, to me, seemed to go on and on and on and on. I turned the page at the end of one section and was hoping that Colby had gotten everything he wanted to say about advertising out on the page and was so disappointed when he launched back into it with the next section. Ugh.
Here's the rub: I feel like that since the author is an advertising guy and he derives such a joy out of thinking and talking about everything even remotely related to the advertising field, he commits the all-too-human error and forgets that not everyone finds the stuff he finds interesting as interesting as he finds it. I got his points about race and advertising and I actually thought they were interesting points - the first four times he made them; I just feel like he needed to have some non-advertising people vet that portion of the book a little more honestly. I'm talking this was a 150 pages when maybe 86 would have sufficed. When you have the same point being made paragraph after paragraph, any sensible reader will begin to detach from the material. For his next book, I hope Colby goes back to the basics: highlight a conundrum and the opposing positions about that conundrum, make your point about the conundrum, provide a few of your own examples that reinforce your point, draw your conclusion(s) and then move on to your next topic.
All that said, I think Colby rebounded well with the final section of the book - the one on religion. This section was compelling, engaging and informative.
In the end, good book. It would have been great had the advertising section been shorter and more to the point. But good book nonetheless.
came the whole middle section about advertising which, to me, seemed to go on and on and on and on. I turned the page at the end of one section and was hoping that Colby had gotten everything he wanted to say about advertising out on the page and was so disappointed when he launched back into it with the next section. Ugh.
Here's the rub: I feel like that since the author is an advertising guy and he derives such a joy out of thinking and talking about everything even remotely related to the advertising field, he commits the all-too-human error and forgets that not everyone finds the stuff he finds interesting as interesting as he finds it. I got his points about race and advertising and I actually thought they were interesting points - the first four times he made them; I just feel like he needed to have some non-advertising people vet that portion of the book a little more honestly. I'm talking this was a 150 pages when maybe 86 would have sufficed. When you have the same point being made paragraph after paragraph, any sensible reader will begin to detach from the material. For his next book, I hope Colby goes back to the basics: highlight a conundrum and the opposing positions about that conundrum, make your point about the conundrum, provide a few of your own examples that reinforce your point, draw your conclusion(s) and then move on to your next topic.
All that said, I think Colby rebounded well with the final section of the book - the one on religion. This section was compelling, engaging and informative.
In the end, good book. It would have been great had the advertising section been shorter and more to the point. But good book nonetheless.
February 4, 2017
This book ought to be required reading in today's political climate. It's an excellent, accessible primer on the forces that created and continue to perpetuate American segregation -- especially in our schools, our neighborhoods, the workplace and the church. The book will challenge everyone's preconceptions, white or black, republican or democrat.
While I didn't always agree with Colby's conclusions, the book does a great job of establishing a narrative. It also offers a few positive examples and models for progress. Growing up in the same basic neighborhood as Colby and entering the same basic career path, so many of these revelations hit close to home. However, I'm certain that any reader will find the book revelatory.
While I didn't always agree with Colby's conclusions, the book does a great job of establishing a narrative. It also offers a few positive examples and models for progress. Growing up in the same basic neighborhood as Colby and entering the same basic career path, so many of these revelations hit close to home. However, I'm certain that any reader will find the book revelatory.
April 18, 2019
When you're white in America, life is a restricted country club by default, engineered in such a way that the problems of race rarely intrude on you personally. During the time of Jim Crow, it took a great deal of terrorism, fear, and deliberate, purposeful discrimination to keep the color line in place. What's curious about America today is that you can be white and enjoy much of the same isolation and exclusivity without having to do anything. As long as you're not the guy dumb enough to get caught emailing racist jokes around the office, all you have to do is read about black people in the newspaper. And, really, you don't even have to do that. Where you need a deliberate, purposeful sense of action is to go the other way, to leave the country club and see what's going on out in the world.Accessible, personable, and entertaining.
Informative, enlightening, thoughtful, and provocative.
Tanner weaves broad themes, deep research, and personal stories (from extensive interviews) to great effect, showing just how interconnected the different aspects of this issue are.
It's a most worthwhile read.
A sample related to my part of the world:
In the twentieth century, Kansas City produced two uniquely American geniuses who would both forever alter the physical and cultural landscape of the country. One of these men built a magic kingdom, a fantasy world that offered nonstop, wholesome family fun and a complete escape from reality. The other one moved to Hollywood and opened a theme park. . . .
In the South, Jim Crow was just the law. In Kansas City, [real estate developer] J.C. Nichols turned it into a product. Then he packaged it, commodified it, and sold it. Whiteness was no longer just an inflated social status. Now it was worth cash money. . . .
Between 1908 and 1948, racial covenants were used to exclude [blacks] from 62 percent of all new housing developments in Jackson County, Missouri (home of Kansas City proper). During that same period, racial covenants had excluded them from 96 percent of all new housing developments in Johnson County, Kansas. And between 1934 and 1962, the Federal Housing Authority backed mortgages for more than 77,000 homes in the Kansas City area; less than 1 percent of those loans went to blacks.
August 23, 2022
A great book Kam recommend at community group a few weeks ago, an author who went to Vestavia Hills High School, moved to New York and became an author, and after writing a few books began to wonder and the research into why black people and white people don’t spend time together in spaces where so much effort has been made to integrate: schools, neighborhoods, work places, and churches. He travels around to various states and collects stories that illustrate the issues they were having and how certain communities managed to change over time. Very engaging book!
In terms of books on race, I feel like this book highlights social networking in a way that none of the other books have to explain certain ongoing inequalities even if the face of government mandated programs.
In terms of books on race, I feel like this book highlights social networking in a way that none of the other books have to explain certain ongoing inequalities even if the face of government mandated programs.
January 10, 2021
I completely forgot I read this at the beginning of quarantine...so sometime around March of 2020. It was for my senior reading group thingy...anyway. I remember thinking this book was exceptional, because the author analyzes America’s relationship with race through four interrelated stories: school discrimination in Birmingham school system; housing discrimination in Kansas City; the racial divide of the Madison Avenue ad world; and church-related integration in Louisiana. I live in Kansas City. I grew up in Kansas City. I'm not Black or white; I'm Arab. But nonetheless, I related and felt seen in his book. I recently moved to a city right next to KC called Lee's Summit. I only lived there for a year. But oh what a difference that year was compared to the years spent in KC. Lee's Summit is a predominantly white neighborhood and just breathing the air there feels different than KC. The grass, the streets, the houses; everything nonliving knew it stood among white Americans. This book is important, especially if you're a white person living in America. But you don't have to be white to learn something, that's for sure.
June 10, 2016
I really enjoyed this book, even though it was not, as I hoped, a story about how Colby managed to integrate his social circle. Instead, it's a social history of integration in four domains-- school, neighborhoods, work, and church-- and four locations: Vestavia Hills, AL; KC, MO; Madison Avenue, NYC; and Grand Coteau, LA. Along the way, Colby tells a lot of really interesting stories, some familiar and some less so. Some of the stuff on integrating advertising at the very least came from the same source material Matthew Weiner was looking at. And I've lived in, or very near, three of these places, so I was pretty interested. Colby is funny, and sometimes a little more salty than you'd expect, able to break from the pious do-gooder historian voice at moments that surprised and disrupted my reading.
The one area that the book kind of lacked was a clear argument-- which maybe would be out of place in a work of popular history? But in at least three of the sections mentioned, things sort of just get better, which feels a bit like a cop-out. The working out of solutions in the book's final section, about Church, feels more deliberate and real, but was still only partially explicit enough for me.
It's a really good revealing book in spite of my concerns, though.
The one area that the book kind of lacked was a clear argument-- which maybe would be out of place in a work of popular history? But in at least three of the sections mentioned, things sort of just get better, which feels a bit like a cop-out. The working out of solutions in the book's final section, about Church, feels more deliberate and real, but was still only partially explicit enough for me.
It's a really good revealing book in spite of my concerns, though.
July 22, 2015
We live our childhoods once and spend the rest of our lives unpacking what happened to us then. For me, this will always be about race, gender, and developing the courage to challenge traditional viewpoints, because I grew up in Vestavia, Alabama, one town Tanner highlights in this terrific and personal exploration. He's funny and wise, and brutally honest, letting the story lead him places outside our current political narrative.
On his podcast he recently said that a school district is making this required reading for its 9th graders; I can only imagine how much this would have improved my own understanding had I been lucky enough to read it then. And, it might be interesting to note, my mother's book club of women aged 65 and up also just read and enjoyed this immensely.
I think if you had done a lot of work to understand sources of inequity in real estate in post-war America, some of this might have been a repeat; for me, it was largely new, not only because I learned new things, but because our national conversation is shifting. I'm seeing things differently, again, and this book helped tremendously. We'll never stop needing to be reminded of how we arrived where we are.
On his podcast he recently said that a school district is making this required reading for its 9th graders; I can only imagine how much this would have improved my own understanding had I been lucky enough to read it then. And, it might be interesting to note, my mother's book club of women aged 65 and up also just read and enjoyed this immensely.
I think if you had done a lot of work to understand sources of inequity in real estate in post-war America, some of this might have been a repeat; for me, it was largely new, not only because I learned new things, but because our national conversation is shifting. I'm seeing things differently, again, and this book helped tremendously. We'll never stop needing to be reminded of how we arrived where we are.
April 27, 2019
Colby's book is well-researched and illuminating, and is absolutely readable due to the author's voice and humor. The book looks at race relations and integration policies from the point of view of the people involved, presenting personal stories and quotes nestled in with historical and cultural context. After reading this book, I understand so much more about integration, mandated busing, redlining, blockbusting, and the state of race relations today. Time well spent.
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