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The Black Book: Reflections From the Baltimore Grassroots
The Black Book: Reflections from the Baltimore grassroots, is a collection of essays that describe important issues that face grassroots activist and organizers in Baltimore. We hope that those who are genuinely interested in advancing racial justice in our society will use this resource to guide your thinking and action around issues of justice.
More information: http://newtimbuktu.com/?page_id=67
Available from: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dayvon-love-...
More information: http://newtimbuktu.com/?page_id=67
Available from: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dayvon-love-...
- GenresNonfiction
226 pages, Paperback
First published November 17, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 8, 2015
Recommended to me by a student from the Baltimore area. The authors are primarily making a case for building up and creating black institutions - non-profits, community organizations, political groups, etc. - which they argue are better able to support and provide for the needs of black communities than outside organizations (primarily funded and operated by whites). They illustrate their arguments with examples from their own experiences working to stop a youth prison in Baltimore, and provide a strong critique of the "non-profit industrial complex".
Many of the essays seem to follow the structure of the policy debate groups with which the authors have worked. They support their specific critiques with personal stories, which do sometimes lean towards the vague and anecdotal. Additionally, I did struggle a little with the poor editing of the book - it is self-published and perhaps it shouldn't matter, but erratic capitalization and misspelled names can distract from the overall argument.
I would recommend this book to readers involved in local (Baltimore) policy advocacy, and readers interested in black self-determination.
Many of the essays seem to follow the structure of the policy debate groups with which the authors have worked. They support their specific critiques with personal stories, which do sometimes lean towards the vague and anecdotal. Additionally, I did struggle a little with the poor editing of the book - it is self-published and perhaps it shouldn't matter, but erratic capitalization and misspelled names can distract from the overall argument.
I would recommend this book to readers involved in local (Baltimore) policy advocacy, and readers interested in black self-determination.
October 1, 2015
This book made me think, especially Dayvon's essays. It introduced me to some new ideas and interesting academic literature on race that I wouldn't have known I needed to read without this book. The discussion of LBS activism in Baltimore helps show how the theories cited by the authors can be applied at a concrete, material level. As a white person, I sometimes felt challenged by the ideas in this book, but I think that is productive and healthy. As a former debater, this book helped me better understand the arguments made by the Towson debaters and the context in which these arguments were developed.
Overall, the content in this book is probably worth four stars. However, I have to deduct a star for the incredibly poor copy-editing in this book, especially in the long chapter by Lawrence Grandpre but in some of the other chapters as well. Some of the pages had 2 or 3 distracting errors, and sometimes the meaning of the sentence was obscured by these errors. By errors, I mean literal, unambiguous errors (not the intentional, stylistic choice to use AVVE instead of SAE) like using the word "to" when "the" was clearly intended, confusing mispellings (e.g. "Mancianism" instead of what I presume was supposed to be "Manichaeism"), and accidentally leaving out a necessary word. The book also lacked a consistent and complete practice of citation, which is frustrating to me because I would like to look up some of the sources they used. I realize that the authors that the authors are activists, not professional publishers, but still. These sorts of issues are part of the reason I tend to avoid self-published books.
I disagreed with a fair amount of the arguments in this book, but I was particularly bothered by the characterization of animal suffering and environmental problems as being "abstractions." While I see how discussions of these issues can be used in some contexts to derail discussions of Black issues specifically, that doesn't make the suffering of animals or the threat posed by global warming any less materially real.
Despite these issues, this book is definitely worth a read. The chapter on non-profits is particularly good. I could see myself assigning an essay from this book to an undergraduate class on race and political theory.
Overall, the content in this book is probably worth four stars. However, I have to deduct a star for the incredibly poor copy-editing in this book, especially in the long chapter by Lawrence Grandpre but in some of the other chapters as well. Some of the pages had 2 or 3 distracting errors, and sometimes the meaning of the sentence was obscured by these errors. By errors, I mean literal, unambiguous errors (not the intentional, stylistic choice to use AVVE instead of SAE) like using the word "to" when "the" was clearly intended, confusing mispellings (e.g. "Mancianism" instead of what I presume was supposed to be "Manichaeism"), and accidentally leaving out a necessary word. The book also lacked a consistent and complete practice of citation, which is frustrating to me because I would like to look up some of the sources they used. I realize that the authors that the authors are activists, not professional publishers, but still. These sorts of issues are part of the reason I tend to avoid self-published books.
I disagreed with a fair amount of the arguments in this book, but I was particularly bothered by the characterization of animal suffering and environmental problems as being "abstractions." While I see how discussions of these issues can be used in some contexts to derail discussions of Black issues specifically, that doesn't make the suffering of animals or the threat posed by global warming any less materially real.
Despite these issues, this book is definitely worth a read. The chapter on non-profits is particularly good. I could see myself assigning an essay from this book to an undergraduate class on race and political theory.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews