Picking up where the bestselling Losing the Race left off, this penetrating and profound collection of essays by the controversial thinker and passionate advocate for racial enlightenment and achievement explores what it means to be black in America today.

According to the author, nearly forty years after the Civil Rights Act, African-Americans in this country still remain "a race apart." He feels that modern black Americans have internalized a tacit message: "authentically black" people stress initiative in private but cloak the race in victimhood in public in order to protect black people from an ever-looming white backlash. He terms this the "New Double Consciousness" in homage to W.E.B. DuBois' description of a different kind of double consciousness in blacks a century ago.

Within this context McWhorter takes the reader on a guided tour through the race issues dominant in our moment: racial profiling, getting past race, the reparations movement, black stereotypes in film and television, hip-hop, diversity, affirmative action, the word nigger, and Cornel West's resignation from Harvard.

With his fierce intelligence and fervent eloquence, McWhorter makes a powerful case for the advancement of true racial equality.

A timely and important work about issues that must be addressed by blacks and whites alike, Authentically Black is a book for Americans of every racial, social, political, and economic persuasion.

"Rousing essays on the nature of being African-American today?McWhorter raises hackles as he challenges received opinions and entrenched notions." Kirkus Reviews

Exploring what it means to be black in America today, this collection of essays picks up where the bestselling "Losing the Race" left off. A timely and important work, "Authentically Black" is a book for Americans of every race, social, political, and economic persuasion.

Contents

Preface""xi

1 The New Black Double Consciousness"n"1

2 Profiling and "Getting Past Race""n"36

3 "What Have You Done for Me Lately?""n"64

The Reparations Movement

4 The "Can You Find the Stereotype?" Game"n"104

Blacks on Television

5 "Aren't You in Favor of Diversity?""n"138

White Guilt and University Admissions

6 The Unbearable Lightness of "The [N' Word""n"163

7 "We Don't Learn Our History!""n"176

8 Black Academics and Doing the Right Thing"n"222

"They Don't Care What You Know Till They Know That You Care"?

9 The New Black Leadership"n"236

Afterword"n"265

Index"n"267