Synopses & Reviews
In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced than ever before. Inspired by a president who is unlike any Black man ever seen on our national stage, we are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness. In this provocative new book, iconic commentator and journalist TourÉ tackles what it means to be Black in America today.
TourÉ begins by examining the concept of “Post-Blackness,” a term that defines artists who are proud to be Black but don't want to be limited by identity politics and boxed in by race. He soon discovers that the desire to be rooted in but not constrained by Blackness is everywhere. In Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? he argues that Blackness is infinite, that any identity imaginable is Black, and that all expressions of Blackness are legitimate.
Here, TourÉ divulges intimate, funny, and painful stories of how race and racial expectations have shaped his life and explores how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, society, psychology, art, culture, and more. He knew he could not tackle this topic all on his own so he turned to 105 of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Malcolm Gladwell, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Perry, Harold Ford Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Glenn Ligon, Paul Mooney, New York Governor David Paterson, Greg Tate, Aaron McGruder, Soledad O'Brien, Kamala Harris, Chuck D, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and many others.
By engaging this brilliant, eclectic group, and employing his signature insight, courage, and wit, TourÉ delivers a clarion call on race in America and how we can change our perceptions for a better future. Destroying the notion that there is a correct way of being Black, Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? will change how we perceive race forever.
Review
“This book is quintessential TourÉ: smart, funny, irreverent, and provocative as hell. Rejecting old school racial dogma and new school myths about post-raciality, he offers a powerful and original thesis on the status of Blackness in the 21st century. Through his sharp analysis and honest reflections, TourÉ challenges us to embrace a more mature, sophisticated, and ultimately liberating notion of racial identity. Any serious conversation on race and culture must begin with this book.”
—Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Columbia University Professor and host of “Our World With Black Enterprise”
Review
“
Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness is a necessary book. To fulfill your potential as an individual or as a people, you need a clear sense of self. TourÉ has done the difficult but liberating work of moving the discussion of race beyond the Black Power-era thinking of the 1970's into the 21st Century.”
— Reggie Hudlin, filmmaker
Review
“TourÉ candidly tackles a burning issue confronting us today. Black America is undeniably a community 'free, but not equal,' and people from all walks of life are compelled to devise new approaches to confronting today's structural inequalities. Here TourÉ explores insights from many perspectives to help guide the way.”
—Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
Review
“A fascinating conversation among some of America’s most brilliant and insightful Black thinkers candidly exploring Black identity in America today. TourÉ powerfully captures the pain and dissonance of Black Americans’ far too often unrequited love for our great nation.”
—Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP
Review
“One of the most acutely observed accounts of what it is like to be young, black and middle-class in America. Toure inventively draws on a range of evidence . . . for a performance carried through with unsparing honesty, in a distinctive voice that is often humorous, occasionally wary and defensive, but always intensely engaging.” —Orlando Patterson,
The New York Times Book Review
Review
“The ever provocative TourÉ boldly articulates the complicated issues of self and racial identity in the age of Obama.” —
Vanity Fair
Review
"A welcome response to the 'self-appointed identity cops' who would arrest and banish those they consider insufficiently black. Perceptively analyze[s] a new sensibility in black art and culture to illustrate the complex and fluid racial identification TourÉ dubs 'post-blackness.' "—
The San Francisco Chronicle
Synopsis
Journalist TourÉ turns his ear to 100 prominent black Americans to create a provocative look at the state of race in America.
Synopsis
How do we make sense of what it means to be Black in a world with room for both Michelle Obama and Precious? TourÉ, an iconic commentator and journalist, defines and demystifies modern Blackness with wit, authority, and irreverent humor.
In the age of Obama, racial attitudes have become more complicated and nuanced than ever before. Americans are searching for new ways of understanding Blackness, partly inspired by a President who is unlike any Black man ever seen on our national stage.
This book aims to destroy the notion that there is a correct or even definable way of being Black. It’s a discussion mixing the personal and the intellectual. It gives us intimate and painful stories of how race and racial expectations have shaped TourÉ’s life as well as a look at how the concept of Post-Blackness functions in politics, psychology, the Black visual arts world, Chappelle’s Show, and more. For research TourÉ has turned to some of the most important luminaries of our time for frank and thought-provoking opinions, including Rev. Jesse Jackson, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson, Melissa Harris-Lacewell, Malcolm Gladwell, Harold Ford, Jr., Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, Chuck D, and many others. Their comments and disagreements with one another may come as a surprise to many readers.
Of special interest is a personal racial memoir by the author in which he depicts defining moments in his life when he confronts the question of race head-on. In another chapter—sure to be controversial—he explains why he no longer uses the word “nigga.”
Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? is a complex conversation on modern America that aims to change how we perceive race in ways that are as nuanced and spirited as the nation itself.
About the Author
TourÉ is a correspondent for MSNBC and a columnist for Time.com. He is the author of Never Drank the Kool-Aid, a collection of essays, Soul City, a novel, and the Portable Promised Land, a collection of short stories. He hosts two shows on Fuse, the Hiphop Shop and On the Record, and remains a contributing editor to Rolling Stone.