I had a lot of problems with this book. It had received so many outstanding reviews. It was featured by Oprah's Book Club. But, I hated it. I'll try to explain.
At the very beginning, the author feels she must denigrate Donald Trump. Okay, she doesn't like Trump. I know many people who don't like the Donald. But what has that got to do with her book?
Let me digress for a moment. The charges against Trump generally include having a potty mouth and being a misogynist. But consider this:
Pres Lyndon Johnson gave press briefings while seated on the White House toilet as he moved his bowels.
Pres. Jack Kennedy had a parade of ladies visit him in the White House for sex while supposedly a happily married man.
He may have wanted to, but to the best of my knowledge, Trump never succeeded in getting as low as the standards set by these two men.
When you get beyond what the author has to say about Trump, you get to her recitation of the evils of slavery followed by the evils of Jim Crow. And, here she is on solid ground. These period were indeed dark. They were periods of unbelievable cruelty. But they were not unique in the annals of history.
The Inquisition in Spain and Vlad the Impaler were but two chapters in the sorry history of mankind.
My problem with the book and various other books of this ilk is that it doesn't give the picture in full. Consider the first instance where Black people were taken out of Africa for enslavement in the New World. White men didn't get off their ships and rush into the African jungles to find slaves. They didn't have to. They dealt with tribes that did the job for them. There were tribes that didn't care much for some of the tribes around them. They'd capture them and sold them to ships from Great Britain, Holland, the U.S., Spain and other nations.
Caribbean nations used as many slaves as America and Brazil brought in twice as many. But there's no need to restrict the ill treatment of Blacks to slavery in the New World, Rhodes, now known for his scholarships, treated his Black laborers in African mines atrociously, Mention should also be made that slavery continues to this day, but is rarely mentioned.
But, I don't disagree that slavery and Jim Crow in America must be addressed as having an American uniqueness about it.. And who can fail to sorrow over the fact that the many lives lost in our Civil War failed to more thoroughly end the negative stereotypes of Black people.
I'd like to make two more points; namely, the positive things Americans have done to bring Blacks into mainstream American culture, historically and currently. Consider the NAACP in the fight for the civil rights of Black people. This was an organization put together by a white Jew. Consider too the work done by the chairman of Sears and Roebuck who in the early years after slavery, created over 500 schools for Black students. Consider too the Catholic bishop from New York and the noted Jewish rabbi who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Hollywood and the many TV sitcoms such as All In The Family and The Jeffersons held a mirror to white beliefs and prejudices. They were effective, especially among younger people. I'm not saying Americans today are free of prejudice. But we see commercials today featuring many more Blacks than was ever the case previously. However, Black Lives Matter and people like the Rev Al Sharpton have the potential for creating divisions between whites and Blacks.
Americans divide themselves along many lines. There are union families and those against unions. There are those who favor charter schools and those opposed. There are military families and those who shun the military. America is unlike any other country. Some see Americans as better people. But many don't. We have fought in righteous wars as well as in stupid ones. But, we want to move ahead and be better. And, if we can help other people, so much better.
But concepts being put forth in this bookwork against these ambitions. For example, connectivity which holds that everything is related; that South African apartheid is related in some was to present day American race relations is nonsense. We then have the author's concept of caste. This concept is a cultural aspect of Hindu society as noted by the author. It has also been a part of Japanese society (but I digress). Caste despite the authors musings is not a part of the American psyche. To introduce caste as a part of Black-white relationships in American may sell books but it is a misapplication of a nonAmerican concert.
