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The 10 Best Black Books of 2010 (Non-Fiction)by Kam Williams1. The Grace of Silence: A Memoir Particularly poignant is the painstaking lengths Michele goes to resurrect the besmirched name of her late father. For following his honorable discharge from the military after serving in World War II, he’d returned to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, reasonably believing he’d earned the right to vote by fighting for his country. So he and other black veterans began making treks to the courthouse downtown to attempt to register. However, in an incident which was subsequently covered-up by a falsified police report full of lies, her father was shot while wearing his Navy uniform by a police officer who charged him with attempted robbery and resisting arrest. The truth just unearthed by his intrepid daughter during a recent return to Birmingham belatedly clears his name, even though his innocence had been impossible to prove back in the Jim Crow South. A very intimate, riveting and revealing cultural keepsake apt to
resonate deeply with any African-American family inclined to reflect
honestly on the oft-unspoken legacy of generation after generation of
ancestors who had to cope in a world where bigoted whites could get away
with anything. This is the nagging thought which inspired Tom Burrell to write Brainwashed. After all, as an advertising executive with 45 years in the business, he was well aware of the power of propaganda. So he knew that American society has done such a good job on the minds of blacks that they have not only internalized but have willingly participated in the perpetuation and further dissemination of nearly every negative stereotype propagated about them by the media. Mr. Burell explores his subject-matter at considerable length and depth with the hope of helping to eradicate self-destructive behaviors. He believes that people have to heal from the inside-out, so his solutions start with each individual’s recognition that you’ve been brainwashed, and that you can reprogram your mind because it is ultimately under your control. A potentially-transformative, seminal treatise provided readers are
receptive to contemplating commonly-accepted cultural practices like the
use of the N-word, corporal punishment and hair relaxers as possibly the
vestiges of a deep-seated self-hatred implanted in the brain by white
supremacist notions. The former Secretary of State pays tribute to their Herculean effort in this remarkably-revealing memoir by a very private, public figure who has until now played her cards pretty close to the vest. But you had a sense something might be up when she was spotted playing piano behind Aretha at a concert in Philadelphia last summer. And after reading this intimate autobiography it’s clear that underneath that seemingly-steely veneer beats the heart is an introspective sister yearning to recognize and return to her roots. An evocative opus fully humanizing a once-inscrutable Madam
Secretary. I just have one question: May I call you Condi at the
homecoming party? Whether it was being asked “Are you black?” by a portrait photographer at the age of 11, being teased “If you’re a [N-word] why don’t you have big lips?” by an 8th grader in the hallway at school, or having to hear “Why do I have to sit next to the black girl?” coming from the sister of a friend, Soledad suffered a host of indignities on the path to the peak of her profession. Fortunately, once in a position to make a difference while covering disasters like the Great Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina or the Haitian Earthquake, this intrepid reporter has kept the pedal to the metal in an indefatigable quest to shed light on the plight of the least of her brethren. As for her private life, we learn that the freckle-faced, dedicated mother of four was an ugly duckling who never dated in high school before blossoming in Boston where she met her husband, Brad. A moving memoir which does justice to the effervescent spirit and
unbridled intellectual curiosity of a truly empathetic soul my faithful
readers already know just might be the brightest person I’ve had the
privilege of interviewing. For, in conjunction with his longtime business partner, Dr. Jeffrey “J.R.” Robinson, Randal has written a viable blueprint for blacks trying to make it in corporate America. Here, he and J.R. serve up sage advice culled from a combination of their own experiences and those of dozens of equally-accomplished black contemporaries they interviewed for the project. In a nutshell, their sacred 10 Commandments range from a stress on excellence to seeking out the wisdom of mentors to maximizing synergy and scale. A helpful handbook designed for the average African-American armed
with credentials yet in a quandary about how to flourish in the midst of
a corporate culture tainted by intolerance in terms of skin color. Alexander, a Professor of Law at Ohio State University, makes her very persuasive case in this scathing indictment of the widespread practice of selective enforcement of draconian drug laws. Ostensibly, the aim of the U.S. government has been not only to warehouse masses of African-American males behind bars, but to relegate them permanently to a subordinate stratum of society even after they’re paroled. If the author holds out any hope for our future, it rests in raising
the country’s collective consciousness about the role the Apartheid-like
legal system plays in perpetuating oppression along the color line. Her
goal, as delineated in this sterling text, is to work towards that end
by generating some frank dialogue leading to a social movement on behalf
of the vast underclass of unfairly-criminalized social pariahs. Therefore, if you’re presently out of work, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for the supposedly-stimulative effect of that windfall for the rich to trickle-down to you in the form of a job. Instead, may I suggest perusing this invaluable how-to tome designed with ambitious self-starters in mind. The book was written by Dante Lee, the CEO of Diversity City Media and a bona fide success story in his own right. He shares a cornucopia of practical advice based on his experiences about what’s involved in getting a profitable money-making operation off the ground. A plausible primer for financial success aimed at any aspiring
entrepreneur equipped with a viable business plan and the requisite
amalgam of guts, determination and common sense to make their dream a
reality. The book opens with a gripping description of a public execution in the Sixties of a couple of Haitian political dissidents in a crowded Port-au-Prince town square aired live on TV, on a specially-declared national holiday when schools and businesses were closed in order to enable everyone to observe the grisly deaths by firing squad. But Edwidge points out that the true purpose of Duvalier’s turning the event into such a spectacle was to discourage the populace from ever voicing their discontent with the status quo. Obviously, in the case of Ms. Danticat, such attempts at intimidation
ultimately backfired, for the inveterate firebrand grew up to stake her
career on exposing injustice and challenging authority. The magical
musings and flowery phrasings of a gifted wordsmith who, it must be
noted, writes not in her native French but in the English of her adopted
homeland. And when you factor in that Chicago witnessed 40 gang-related
shootings on the Southside over a recent weekend, the deteriorating
state of affairs in the Windy City makes this uplifting success story
about how a couple of kids miraculously made it out of that very same
‘hood all the more remarkable, refreshing and eminently worthwhile. Shedding considerable light on the issue is Harvard Law Professor Charles Ogletree in this dissection of the matter from a predominantly legal perspective. Granted, as Dr. Gates’ attorney of record, Ogletree definitely had a horse in the race, so one might question his impartiality when he makes mincemeat here of Sgt. Crowley’s rationale for jailing his client. However, what’s of far more interest and ultimately dispositive are
the anecdotal accounts offered in the book by over a hundred
well-educated, highly-accomplished brothers about their own run-ins with
the law. It seems that everyone has a nightmare to share, from civil
rights pioneer Julian Bond to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to actor
Blair Underwood to Bay State Banner Editor Howard Manly to Baseball Hall
of Famer Joe Morgan to former Clinton aide Keith Boykin.
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Quite
frankly, this heartbreaking memoir in which the author wistfully
recounts her family’s quiet and dignified way of dealing with racism and
discrimination, moved me to tears. NPR’s Michele Norris describes lives
painfully limited by the color line, including a litany of humiliations
endured by relatives well before she was born, such as the indignities
suffered by her maternal grandmother while employed by Quaker Oats as a
traveling Aunt Jemima.
Ever since the
dawn of the nation when the Founding Fathers deliberately rationalized
slavery by spreading the big lie that black people were inferior,
African-Americans have suffered from serious self-esteem issues. But why
has this phenomenon continued to persist so long past emancipation and
the elimination of the Jim Crow system of segregation?
Given all that
Condoleezza Rice went on to accomplish in life, it’s hard to believe
that she was born in Birmingham, Alabama in the Fifties during the
repressive reign of Jim Crow segregation. But somehow, despite spending
her formative years in a city where state-sanctioned discrimination
served to frustrate the aspirations of most other African-Americans, she
miraculously managed to overachieve with the help of her doting parents.
As a journalist
privileged to have access to many celebrities, a question I often like
to ask in interviews with African-American captains of industry is how
they managed to flourish in a predominantly white environment where so
many other talented blacks have simultaneously failed to do so. Now, we
finally have a satisfactory answer to that query thanks to Dr. Randal
Pinkett, winner of Donald Trump’s reality show The Apprentice. 
Now that the bloom
has fallen off the rose of the Obama Administration, most black folks
are beginning to wake up to the fact that his election isn’t about to
turn the country into a post-racial utopia any time soon. To the
contrary, attorney Michelle Alexander argues that in recent decades
America has increasingly, and ever so subtly, adopted a color-coded
caste system where minorities are targeted, stigmatized and marginalized
by the criminal justice system. 
During these
dire economic times when the overall unemployment rate in the U.S. has
dipped to 9.8%, you can be sure that that figure is at least double in
the African-American community. And after the Democrats took what even
President Obama referred to as a “shellacking” on Election Day, they’ve
already capitulated to the Republican demand that the Bush tax cuts for
the wealthy be extended. 
This
heartfelt homage by Craig Robinson credits his parents, Marian and the
late Fraser Robinson, III, with making countless selfless sacrifices on
behalf of him and his little sister Michelle while instilling them both
with “fundamental values like love, discipline and respect.” What makes
the book so compelling to this critic is that after having read so many
mediocre unauthorized biographies about the Obamas, we finally have a
legit opus by a person you tend to believe when he says he grew up
sharing the same bedroom with his little sis who is now the First Lady.
Sorry, nobody can question the cred of anyone that close to her.
Lloyd
Kam Williams 