Being a Black Man At the Corner of Progress and Peril

by Merida, Kevin

• ISBN13: 9781586485221
• ISBN10: 1586485229
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781586485832
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-07
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• More Book Details
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Summary

Over the last 100 years, perhaps no segment of the American population has been more analyzed than black males. The subject of myriad studies and dozens of government boards and commissions, black men have been variously depicted as the progenitors of pop culture and the menaces of society, their individuality often obscured by the narrow images that linger in the public mind. Ten years after the Million Man March, the largest gathering of black men in the nation's history,Washington Poststaffers began meeting to discuss what had become of black men in the ensuing decade. How could their progress and failures be measured?Their questions resulted in aPostseries which generated enormous public interest and inspired a succession of dynamic public meetings. It included the findings of an ambitious nationwide poll and offered an eye-opening window into questions of race and black male identityquestions gaining increasing attention with the emergence of Senator Barack Obama as a serious presidential contender. At the end of the day, the project revealed that black men are deeply divided over how they view each other and their country.Now collected in one volume with several new essays as well as an introduction by Pulitzer Prizewinning novelist Edward P. Jones, these poignant and provocative articles let us see and hear black men like they've never been seen and heard before.

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Where we are
At the corner of progress and peril	p. 3
A portrait shaded with promise and doubt	p. 17
Who we are
The young apprentice	p. 31
For the love of Ballou	p. 45
A path all his own	p. 59
The wrong man	p. 79
His last, best cause	p. 95
Dad, redefined	p. 111
Special agent	p. 125
Singled out	p. 143
A chance to get into the room	p. 161
The meaning of work	p. 177
In or out of the game?	p. 195
The old kinship	p. 211
What we're talking about
Brothercool	p. 227
Why are so many black men in prison?	p. 239
Bob Johnson on black wealth	p. 249
Where are black men spiritually?	p. 267
Not just any walk-on part	p. 281
Polling data	p. 289
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