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What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America / Michael Eric Dyson.
Van Pelt Library E185.61 .D996 2018
Available
Van Pelt - Bestsellers Collection E185.61 .D996 2018
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- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Dyson, Michael Eric, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
- Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968.
- Politicians--Biography.
- Politicians.
- Intercultural communication.
- African American civil rights workers.
- History.
- Cocktail parties.
- Friends and associates.
- United States--Race relations.
- United States.
- Race relations.
- United States--Race relations--20th century.
- United States--Race relations--21st century.
- New York (State)--New York.
- Kennedy, Robert F., 1925-1968--Friends and associates.
- Kennedy, Robert F.
- Baldwin, James, 1924-1987--Influence.
- Baldwin, James.
- Smith, Jerome (Freedom Rider), 1949---Influence.
- Smith, Jerome.
- Kennedy, Robert F 1925-1968.
- African Americans--Intellectual life.
- African Americans.
- Cocktail parties--New York (State)--New York.
- African American civil rights workers--History--20th century.
- Civil rights movements--United States.
- Civil rights movements.
- Intercultural communication--United States--Case studies.
- Race discrimination--United States--History--20th century.
- Race discrimination--United States--History--21st century.
- Racism--United States--History--20th century.
- Racism--United States--History--21st century.
- Social policy.
- Local Subjects:
- United States--Race relations--20th century.
- United States--Race relations--21st century.
- Baldwin, James, 1924-1987.
- Kennedy, Robert F 1925-1968.
- Race discrimination--United States--History--20th century.
- Race discrimination--United States--History--21st century.
- Racism--United States--History--20th century.
- Racism--United States--History--21st century.
- Genre:
- Case studies.
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- 294 pages ; 21 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Other Title:
- Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : St. Martin's Press, [2018]
- Summary:
- "In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry--that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes...I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy--the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he'd never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys' efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy--versus the racial experience of Baldwin--is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists."
- Contents:
- The martyrs
- The meeting
- The politicians : whiteness and the state
- The artists : dangerous intersections
- The intellectuals : black on black minds
- The activists 1 : policy and witness
- The activists 2 : bad niggers
- After the meeting : resurrection for RFK
- Even if : Wakanda. Forever.
- Notes:
- "June 2018"--Title page verso.
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 283-294).
- Local Notes:
- Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.
- ISBN:
- 9781250199416
- 1250199417
- OCLC:
- 1021070386
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