Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

What It Means to Be Black Now

customer reviews

In this provocative book, writer and cultural critic Touré explores the concept of Post-Blackness: the ability for someone to be rooted in but not restricted by their race. Drawing on his own experiences and those of 105 luminaries, he argues that racial identity should be understood as fluid, complex, and self-determined.

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Atria Books |
272 pages |
ISBN 9781439177570 |
September 2011

$11.99 List Price

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Praise

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“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... ”

– Orlando Patterson, The New York Times Book Review

“The ever provocative Touré boldly articulates the complicated issues of self and racial identity in the age of Obama.”

– Vanity Fair

“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... ”

– The San Francisco Chronicle

“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... ”

– Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, Columbia University Professor and host of “Our World With Black Enterprise”

“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... ”

– Reggie Hudlin, filmmaker

“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... ”

– Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.

“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... ”

– Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP

“Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness is a tour de force! I applaud Touré’s courage in standing up and telling it like it is. This special book will make you think, laugh, cry--and it will make you look at race and at... ”

– Amy DuBois Barnett, Editor-in-Chief, Ebony

“Touré has taken a question I have asked myself uncountable times over the course of my life and asked it of everyone: ‘What does it mean to be Black?’ The answers in this book are thought-provoking, uplifting,... ”

– Soledad O’Brien, CNN anchor and special correspondent

“Touré is one of my favorite writers. I’ve watched him grow and mature into the thinking man's writer for the new era. Extremely observant on class and culture, this book is a must-have guide from one of the few... ”

– Questlove, from the Roots

“This book is a torch! Even though I hate highlighting, I couldn’t help it. I need to be re-reminded of so much of what Touré’s saying. He offers up an insightful, smart, hip exploration of Blackness that makes it... ”

– Terry McMillan, bestselling author of A Day Late and a Dollar Short and Getting to Happy

“With Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness, Touré fulfills his potential as a journalist, prose stylist and thinker. He has written a book that captures the new possibilities, as well as the traps, that confront Black folks... ”

– Nelson George, author of City Kid, director of HBO’s Life Support

“With the help of an array of writers, performers, comedians, artists and intellectuals, among others, the author attempts to reach a consensus on what Black identity means in the modern era. . . . While his collected anecdotal... ”

– Kirkus Reviews

“Touré demolishes the notion that there is only one way to be racially authentic…funny, hip and current.”

– Gwen Ifill, The Washington Post

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Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

Forty Million Ways to Be Black

Once, I went skydiving. For about four minutes in 2007 I was above—and plummeting rapidly toward—a small town in the middle of the Florida panhandle. Jumped out of the plane solo at 14,000 feet. I did it for a TV show called “I’ll Try Anything Once” in which every week I accepted fear-inducing challenges. On the way to the skydiving center the production team stopped for lunch at a restaurant where three middle-aged Black men who worked there recognized me from TV and came over to our table to say hi. We got to talking...

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Video

Touré reads from: WHO’S AFRAID OF POST BLACKNESS?

Touré discusses the “rules of blackness” and creates a provocative look at the state of race in America.

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Touré reads from: WHO’S AFRAID OF POST BLACKNESS?

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Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

What It Means to Be Black Now

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Touré reads from: WHO’S AFRAID OF POST BLACKNESS?

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Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

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