Reflecting Black
Michael Eric Dyson
$12.00

s/t: African-American Cultural Criticism

CONTENTS: PART 1 WHAT’S GOING ON? BLACK POPULAR CULTURE: The culture of hip-hop; Rap music and Black culture – an interview; Spike Lee’s neonationalist vision; Michael Jackson’s postmodern spirituality; Be like Mike? – Michael Jordan and the pedagogy of desire; Bill Cosby and the politics of race; Between apocalypse and redemption – John Singleton’s “Boys n the Hood”. PART 2 BEYOND THE MANTRA – REFLECTIONS ON RACE, GENDER, AND CLASS: Probing a divided metaphor – Malcolm X and his readers; The liberal theory of race; Racism and race theory in the nineties; Leonard Jeffries and the struggle for the Black mind; Sex, race, and class: two cases; The plight of Black men; Black grass-roots leaders; Reflections on the 1988 presidential campaign. PART 3 THIS FAR BY FAITH – BLACK RELIGION: Mixed blessings – Martin Luther King Jr, and the lessons of an ambiguous heroism; Martin and Malcolm; For Jonathan’s sake – the morality of memory – a sermon; Rap culture, the church, and American society; “God almighty has spoken from Washington DC” – American society and Christian faith; The promise and perils of contemporary gospel music.