Preface
Over the past three years at Salem State University I have taken a variety of classes revolved around the history of oppression that African Americans have faced within the United States. This included elements of African American past, present, and future. Through my studies, I have found quite a few different authors that have touched upon the issues that African Americans face within all aspects of American Society. The author that I have found to have the largest grasp upon these aspects was a gentleman by the name of Eddie S. Glaude, Jr.
Background
Eddie S. Glaude is the chair of the Center for African-American Studies and the William S. Tod Professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University. He has written many books, but most prominently The Shades of Blue, Passages to Freedom, and Democracy in Black. Each of these books touching upon a different time period in African American history and their societal environment.
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank my girlfriend Laura Poole for assisting me in the research and the procurement
of the books I needed to construct this term paper.
Research Question
Known to be a convener of conversations and debates, Eddie S. Glaude takes care to engage fellow citizens of all ages and backgrounds within all of his work. From young activists to fellow academics, journalists and commentators Glaude looks to incorporate them all into the discussion involving our nations pathway. He is even known to chat with his followers on Twitter in dialogue about current events and news. In reading articles and books by this author, I continue to find myself relating to much of the material addressed. Even when the subject touched on delicate topics, the book remained unbiased and relatable. Because of this, I formed a research question based on Eddie S. Glaude’s writing style, demeanor, and knowledge of the subject at hand. This term paper will look to address the question; How does Eddie S. Glaude’s writing style being more relatable shape the history or event he is trying to address.
Mythology
Eddie S. Glaude takes a wide look at black communities of both past and present, revealing complexities, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for hope. Within one of his favorite quotes from W.E.B Du Bois a prominent African American rights advocate, “not hopeless, but a bit unhopeful.” Other prominent figures he looks to for historical mythology include James Baldwin whom he is writing a book about currently slated for 2018 and Malcolm X. In addition to his readings of early American philosophers and contemporary political scientists, Glaude turns to African American literature in his writing and teaching for insight into African American political life, religious thought, gender, and class. Eddie S. Glaude also relies heavily on statistics to write many of his CNN and Time magazine editorial on current events affecting the United States societal and political climate.
Blight, David W. Passages to freedom: the Underground Railroad in history and memory.
New York: Harper Collins, 2006.
The book Passages to Freedom written by David W. Passages and collaborated upon with Eddie S. Glaude is a visually pleasing book that highlights the lifestyle of slave and their owners. The book comes chock full of intriguing pictures including slave families that had been staved to the brink of death, brutal whippings, and African American children working in cotton fields.
This book resulted in an increased understanding of the world that slaves lived in and the lives their owners lead around the exploit of this slavery. The questions that the authors seem to address within the book are: Does the current perception of slavery fit the reality? Do images help the narrative of African American slave life? In what ways can we learn from this time period to reflect on the issues of today? And what can we learn from the lives of runaway slaves?
As far as sources, the authors use primarily primary sources to support their arguments including journals, newspaper articles, and oral stories. The biggest source that the author uses is photographs of slave families, whippings, slave work, owners. One element of the picture that came to me as I read is that in every picture or painting depicted, that always seems to be an element of despair. Whether it be a slave cowering on the ground as his owner comes down with a whip (Passages 225), or a line of exhausted African American women carrying what looks to be cotton on their head (Passages 69) the element of despair is always there.
The authors analyze the pictures and other sources within the book in great detail. They work to dive deep into the truth of the sources instead of taking the words read at face value. For example in speaking about Charles T. Webber’s, The Underground Railroad the authors state that
Though the picture may come off as a simple meeting of African Americans getting ready to travel, you quickly realize that these are actually white northerners helping elderly and weak African American slaves to safety. (Passages 237)
By looking deeper into these pictures the authors are able to slowly piece together the true history of paintings and pictures much like the one depicted within the book.
The authors by the end of the book seem to reach a clear consensus on the question asked within it. Going off the book our perception of slavery is obviously not reality since some of the details expressed in the book can be exceptionally eye-opening to the reader. This vail that seed to have been pulled over American eyes gives the time in which slavery was legal a muted tone leaving Americans unaware of the injustices felt by African Americans at the time. The images themselves do quite a lot for the validity of the book's narrative. Giving the reader knowledge both within not only the readings but also touching upon art history as well. Lastly the book does touch upon the reverberations of slavery within American society today but does not analyze it in such a way that it proves if
Glaude, Eddie S. Democracy in black: how race still enslaves the American soul. New York: Broadway Books, 2017.
Author Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., writes within his book Democracy in Black: How Race Enslaves the American Soul: “‘People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead, turns himself into a monster.” Are we a nation of monsters?" (Glaude 9) This quote speaks to the gravity that this book carries within the context of today's ideas within society. The book as it is read should be regarded as a social commentary on the truth about race, freedom, opportunity, and democracy for people of color within the United States and European countries.
Glaude addresses many questions with this book due to the multitude of topics addressed in the book itself. Some question include: Why does the African American community as a whole continue to struggle? Did President Obama help the African American community during his term in the presidency? As well as is it fair to assume that White Americans have an element of fear in conversing with African Americans? All of these questions involve variables that make these question great to talk about in a discussion or debate. It also gives the reader a glimpse into the thinking of Glaude himself.
Before diving into the points made within the book and the approaches that Glaude makes to express the injustice faced by people of color within the United States, it is worth noting the sources that he uses to do so. You begin to recognize that the author greatly relies on speeches given by the person or groups being talked about within the chapters. This use of primary sources such as the speeches within the book do a great job of proving the author's ideas and points to an immense degree. Some of the speakers included within the book are Former Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. On top of this segmentation of speeches, the author uses statistics to purvey the points within the book. An example of this is on page 72 that uses the statistics from the President Obama election to prove the lack of support Obama actually had from the African American community with the United States. Lastly, you see a lot of quotes from first-person accounts of events highlighted within the book. Events included movements such as “hands up don't shoot," “black lives matter," and many of the marches done during the Civil Rights Movement.
The first element of the book that stood out to me was the title of the book itself; Democracy in Black: How Race Enslaves the American Soul. It seems to set a darker tone to the book that prepares you to address the problem that Glaude tries to emphasize throughout the book. The title of the book uses the word “enslaves”. This is a descriptive word that gets you thinking about the topic matter addressed in the book relating to the injustice that African Americans have faced for hundreds of years within the United States and still face today. By using this term the reader is able to see the tone that the author is trying to set without even reading the first page. Adding to the impact was the titles of the chapters themselves. With names such as “The Great Black Depression," “President Obama and Black Liberals” and “White Fear” you can clearly see that the author is trying to tell the reader that these are strong, almost undiscussed topics that need to be addressed within the book and in our society.
While reading the book, one has to wonder the light that Caucasians within the book were going to be portrayed under. The book expresses the idea that White Americans play a major role in racism faced today, but never went to a point where I felt that the author attacks White Americans without evidence or reason. The book talks about many topics that both civilians and politicians try to avoid within their lives due to that fact that the answers to them may not be politically appropriate. The first chapter “The Great Black Depression” was probably one of the strongest topics within the book where Glaude describes the true state of African Americans and the feeling that they have towards politics, society, and the way that the rest of the world approaches racism. This feeling encompasses the fear, as well as the uncomfortably African Americans have in living within current American society. The author goes on to explain that this same society that continues to remain irrelevant in improving treatment and providing fairness to all African Americans in any measurable way. It shows the growing divide between Caucasians and Africans Americans as well as exposes the fear and pre-justice that is felt today within the United States.
An interesting topic that was reached within the book resides in a chapter titled “White Fear.” The chapters theme describes the fear that Caucasian Americans feel when talking about, to, or for an African Americans. It was exceptionally interesting and greatly relatable to the feeling that resides in American society today. To solve this, the author offers a solution that at first seems quite simple but in the long-term requires a change within the United States society to truly succeed. Glaude’s solution stated:
We must remove our mask to call attention to white advantage. That may help us understand one another a bit better. It may bridge divides, disrupt assumptions and stereotypes that block empathy and get in the way of serious efforts to achieve our country. As it stands, we don’t really talk frankly about race. And too many people are too damn scared to say so. (Glaude 86)
In some ways, completely agreeing with this statement is easy, but to truly understand and accept that these experiences happen every day is more difficult especially in the political climate we live in today. We as a nation need to be more open and honest about the racial divide and the book urges White Americans need to finally realize that these problems exist within our society to the point where it is completely impossible for African Americans to succeed anywhere close to how Whites can. The problem that emerges as a result of this statement is "how". How do we as a race remove this “mask” and mend the divide that has grown within our culture for hundreds of years? Glaude believes that begins with every new generation. “We must teach them that the divide exists and instead of pretending it doesn’t.” Extending the divide doesn't help anyone, instead, we must mend it. The chapter continues to push the idea that everyone deserves equal rights and no one group or peoples should have those right diminished or taken away from them just based on the color of their skin.
The book talks at great length about the political climate of the United States and the anger that African Americans have for the government and the institutions intertwined within it. He talks about presidents, laws, poverty, and hatred within many of the chapters in the book. A large point Glaude makes in the seventh chapter of his book labeled President Obama and Black Liberals. The chapter outlines the idea that electing an African American President was a huge step for the race within the United States, but when even an African-American president can't get much done for “Black America” there is a huge problem with our governmental system and increasing problematically the economic system. One section that struck me as both strange and intriguing was about black liberals, President Obama, and a subsection that outlines “Black America”. The segment states,
I am suggesting a seismic shift in black politics. Obviously, we can’t stand idly by as Democrats take our votes for granted and cave to forces that devastate our communities Nor can extremists on the right and those who enable them to expect us to sit back as they trade in racist nonsense, continue to legislate for the 1 percent, and undo the modest gains we’ve made in this country. What has become crystal clear over these past few years, at least to me, is that business, as usual, isn’t sufficient; that the typical black characters on the national scene have to be called out for what they have failed to do and say in the face of what has happened and is happening in Black America. (Glaude 225)
This quote contradicts the stereotype that liberals, especially black liberals within the government as standing up for what “Black America” needs, but here you begin to see a call to standing up for what “Black America” needs because obviously liberals themselves have not and cannot get the job done themselves. This is an example of exactly what the black elite of the 1970s during the second reconstruction did the poor black communities. Promised change, but end up benefiting rich white communities that these black elite ended up living within. This feeling of not having your voice heard even by the people you'd expect to be on your side leads to a feeling of helplessness leading to black communities falling into poverty and crime.
This book is one of the most eye-opening books that anyone that feels they do not understand racism or any of the racial divide within the United States could read. The author does a great job of using primarily primary sources to show clearly the injustice and inequality that people of color face on a daily basis.
The book does a great job of teaching to the ideals that White American communities within the United States have never known or been taught before. It gives White Americans a view into the world of people of color and their property that many people may have never knew existed before as well as opening Americans eyes to the idea of “White Fear” and how we as a nation need to overcome this “mask of racism” within the United States. I would highly suggest this book to anybody looking to learn or inquire about Race, Politics, and Poverty in America and the struggles that African Americans face in the Modern United States.
Laymon, Kiese. "'Democracy in Black' is a bracing call to action for African Americans." Los Angeles Times. January 21, 2016. Accessed December 15, 2017. http://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-jc-adv-democracy-in-black-20160117-story.html.
“This book asks us to reconsider not simply what presidential tears for systemic violence initiated and condoned by our nation might look like, but what can a revolution fueled by politically active black Americans wholly disinterested in presidential tears, speeches or ‘post-racial' policy actually accomplish. In this way, the book is not just post-Obama; it is post-presidential.” In the search for book reviews, this is by far the most fitting quote for the book, Democracy in black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul. This review by the LA Times put the book itself in terms that most readers can understand. For example, the review states:
Glaude's "Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul" is as narratively unrelenting as it is thematically percussive, calling for black Americans to take dramatic action in our lives, voting booths and on the streets to contend with a "value gap" that has left African Americans behind socially and economically. (Kiese 1)
You can see that though the book itself deals with complex and evolving topics, Kiese Laymon the author of the review puts the most basic summary of the book yet does not demean or dull the message of the book. The author goes into further detail later in the article when talking to Glaude himself. The review states:
I left "Democracy in Black" wondering what might it mean for a "revolution of value" if black professors — including myself — committed to valuing the black communities that made us, gave up jobs at white, so-called elite, neo-liberal private institutions, and actually committed to educating, living and learning at black colleges, universities, junior colleges and high schools if they would have us? Why is that a choice Glaude and so many of us committed to a "revolution of value" have yet to make?
This question itself leaves more questions than answers. What might it mean if black professors gave up jobs at white, so-called elite, neo-liberal private institutions, and actually committed to educating, living and learning at black colleges, universities, junior colleges and high schools if they would have us? The author answer ends up both defending and putting Glaude on the chopping block as far as his job. The author states:
I am not at all arguing that Glaude should give up anything. But a text that tells us, "There are those among us willing to turn their backs on democracy to safeguard their privilege" and "No one can be comfortable" must, at some point, courageously reckon with the author's relationships to privilege, poverty, familial responsibility, and comfort.
This ends up being an idea that is easy to say and hard to implement. The pressure that society would put on such an idea would be far too drastic and dangerous to both the professor themselves and the students they teach. Though this seems like an obvious answer that Glaude himself even says is “the only way to balance to scales in our broken discriminatory education system” it is not the long-term solution and if anything would result is a disparity of education quality around the nation.
"In a Shade of Blue." University of Chicago Press. February 01, 2007. Accessed December 15, 2017. http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo5378467.html.
This review of Eddie S. Glaude’s Shades of Blue primarily talks about the idea of “Dewey’s pragmatism” which addresses what is described as a “darker dimension" to African American thinking. The review states:
[Pragmatism] can address many of the conceptual problems that plague contemporary African American discourse. How blacks think about themselves, how they imagine their own history, and how they conceive of their own actions can be rendered in ways that escape bad ways of thinking that assumes a tendentious political unity among African Americans simply because they are black.
Glaude attempts to wrestle with these ideas in a simplistic manner but comes off seeming quite bland and unimportant, even though this idea of “Black Pragmatism” has plagued the African American community for hundreds of years. After years of slavery and discrimination, African American are inclined to think of themselves as lesser. This idea of white oppression has left countless numbers of African American communities paralyzed by this oppression. Examples include increased black masculinity in feeling that they themselves must become tough and unfeeling to address the oppression they are feeling in today political and societal climate. In turn, this can lead to increasing numbers of assault of African American females due to the idea that Black males must “keep their girl in line”(Neal 119) an old idea dating back to the 1960s and 70s.
What should be addressed in talking about this book is the true complexity of the idea Glaude is trying to purvey to the reader. “Black Pragmatism” is actually quite a new topic within African American culture. As we begin to look deeper into this topic it is apparent it is a real problem in American society, but it is constantly evolving according to Glaude. This leaves this book quite complicated and impossible to simplify is a book such as this. The book seemed to leave both I and the author of the review rather confused and overwhelmed by the web of information laid forth by Glaude.
"Black Voters Sent Message to Democrats By Stopping Roy Moore." Time. Accessed December 15, 2017. http://time.com/5063397/black-voters-doug-jones/.
This article written by Glaude is a perfect representation of his primary writing style. The use of primary sources such as statistics, graphs, and interviews. Within the article Glaude unfolds the complex 2017 Alabama senate election looking to answer the question; how did a Democrat win the Alabama Senate election and what does it mean? In analyzing this article you see that Glaude does not mince words attempting to speak the truth about the election. Glaude writes:
Think about all that: it took an unprecedented convergence of factors for a sexual predator and bigot to lose a U.S. Senate election in Alabama in 2017. That fact says as much about where we are in this country as any other in this crazy political season. No matter what Republicans say, a particularly strong variant of America’s historic madness has taken hold of their party. It is a racist, right-wing type of populism desperately clinging to the illusion that ours is, and will remain, a white nation. (Glaude 2)
This is not a “victory call to the democratic party” as he writes within the article, it is the truth of the election itself, it took an amazing convergence of factor to eliminate a potential sexual predator from a United States senate race. Then he follows up with a strong comment against Republicans when he says “No matter what Republicans say, a particularly strong variant of America’s historic madness has taken hold of their party. It is a racist, right-wing type of populism desperately clinging to the illusion that ours is, and will remain, a white nation.” This could be construed as a liberal statement in a way, but after saying this Glaude also backs it up with statistics and facts such as:
But it is important to note, amid the justifiable celebration, that Jones barely won. Despite Roy Moore’s disastrous candidacy — his disastrous personality — nearly 650,000 people voted for him. Preliminary exit poll data shows that 91% of Republicans voted for Moore. 72% of white men and 63% of white women cast their ballots for him. Among those, 62% of college- educated white men and 52% of college-educated white women voted for a man accused of sexual predation of young girls, who believes the last time America was great was during slavery, who believes that women shouldn’t have the right to vote. Emphasis mine. And even though Doug Jones won the popular vote, he only won — thanks to gerrymandering — one congressional district in the entire state. (Glaude 2)
This becomes astounding when you compare this reaction to other media outlets. You see that through other media outlets claimed the Doug Jones victory was a “Triumphant Victory over Republicans”, he seems to think the other way even when in his other works such as Democracy in Black demonstrates the typical notions of being a “Black Liberal”. It shows that even in the eye of an apparent victory coming in Doug Jones Victory, there is an underlying defeat in the facts and statistics of the election.
Presentation
Eddie S. Glaude presents his information is generally simple ways. He primarily uses statistics, speeches, and news article to provide evidence to his interpretation of western society. Glaude, as stated previously, does not seem to force his opinions upon you while you read. Rather he builds his argument well and capitalizes by including important points at moments that you will remember through the text.
Though the book “Shade of Blue” does not seem to fit Glaude’s relatable style of writing, it still holds much important information giving a better background to African American communities as a whole. Glaude’s books do not seem to hold any racial bias, which makes the book more approachable even for students that know nothing about African American history. His book constant reference current evidence making information that relates back to today easy and honestly fun to find. An example of this would be his book Eddie S. Democracy in black: how race still enslaves the American soul. This book made it easy to get introduced to Glaude’s writing style and his critique of radical and societal norms. After reading this book the reader gets an absolute advantage in understanding Glaude’s other books.
Conclusion
The evidence demonstrates that Eddie S. Glaude’s writing style though relatable can sometimes distort the history or current event that he is trying to address. Though this can be construed to be a negative or a positive (depending on the side you talk to) Glaude still does a fantastic job of laying out the facts of the time periods addressed within his numerous articles, editorials, and books giving the reader a clearer view into his line of thought. As addressed in his book Democracy in Black: how race still enslaves the American soul, the idea of Black Liberalism has grown to due to racist ideas that plague conservative conversation. For example, looking at the 2017 Alabama senate race where 98% of African Americans voted for the liberal Doug Jones or Conservative Roy Moore. Glaude himself who seems to be one the spearheads of Black Liberalism, is looking to not only benefit African American thought by writing these books informing the injustices that might not be so apparent but rather American societal thought as a whole.