usmbguest5318
Gold Member
Well worth reading. Blacks who aren't familiar with historic U.S. Black culture will find this very informative. Whites will likely be surprised at how similar the black community, at least a part of it, is to that of whites. D.C./D.C. Metro folks will find the book interesting in understanding the antecedents that led to the present day nature of black culture in D.C. The story of how black culture has evolved, how it so closely mimicked that of whites and yet was in ways more rigidly defined than was white society will surely surprise many a white.
I found myself reading the book and thinking back to the black women whom I knew as a boy and the Pearl Ball I attended with a girl with whom I was close as a high schooler. The book also gave me a newfound understanding of what, as a boy, struck me as literally a whirlwind of parties -- mostly hosted by kids who were part of a black club called Jack and Jill -- that my black friends in D.C. constantly went to. It was an odd thing to be the one white guy at those events.
The thing that didn't then stick out in my mind was that those kids were any different from me, my white friends or other kids. We were just kids having a good time. Reading this book, I have come to understand that "being like me" actually made those kids very different from their racial peers, other black kids who were not at all their social peers. The book put into context for me a really candid class conversation I had back then in which I struggled to understand the derision some of my black friends had toward other blacks.
The book also made me realise just how hurtful it must have been for the kids I knew to be told by other blacks that they (my black friends) were "trying to be white." Nothing could have been farther from the truth, yet from other blacks' "outside looking in" perspective, my friends were seen as being very different. The thing is that the black kids whom I knew and partied with were clearly not seen by most of my white friends as "one of us." I'm not sure how I'd have responded to being profoundly aware of how my social advantages weren't enough to allow me to fit fully into white society, yet also not being truly welcome among other blacks. I had no idea that was the world my friends saw and lived in.
Words to Read By: The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era
I found myself reading the book and thinking back to the black women whom I knew as a boy and the Pearl Ball I attended with a girl with whom I was close as a high schooler. The book also gave me a newfound understanding of what, as a boy, struck me as literally a whirlwind of parties -- mostly hosted by kids who were part of a black club called Jack and Jill -- that my black friends in D.C. constantly went to. It was an odd thing to be the one white guy at those events.
The thing that didn't then stick out in my mind was that those kids were any different from me, my white friends or other kids. We were just kids having a good time. Reading this book, I have come to understand that "being like me" actually made those kids very different from their racial peers, other black kids who were not at all their social peers. The book put into context for me a really candid class conversation I had back then in which I struggled to understand the derision some of my black friends had toward other blacks.
The book also made me realise just how hurtful it must have been for the kids I knew to be told by other blacks that they (my black friends) were "trying to be white." Nothing could have been farther from the truth, yet from other blacks' "outside looking in" perspective, my friends were seen as being very different. The thing is that the black kids whom I knew and partied with were clearly not seen by most of my white friends as "one of us." I'm not sure how I'd have responded to being profoundly aware of how my social advantages weren't enough to allow me to fit fully into white society, yet also not being truly welcome among other blacks. I had no idea that was the world my friends saw and lived in.
Words to Read By: The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era
