Black and White Styles in Conflict

by Thomas Kochman

Book Overview

Goes a long way toward showing a lay audience the value, integrity, and aesthetic sensibility of black culture, and moreover the conflicts which arise when its values are treated as deviant version of majority ones.--Marjorie Harness Goodwin, American Ethnologist

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226449556
• ISBN13: 9780226449555
• Release Date: August 1983
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.4" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Enlightening Read

As an educator and a Black person this read has helped me to see how certain students perceive me. It is an eye opening book.

very insightful

As a white woman from a small town who's madly in love with a black man from a big city, this book really helped articulate some of the communication differences that have plauged us. I strongly believe that perception is a person's reality; however, those perceptions can be changed if one becomes aware of the origin of those perceptions. The only negative to this book is that it comes off as "textbook" at times. I especially recommend this book to caucasions who have never been immersed in black culture.

A valuable book, but sometimes misunderstood

This book changed my life for the better. I highly recommend it, but it needs to be read carefully and with understanding.Kochman examines several differing cultural "styles" of American Blacks and Whites. Then he shows how people can misinterpret these stylistic differences and thereby reinforce their own stereotyped views of the other group - usually without realizing that they have made an interpretation, let alone a misinterpretation!I have been in discussions where people complained that Kochman himself was making racist generalizations. That complaint is based on a failure to read the book carefully and with understanding. Kochman explains that cultural styles are NOT inborn and NOT uniformly expressed by every member of the group in question. But cultural styles do exist, and are assumed by many people to be inborn "racial" characteristics. The whole point is to understand how cultural styles work, to recognize them and not to misinterpret them.Kochman's writing is brilliant and valuable. It deserves careful attention.

Wow! I learned some things about myself.

I used an earlier version of the book. The book gives both perspectives on situations and good insight into Black culture especially in situations where disagreements or conflict may occur. The examples may be a bit dated but there is still enough of the information that applies to today's world. At least give it a look-see.