Coal to Cream: A Black Man's Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race

by Eugene Robinson

Book Overview

Eugene Robinson, an African American assistant editor at The Washington Post, experienced strong culture shock when he went to Brazil and discovered that nation's staggering degrees of blackness: with... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684857227
• ISBN13: 9780684857220
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Free Press
• Length: 271 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A tantalizing look at a multifaceted life

As a white man, I'm sure I'll never really understand what it's like to be black in America. It's simply not possible. But Gene Robinson does his level best to give me a glimpse into that dilemma. The truth is, I think I was hoping for more of an in-depth memoir from Robinson, a man I grew to like and admire during the just completed presidential primaries and elections when I would see him often on Hardball or other cable news programs, offering his opinions. Robinson seems to me to be a man who has a pretty good sense of self, and also possesses a healthy sense of humor in the way he looks at life. I like that in a man. Some of that came out in COAL TO CREAM, but not enough, probably because it is, of course, about such a deadly serious topic: race and color barriers. Robinson's tales of his job assignments in South America (particularly Rio, in Brazil) and London are eye-opening, and he makes his case well about the continuing skin-color spectrum and how it operates in those countries. His initial enchantment and final disillusionment with how color is handled in Brazil is very reasoned and well thought out. But I'm most interested in personal stories, so I kept wishing throughout the book that there were more about his boyhood in South Carolina, his college years in Ann Arbor, and how he met and fell in love with Avis, his wife. Because they sound like such warm and interesting people. But maybe he'll get around to all that some other time, or at least I hope so, because he's a very good writer. - Tim Bazzett, author of Pinhead: A Love Story

Interesting exploration of racial identity

Robinson uses his own personal sojourn through South America as a framework to discuss broader issues of race relations and racial identity. When Robinson first visits Brazil, he views it as a utopia for black individuals, a place where unlike America race was not an immutable construct but rather a broad spectrum of possibilities which ebbed and flowed: "[t]he emphasis on the more mutable issue of color (rather than the rigidity of race) was at the heart of what I loved so much about Brazail--the absence of racial conflict, the ease of coexistence." At first, Robinson's exulation of Brazil as a paradigm for issues of race appears naive and simplistic. However, as Robinson's journey continues, he realizes that Brazil also suffers from its own insidious forms of prejudice and problems of racial conflict though manifested differently, exist there as well. Robinson's meditations on race are interesting and emerge from a well written and engaging story.

Race and Reality in Brazil from the authors honest viewpoint

i would recommend this book to any reader that wants a good perspective on how race and class abound our world. As a 18 year old Afro-American female,I too like Robinson, initially believed the myths of a Brazilian racial democracy, but later on I sadly realized the truth. Racism is just as explosive in Brazil as the US but only it is done in a more subtle and hidden fashion. Compare neiborhoods like Ipanema and the favelas(ghettos) of Rochina and Mangueira and see what colors are most dominate. And also see the racist killings of street children (80% killed are Black), and why the most dominate workforce for Blacks is domestic service(i.e. maids and butlers) The affirmation that Robinson made of saying that he was told he didn't have to be Black shows how in Brazil race is not soley based on heritage, but social status and education. Euguene Robinson digs into the reasons why the Black Brazilian Movement is finally starting in Brazil. Trying to find a voice in a racist society and have the series of "race" categorizations to seperate Blacks be removed so that Blacks can identify and work against racism in a country where they are dominate (UNESCO reports Blacks are 70% population) but used to be counted only as 6% in 1973 and then 44% in 1992 by the government, these figures do not show a boost in Black births, but a boost in Black identity and pride. Many will argue how Brazil can have Affirmative Action, but with a predomite population and predominte population of poor Afro-Brazilians, it is needed in Government and TV. I disagre with reviewers that claim that Black race identity leads to race "wars", it unifyies us, the only reason why people do not think racial conflict happens in Brazil is because most Blacks haven't been saying anything(ending that is Senetor Benedita da Silva).Even though I think that this book could have dug deeper in the realities and myths of race in Brazil, I belive this is a honest and well written work

Coal to Cream

A fasinating look at race and color.Well writing and obviously lived by Eugene Robinson. As a White 57 year old male I found his account of black life in Brazil to be educational and interesting. Its a shame that there has to be divisions between the races. I could only wish to live to see a colorless society. What then would they all fight over?

A personal story and a quietly intelligent book

I read the book immediately after hearing Robinson on NPR's "Diane Rehm" show and found it one of the most quietly intelligent books I have read on the subject of race and color. Having been to Brazil recently (and speaking some Portuguese), I was eager to see how he analyzed the socio-racial scene there. This book is not a sociological tract--it is a highly personal book, the story of the author's own odyssey through his personal history and the various societies in which he has lived. By thinking about Brazil, he really does see issues of American society and history in a much clearer light--and helps us see them too. There are a string of revelations here. I would want to argue with him about some of his conclusions, but I thought Robinson came through as a man of great integrity who has put a lot of himself on the line here. I recommend the book highly.