Speak My Name: Black Men on Masculinity and the American Dream

Book Overview

Through the voices of some of today's most prominent African-American writers, this collection of essays and stories on contemporary African-American men's experience explores the intimate territory beyond the myths about brutalizing and bruatalized black men in a harsh white world. Includes works by Houston Baker, Amiri Baraka, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Walter Mosley, and John E. Wideman.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807009369
• ISBN13: 9780807009369
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Beacon Pr
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

a pioneering text

This is one of the first anthologies focusing on Black masculinities. Books like "Black Men on Race, Gender, and Sexuality" or "Black Men in Their Own Words" owe credit to it. The authors are diverse in terms of age, academic affiliation, sexual orientation, and citizenship. My favorite chapter is the dialogue between Essex Hemphill and Isaac Julien. Some have complained that men's studies texts are Eurocentric or unfairly assume that men face no oppressions. Powerful books like Belton's challenge those fallacies. There is a chance that some may feel the book is dated now. However, at its publication, it was revolutionary and much-needed. I highly recommend it.