What Is Cool?: Understanding Black Manhood in America

By Marlene Kim Connor

Book Overview

Understood only vaguely by white America as a matter of style, cool is, in fact, an American black man's way of staying alive. Writing from a woman's perspective, Marlene Connor reveals what cool is today and why it is such an important factor in African-American life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0517799650
• ISBN13: 9780517799659
• Release Date: May 1995
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 201 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

'Cool' redefined

Connor's book somehow slipped by those who supposedly care about the subject. The pervasive term 'cool' means 'fashionable' or 'hip' to white folks but they're just the people who ought to read it. The definition changed for black folks long, long ago, but no one else seems to have written about it. No, it's not the first African-American word to be co-opted by a larger community, but the definitions are distinct.

What Makes A Man?

This is one of the most important documents ever assembled. Every single opinion rings true - even in the few instances that I did not personally agree, the author's power of persuasion seemed so effortless in building my trust to agree to disagree, I was hypnotically compelled to read every word in two settings. It leaves inspired, with an explosion of total elation. I simply did not want it to end. Connor is the most intelligent woman on the planet (after my wife), and galvanizes the meaning of every single variation of what it really means to be a black man in today's American society. It is a very clear and easy read, and I'd like to see it as required reading in some classrooms. It's engaging and will command my attention again as an excellent reference to initiate talks with my own child in developing to different levels of manhood. She is a healthy minded educator with concerns and practical observations about males from puberty to gray hair. She knows us all; with warm and direct answers to what should be simple stages of development and maturity. I recommend it to everybody!