LEADER 02522cam 2200193 a 4500
001 899526
005 20190104092822.0
008 190108s2018 nyu g b 001 0deng
010 $a 2018017174
020 $a9781250199416 (hbk.) :$cNT$875
040 $aTWTNM$beng$dTWTNM
050 00$aE185.61$b.D996 2018
082 04$a305.800973$222
100 1 $aDyson, Michael Eric.
245 10$aWhat truth sounds like :$bRobert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America /$cMichael Eric Dyson.
246 30$aRobert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America.
250 $aFirst edition.
260 $aNew York :$bSt. Martin's Press,$c2018.
300 $a294 p. ;$c20 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 283-294) and index.
520 $a"In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry - that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes...I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy - the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he'd never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys' efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress stillcause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy - versus the racial experience of Baldwin - is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists.".
600 10$aKennedy, Robert F.,$d1925-1968$xFriends and associates.
600 10$aBaldwin, James,$d1924-1987$vInfluence.
600 10$aSmith, Jerome,$c(Freedom Rider),$d1949-$vInfluence.
650 0$aAfrican Americans$xIntellectual life.
650 0$aCocktail parties$zNew York (State)$zNew York City.
650 0$aAfrican American civil rights workers$xHistory$y20th century.
650 0$aCivil rights movements$zUnited States.
650 0$aIntercultural communication$zUnited States$vCase studies.
651 0$aUnited States$xRace relations.