Reviews for After freedom

The average rating for After freedom based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-12-08 00:00:00 Michael Pouliot If you are White, and have found yourself confused or angered by the recent "racial tension" in places like Ferguson, get this book. Turn to the article "Imagination" and travel back to a similar time, a similar tension. Travel back, and find yourself in the present. That article, originally about the 1992 L.A. riots, could have been written last year, from the events to the news analysis. The entire book is worth that section alone. It's part of what makes Wiley a good read so many years later--he is timely, because he writes on a sadly recurrent subject: racism. Wiley built his career on sports writing, and it says something that his prose is still riveting to someone like me who has little to no interest in sports. I admit, there were times when I got bogged down in his description of athletic events. I could tell, however, that I was getting lost due to my unfamiliarity with what he was talking about, not from his writing. I'm sure a hypothetical critic of Wiley would say that he injects race discussions into his writing: how else could a sports writer end up talking so much about racism? The answer is a tree hidden in the forest. Wiley was a Black man living in America. Race doesn't have to be artificially introduced into his life, it was thrust into his face from day one, whether he wanted it or not. So, like any good writer, he wrote what he knew. If there is ever going to be understanding between Whites and Blacks in this country, this is lesson #1 for Whites: racism is a lived reality for Blacks, not just something you read about in the news. Another good reason to read Wiley: he has a lot of good advice on how to write, and what writing means as a part of the human artistic experience. "The envelope of human awareness will expand. This is what defines art."

Review # 2 was written on 2016-07-24 00:00:00 Shawn Samuel A powerful, effective, deep showing, illustrating, examining, explaining of what consequences it has for African Americans to live in the racist USA. How most white liberals fail to see all the ways they/we -- still --behave [subconsciously:] in racist ways with racist thinking and attitudes. My favorite essay in this 1993 book is the longest one, on Spike Lee's 1992 film "Malcolm X". Powerful stuff, great insight into Spike Lee the person, Denzel Washington the person, Malcolm X the person, and what Malcolm X meant and means to African Americans. A watershed in self-image of blacks. I now want to see the film, and to read The Autobiography of Malcolm X.