Reviews for Serving African American Children

The average rating for Serving African American Children based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-03 00:00:00 Jonathan Varner I snagged this off of my boss's shelf in my recent obsession with minority conflict and I was not dissappointed. Forman lays out Black-Jew relations during most of this century with a keen eye for large sociological trends. The book focuses on how Blacks are seen through Jewish eyes; sometimes partner, sometimes persecutor, and always a rival for the coveted "minority" status in America. While Jews tend to assimilate and then reach back to their roots, and thus, become Un-American, Forman argues that Blacks were seen as moving in the opposite direction--that in order to gain American status they needed to seperate themselves behind ethnic walls. Jewish writers began thier careers as American writers and they would only have been discovered as such. Black writers began thiers with "black" books before being accepted as "writers" without a hyphenation. He documents the rise of the Jewish left and its militant alliance on Black Power and the rationalizations of Anti-Semitism. He introduces the neo-conservatives and their reactions to the New Left liberal frenzy. All throughout this book is the story of the self-conscious Jewish community, struggling to be the middleman between Black culture and White culture and being flatly rejected by both. "While the Jewish neoconservatives were more forthright in admitting the limitations of their program for Jewish culture, both movements [New Left] were singularly committed to achieving political objectives consonant with Jewish safety and freedom, rather than the search for Jewish meaning in modern America." It is a sad thesis; that Jewish groups were so preoccupied with their safety and political clout in America, neglected their Jewish culture and religion. Forman warns of the cold reality of Judaism today--that lost in the discussion of minority rights and the American public square, they have neglected to include the "Judaic" and Jewish religion remains outside of the American consciousness.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-06 00:00:00 Steve Neal This is definitely worth the short time it takes to read, even with its limitations and controversies, as it is one of the few narratives of slavery in the North. Isabella Baumfree was born in Ulster County, New York ca. 1797, her slave name including the last name of her Dutch owners. This narrative tells of her life with this family and several successive owners, her escape from slavery in 1827, her successful lawsuit against the white owner who had illegally sold her son, her early engagement with several Christian denominations and sects, her decision to change her name to Sojourner Truth in 1843, and emergence as a well-known abolitionist and women's rights activist and speaker. This original narrative was published in 1850 and, therefore, doesn't cover the remaining more than three decades of Sojourner's activism before her death in 1883 in her home in Battle Creek, Michigan. The narrative is also problematic because of the intrusiveness of the editorial comments of Olive Gilbert, Sojourner's friend, to whom she dictated her story, being unable to read or write herself. Read this Duke University Library blog posting for an interesting take on the authorship of the narrative: Read this and you may decide to tackle one of the many more comprehensive biographies of this remarkable woman.