Reviews for African American Acculturation : Deconstructing Race and Reviving Culture

The average rating for African American Acculturation : Deconstructing Race and Reviving Culture based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-08-13 00:00:00 Ryan Brown 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 2018-03-30 00:00:00 Robert Christia I loved this book. I'm not entirely sure how I got out of a graduate degree in U.S. History without ever learning about Miriam Leslie. There is a movie there!