Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority

Mr. McWhorter talked about his book Authentically Black: Essays for the Black Silent Majority, published by Gotham Books. The book is a collection of nine essays on the nature of being African-American today and a dissection of currents the author finds self-defeating. He finds that a greater problem in the black community than racism is a double consciousness in which “the ‘authentic’ black person stresses personal initiative and strength in private, but dutifully takes on the mantle of victimhood as a public face.” He terms this the “New Double Consciousness” in homage to W.E.B. DuBois' description of a different kind of double consciousness in blacks a century ago. Within this context Professor McWhorter discussed the current dominant race issues: racial profiling, race identity, the reparations movement, black stereotypes in film and television, hip-hop culture, diversity, affirmative action, the word “nigger,” and Cornel West’s resignation from Harvard. close