My Mother. Barack Obama. Donald Trump. And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man.
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Publisher Description
Written in the tradition of works by Joan Didion, bell hooks, Toni Morrison, and Eve Ensler, this “profoundly insightful and brilliantly inciting” (Dominique Morisseau, Obie Award-winning playwright) exploration of the soul of the United States—the past, the present, and the future Kevin Powell wants for us all, through the lens and lives of three major figures: his mother, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.
Ten short years ago, Barack Obama became president of the United States, and changed the course of history. Ten short years ago, our America was hailed globally as a breathtaking example of democracy, as a rainbow coalition of everyday people marching to the same drum beat. We had finally overcome.
But had we?
Both the presidencies of Obama and Donald Trump have produced some of the ugliest divides in history: horrific racial murders, non-stop mass shootings, the explosion of attacks on immigrants and on the LGBTQ community, the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, a massive gap between the haves and the have-nots, and legions of women stepping forth to challenge sexual violence—and men—in all forms.
In this collection of thirteen powerful essays, “Kevin Powell thoughtfully weaves together the connective tissue between gender, race, sexuality, pop culture, and sports through a series of raw, incredibly personal essays” (Jemele Hill, writer and ESPN anchor). Be it politics, sports, pop culture, hip-hop music, mental health, racism, #MeToo, or his very complicated relationship with his mother, these impassioned essays are not merely a mirror of who we are, but also who and what Powell thinks we ought to be.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The latest book from activist Powell (The Education of Kevin Powell), who has written about the experiences of African-American men in books and at Vibe magazine, compiles 13 previously published essays on hip-hop, sports, politics, and culture that chronicle his growth as a cultural critic. "To be a Black man in America," he writes, "is to be under a constant state of enormous pressure, stress, and danger, from outside, from within"; his penetrating profiles of celebrities, such as doomed rapper-actor Tupac Shakur and charismatic quarterback Cam Newton, typify the perils faced by and promise of black America. Other essays discuss, for example, Powell's awakening to misogyny in public and private life, and the contradictions of the hit musical Hamilton, whose casting foregrounds marginalized Americans but whose subject matter reinforces white-centric mainstream views of history. The collection's title essay is a three-point treatise on Powell's complicated relationship with his chronically ill single mom, her experiences growing up black in the deep South, Obama's legacy as the first black president, and the racist backlash that led to the election of Donald Trump. Admirers of Greg Tate's postsoul aesthetic and Ta-Nehisi Coates's 21st-century urban realism will find much to savor in Powell's urgent and eloquent prose.
