Reviews

Rituals Of Blood: The Consequences Of Slavery In Two American Centuries by Orlando Patterson

megatsunami's review against another edition

1.0

I read only the first section of this book but was really troubled by the sexist, pathologizing, victim-blaming arguments he makes about Black people and families. Also he made lots of claims - with statistical data, charts and graphs - that just didn't seem right. Like he goes on at length about how there's more gender hostility between Black men and women than there is among other races (for which he mainly blames Black women, as I recall). Or he claims it's not true that Black people have more robust complex kinship/ extended family structures (that have helped them to survive economic and social discrimination and violence in the US), despite generations of Black scholars naming this as a strength within Black communities.

assimbya's review

2.0

Rating this book is difficult; the second essay (which is a searing, unflinching analysis of the ritualistic aspects of lynching) definitely deserves four stars, but Patterson's methods of analysis in the first and third troubled me. I'm still planning to read On Slavery and Social Death, but I need to spend some time pondering Patterson's subject position and methodology.