Scan barcode
A review by dannymason_1
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation by Charles V. Hamilton
4.0
This was great, I feel like these days it's not as well known as some other books from the civil rights movement but it deserves to be right up there with the best. It strikes a perfect balance between the charisma and power of the revolutionary Kwame Ture and the detailed argumentation and insight of the political scientist Charles V. Hamilton. I know it's a cliche, but most of the book really does feel like it could be written today, a testament to the strength of the arguments being made but sadly also to the extent they've been wrongly ignored.
I particularly enjoyed the first chapter, which makes a convincing case for the idea that the relationship between white and black people in America is colonial in nature, and should be treated as such in order to counteract this dynamic. It's an idea I'd heard in passing before but never fully registered and reading it being argued for so convincingly here definitely opened up new ways of looking at the issue for me.
The case studies used in the later chapters also brilliantly demonstrate the pitfalls of coalition-building with white liberals, and why 'black faces in high places' will not in itself be an effective solution to many of the issues facing black communities, an argument that Cornel West was making only a few weeks ago on CNN in a clip that went viral.
Side note, I finally got around to watching BlacKkKlansman just after I started reading this book and was surprised to see Kwame Ture pop up in that story too, outlining a lot of the ideas that are in this book. So if you enjoyed that scene, I would definitely recommend reading this!
I particularly enjoyed the first chapter, which makes a convincing case for the idea that the relationship between white and black people in America is colonial in nature, and should be treated as such in order to counteract this dynamic. It's an idea I'd heard in passing before but never fully registered and reading it being argued for so convincingly here definitely opened up new ways of looking at the issue for me.
The case studies used in the later chapters also brilliantly demonstrate the pitfalls of coalition-building with white liberals, and why 'black faces in high places' will not in itself be an effective solution to many of the issues facing black communities, an argument that Cornel West was making only a few weeks ago on CNN in a clip that went viral.
Side note, I finally got around to watching BlacKkKlansman just after I started reading this book and was surprised to see Kwame Ture pop up in that story too, outlining a lot of the ideas that are in this book. So if you enjoyed that scene, I would definitely recommend reading this!