A review by megatsunami
Rituals of Blood: The Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries by Orlando Patterson

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.