Title

Coal to cream : a black man's journey beyond color to an affirmation of race

Description

Robinson, an editor with the Washington Post, compares race relations and racial identity in the United States and Brazil.

Identifier

811054

684857227

Creator

Robinson, Eugene

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1999

Program air date: November 7, 1999

Publisher

Free Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers contain biographical information on the author's childhood and youth in Orangeburg, S.C. and the racial discrimination he experienced, his family, his education, and his extended stays in several countries. Other notes refer to the author's experience in Brazil, the apparent absence of racial anger there, the emphasis on color rather than race, his impression of the Carnaval celebrations, and the planned city of Brasilia. Also included are notes on church bombings in Lineville, Alabama, the enlightened views of a white police chief, and the author's conclusion that the South hasn't changed in spite of what whites say. -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Examples: p. 174: "I thought Americans who talked endlessly about race, like my coworkers at the 'Post', were stuck in a loop that was taking them nowhere." -- p. 181: "In Brazil, most people with some measure of African blood demanded to be not thought of as black." -- p. 266: "In Brazil, I'd seen a stubborn residue: color. I'd seen that color was capable of producing all the same horrors that race was capable of producing, but worse. It left those at the bottom of the ladder without an identity to hold them together and push them forward, without a group. It left them weaker, more helpless, more isolated. It left them alone."

Subject

"Robinson, Eugene, 1954-"

"Blacks--Race identity--Brazil."

"African Americans--Race identity."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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