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What truth sounds like : Robert F. Kennedy, James Baldwin, and our unfinished conversation about race in America

Dyson, Michael Eric,,
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First edition.

"In 1963 Attorney General Robert Kennedy sought out James Baldwin to explain the rage that threatened to engulf black America. Baldwin brought along some friends, including playwright Lorraine Hansberry, psychologist Kenneth Clark, and a valiant activist, Jerome Smith. It was Smith's relentless, unfiltered fury that set Kennedy on his heels, reducing him to sullen silence. Kennedy walked away from the nearly three-hour meeting angry - that the black folk assembled didn't understand politics, and that they weren't as easy to talk to as Martin Luther King. But especially that they were more interested in witness than policy. But Kennedy's anger quickly gave way to empathy, especially for Smith. "I guess if I were in his shoes...I might feel differently about this country." Kennedy set about changing policy - the meeting having transformed his thinking in fundamental ways. There was more: every big argument about race that persists to this day got a hearing in that room. Smith declaring that he'd never fight for his country given its racist tendencies, and Kennedy being appalled at such lack of patriotism, tracks the disdain for black dissent in our own time. His belief that black folk were ungrateful for the Kennedys' efforts to make things better shows up in our day as the charge that black folk wallow in the politics of ingratitude and victimhood. The contributions of black queer folk to racial progress still cause a stir. BLM has been accused of harboring a covert queer agenda. The immigrant experience, like that of Kennedy - versus the racial experience of Baldwin - is a cudgel to excoriate black folk for lacking hustle and ingenuity. The questioning of whether folk who are interracially partnered can authentically communicate black interests persists."

Available copies

  • 26 of 26 copies available at Westchester Library System.

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0 current holds with 26 total copies.

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Location Call Number /
Shelving Location		 Barcode Status /
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Larchmont Public Library 305.8009 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31014152674804
 Available
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Mamaroneck Public Library District 305.8 DYS (Text)
Nonfiction 		31015152424637
 Available
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Mount Kisco Public Library 305.8 DYSON (Text)
Nonfiction 		31017151851448
 Available
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Mount Vernon Public Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31018155195204
 Available
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New Rochelle Public Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31019155946133
 Available
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Ossining Public Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31021153170575
 Available
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Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31025152466686
 Available
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Pound Ridge Library District 305.8 DYS (Text)
Available In Storage 		31026150960175
 Available
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Scarsdale Public Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31029154171179
 Available
-
The Field Library 305.8 D (Text)
Nonfiction 		31022152217136
 Available
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