The Black Friend

 Reading: The Black Friend: On Being A Better White Person by Frederick Joseph. Soon after I checked it out of library via Kindle, I went to Goodreads to check reviews. I did not realize the book was for Young Adult or Teen Readers. In the preface Mr. Joseph spoke to his younger brother. He said bro would likely be 12 when he read the book, as it was not yet published. 

Do not like the book, thus far, because I do not like when authors tell you what they are going to be telling you. An author's writing advice was something like: just tell the damn story, and get on with it. Maybe Joseph could not find enough to say to fill up 250 pages? Or is that a standard size for a teen book? He includes an encyclopedia at the end. Do not know if that is included in the page count. Will update that info in a future post.

"... a blanket indictment of all white people is as wrong as when whites make blanket indictments against blacks.” ~ Malcolm X

Was unable to find the author's age. Must be quite young. He has an experiment. He invites a diverse group of friends all of whom work in the musician industry. He starts playing songs. As expected all the white people in the group knew songs by Ariana Grande, Jonas Brothers, Katy Perry, and Maroon 5, but did not know Ms. Jackson by Outkast, or 98 Degrees.

Maroon who? I have heard of the other 3 white musicians, but none of their songs. Hey, Ya, by Outkast is a fav song of mine. If someone played Ms. Jackson, I might not be able to name the group, although I know the song. I do not know 98 Degrees. He went on a rant about the whites not knowing rap artists tunes. "And they are all in the music industry!" Oh my.

I wonder what would have happened if he played tunes by O'Jays, Usher, Sam Cooke, Stevie Wonder, Nat King Cole, Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, The Sugar Hill Gang, Antoine "Fats" Domino, Little Richard, Prince, Bob Marley, Ray Charles, Whitney Houston, to name a few well-known artists, how many of those whites would know the song? 

And if he had played songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, Doris Day, Barbara Streisand, Cher, Bob Seger, Christopher Cross, Leo Sayers, Enya, Taylor Swift, Alanis Morissette, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, and others ~ how many blacks/browns/Asians would know those songs?

The author claims to have diverse musical tastes, which is why I assume he is quite a young man, due to the music he choose to play for his guests. Based on his experiment he negatively critiques whites for not being aware of some of his fav black artists. 

I have known white peeps who did not know Al Green or Otis Redding. I think everyone of my generation, and their now adult children, are quite familiar with Motown/Tamla/Soul/Gordy music. Most can sing along to Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Rick James, to name a few. No matter what skin color or ethnicity. 

I was at a festival when the female artist did a Motown melody ~ the "kids" were all singing along. By kids, I mean teenagers. Myself and another lady my ageish got up and danced. Just another reason I am not liking this book.