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One More River to Cross: Black and Gay in America
American Visions, Oct-Nov, 1996 by Roberto Santiago
The same can be said about Don Belton's anthology, Speak My Name: Black Men on Masculinity and the American Dream (Beacon Press, 1995). The problem with Belton's book is in the editing: His selections are not the best, and the book does not provide a historical framework vital for understanding how contemporary African-American masculinity has been formed.
Consequently, the reader is left questioning whether these masculine attitudes are new or merely part of the black male legacy. How much more interesting it would have been to read selections by such authors as Marcus Garvey, Richard Wright, Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X and W.E.B. Du Bois contrasted against a better selection of contemporary authors. How Belton could edit an anthology about African-American masculinity and exclude such men as Nathan McCall, Calvin Hernton, Wallace Terry, Louis Farrakhan, Jim Brown and Brent Staples is a mystery.
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Another question is: Why did Belton choose not to explore the wide range of black masculinity as defined by such authors as Muhammad Ali (athlete), Eldridge Cleaver (revolutionary), Dick Gregory (comedian), Miles Davis (musician) and Reginald Lewis (businessman), among others? While some of Belton's selections are enlightening - especially those by Trey Ellis, Randall Kenan, Walter Mosley and Amiri Baraka - most are not.
Belton's anthology does not live up to its title. It is a book whose editorial intentions, even after a third reading, remain unclear.
Although the levels of clarity and critical introspection vary, all of these books reflect the weight of race in America. Race is something that the black writer cannot escape, because it is the reality he is reminded of when he interacts with society. He may casually see himself as an average human being with ordinary concerns, but the rest of the world insists on placing him in categories that justify their insecurities and their sense of privilege. It is in that realm that the black writer must examine not only himself, but also his people and what that all means in modern society.
Roberto Santiago is the editor of the award-winning anthology Boricuas: Influential Puerto Rican Writings (Ballantine/One World, 1995).
COPYRIGHT 1996 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
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