The Black box: writing the race
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Published:
New York : Penguin Press, 2025.
Format:
Book
Physical Desc:
xxxvii, 262 pages ; 22 cm
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Description

"A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country's history. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--these writers used words to create a livable world--a "home"--for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society. It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a community formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal sub-human bondage, transformed itself through the word into a community whose foundational definition was based on overcoming one of history's most pernicious lies. This collective act of resistance and transcendence is at the heart of its self-definition as a "community." Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture formed by people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be "Black," and about how best to shape a usable past out of the materials at hand to call into being a more just and equitable future. This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of--and resisted confinement in--the "black box" inside which this "nation within a nation" has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation's founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people"--

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Haddam/Brainerd New Adult Nonfiction -
908.996 GAT
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Language:
English
ISBN:
9780593299807, 0593299809

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-252) and index.
Description
"A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country's history. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--these writers used words to create a livable world--a "home"--for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society. It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a community formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal sub-human bondage, transformed itself through the word into a community whose foundational definition was based on overcoming one of history's most pernicious lies. This collective act of resistance and transcendence is at the heart of its self-definition as a "community." Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture formed by people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be "Black," and about how best to shape a usable past out of the materials at hand to call into being a more just and equitable future. This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of--and resisted confinement in--the "black box" inside which this "nation within a nation" has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation's founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people"--,Provided by publisher.

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Citations

APA Citation (style guide)

Gates, H. L. (2025). The Black box: writing the race. Penguin Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

Gates, Henry Louis. 2025. The Black Box: Writing the Race. Penguin Press.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

Gates, Henry Louis, The Black Box: Writing the Race. Penguin Press, 2025.

MLA Citation (style guide)

Gates, Henry Louis. The Black Box: Writing the Race. Penguin Press, 2025.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.

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Grouped Work ID:
a5b8e2b6-4db7-0b3b-2846-a08e94528ce3
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Record Information

Last Sierra Extract TimeOct 10, 2025 09:41:54 AM
Last File Modification TimeOct 10, 2025 09:41:59 AM
Last Grouped Work Modification TimeOct 10, 2025 09:41:59 AM

MARC Record

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504 |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-252) and index.
50500 |t Preface: The black box -- |t Race, reason, and writing -- |t What's in a name? -- |t Who's your daddy? : Frederick Douglass and the politics of self-representation -- |t Who's your mama? : the politics of disrespectability -- |t The "true art of a race's past" : art, propaganda, and the new negro -- |t Modernism and its discontents : Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright play the dozens -- |t Sellouts vs. race men : on the concept of passing -- |t Conclusion: Policing the color line.
520 |a "A magnificent, foundational reckoning with how Black Americans have used the written word to define and redefine themselves, in resistance to the lies of racism and often in heated disagreement with each other, over the course of the country's history. Distilled over many years from Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s legendary Harvard introductory course in African American Studies, The Black Box: Writing the Race, is the story of Black self-definition in America through the prism of the writers who have led the way. From Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington, to Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Toni Morrison--these writers used words to create a livable world--a "home"--for Black people destined to live out their lives in a bitterly racist society. It is a book grounded in the beautiful irony that a community formed legally and conceptually by its oppressors to justify brutal sub-human bondage, transformed itself through the word into a community whose foundational definition was based on overcoming one of history's most pernicious lies. This collective act of resistance and transcendence is at the heart of its self-definition as a "community." Out of that contested ground has flowered a resilient, creative, powerful, diverse culture formed by people who have often disagreed markedly about what it means to be "Black," and about how best to shape a usable past out of the materials at hand to call into being a more just and equitable future. This is the epic story of how, through essays and speeches, novels, plays, and poems, a long line of creative thinkers has unveiled the contours of--and resisted confinement in--the "black box" inside which this "nation within a nation" has been assigned, willy nilly, from the nation's founding through to today. This is a book that records the compelling saga of the creation of a people"-- |c Provided by publisher.
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6500 |a African Americans in literature.
6500 |a African Americans |x Intellectual life.
6510 |a United States |x Race relations |x History.
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