The coronavirus pandemic has forced many television interviews to take place via Zoom or Skype videoconferencing from the homes of both the interviewer and the interviewee instead of in a broadcast studio. This offers viewers a small glimpse into the home decor of all those involved.
As a book lover, the one thing that caught my attention are the many bookshelves that appear in the background, filled with rows of books. If the physical book is on its way out, you wouldn't know it judging by the screen images shown each night. For example, Judy Woodruff, the anchor of the PBS News Hour, sits each night with her bookcases behind her and Rafael PiRoman, one of the co-hosts of the evening news program, Metrofocus on New York's WLIW, Channel 21, has a massive wall of books that towers behind him. (And I thought I had books.)
True, these bookshelves are in the homes of journalists, politicians, professors, scientists, and others considered as members of the elite. But still it sends a clear message to the rest of America and the world that the printed word in book form continues to have value.
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Friday, June 19, 2020
Happy Juneteenth 2020
Today is Juneteenth, the day in 1865 when enslaved blacks in Texas learned that President Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation Proclamation two years prior.
Recently various states, municipalities, and companies have designated Juneteenth as a holiday. It may even become a national holiday.
Recently various states, municipalities, and companies have designated Juneteenth as a holiday. It may even become a national holiday.
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Books On Race And Racism
In light of all the discussions on television, radio, in the print media, and online regarding racism, white privilege, social inequality, police brutality toward people of color, etc., I picked out the following six books from my bookshelves that I plan to read. It is my hope that they will be food for thought on race and race relations.
1. The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Are Middle Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care? by Ellis Cose (HarperCollins, 1993).
2. Einstein on Race and Racism by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor (Rutgers University Press, 2005).
3. The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call by Carl T. Rowan (Little, Brown and Company, 1996).
4. Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement by Simeon Booker with Carol McCabe Booker (University Press of Mississippi, 2013).
5. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins, 2010).
6. Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth (Flatiron Books, 2018). Originally published in 2014 by Police and Fire Publishing. The book was the basis for Spike Lee's film.
1. The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Are Middle Class Blacks Angry? Why Should America Care? by Ellis Cose (HarperCollins, 1993).
2. Einstein on Race and Racism by Fred Jerome and Rodger Taylor (Rutgers University Press, 2005).
3. The Coming Race War in America: A Wake-Up Call by Carl T. Rowan (Little, Brown and Company, 1996).
4. Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter's Account of the Civil Rights Movement by Simeon Booker with Carol McCabe Booker (University Press of Mississippi, 2013).
5. The Eyes of Willie McGee: A Tragedy of Race, Sex, and Secrets in the Jim Crow South by Alex Heard (HarperCollins, 2010).
6. Black Klansman: Race, Hate, and the Undercover Investigation of a Lifetime by Ron Stallworth (Flatiron Books, 2018). Originally published in 2014 by Police and Fire Publishing. The book was the basis for Spike Lee's film.
Saturday, June 6, 2020
A Glaring Historical Error
There's a glaring historical error that I found in James McGrath Morris's otherwise interesting biography of journalist Ethel Payne, Eyes on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (Amistad/HarperCollins, 2015).
Morris, on the Acknowledgments page, praised Nancy Inglis for her "diligent copyediting and fact checking." Unfortunately, she neglected to fact check when the Watts riots in Los Angeles happened. The riots occurred in August 1965, not August 1964.
At the time, I was living in the nearby suburb of Compton, which experienced some of the looting and burning.
Morris, on the Acknowledgments page, praised Nancy Inglis for her "diligent copyediting and fact checking." Unfortunately, she neglected to fact check when the Watts riots in Los Angeles happened. The riots occurred in August 1965, not August 1964.
At the time, I was living in the nearby suburb of Compton, which experienced some of the looting and burning.
Monday, June 1, 2020
More Books On My Summer Reading List
1. 1984--George Orwell's prophetic dystopian novel.
2. Faggots--The 1978 controversial novel by playwright/novelist/AIDS activist Larry Kramer (1935-2020), who recently died at the age of 84.
3. Any book in Ellis Peters's wonderful 21-volume Brother Caedfael mystery series set in a 12th-century English monastery. (Peters, whose real name was Edith Pargeter, was a medieval scholar.) The books were the basis for a television series that aired on PBS and starred Derek Jacobi as Brother Caedfael, the monk turned amateur sleuth.
4. The Woman in the Window--A. J. Finn's thriller that has been made into a major motion picture.
5. The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume II: 1941-1967, I Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad. I read the first volume but never finished the second one.
6. Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann. The book is about the 1922 shooting death of film director William Desmond Taylor. I read two previous books on this fascinating true-crime story.
2. Faggots--The 1978 controversial novel by playwright/novelist/AIDS activist Larry Kramer (1935-2020), who recently died at the age of 84.
3. Any book in Ellis Peters's wonderful 21-volume Brother Caedfael mystery series set in a 12th-century English monastery. (Peters, whose real name was Edith Pargeter, was a medieval scholar.) The books were the basis for a television series that aired on PBS and starred Derek Jacobi as Brother Caedfael, the monk turned amateur sleuth.
4. The Woman in the Window--A. J. Finn's thriller that has been made into a major motion picture.
5. The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume II: 1941-1967, I Dream a World by Arnold Rampersad. I read the first volume but never finished the second one.
6. Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann. The book is about the 1922 shooting death of film director William Desmond Taylor. I read two previous books on this fascinating true-crime story.
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