Kam Williams

Killing the Messenger

Wednesday, 08 February 2012 14:40 Book Review by Kam Williams

“When a 19 year-old member of a Black Muslim cult assassinated Chauncey Bailey in 2007—the most shocking killing of a journalist in the U.S. in 30 years—the question was: Why? Killing the Messenger… explores one of the most blatant attacks on the 1st Amendment and free speech in American history and the… cult that carried it out…Yusuf Bey… created a radical religion of bloodshed and fear…through a business called Your Black Muslim Bakery, beating and raping dozens of women… and fathering more than 40 children… [while] the police looked the other way as his violent soldiers ruled the streets. [culminating] in a journalist’s murder.”
-- Excerpted from the inside cover of the book’s dust jacket

The Cross & the Lynching Tree

Friday, 27 January 2012 23:52 Book Review by Kam Williams

“The cross and the lynching tree are separated by nearly 2,000 years. One is the universal symbol of Christian faith; the other is the quintessential symbol of black oppression in America... Despite the obvious similarities between Jesus’ death on a cross and the death of thousands of black men and women strung up to die on a lamppost or a tree, relatively few people… have explored the symbolic connections. Yet, I believe this is a challenge we must face. What is at stake is the credibility and promise of the Christian gospel and the hope that we may heal the wounds of racial violence that continue to divide our churches and our society… [Those] who want to understand the true meaning of the American experience need to remember lynching. To forget this atrocity leaves us with a fraudulent perspective of this society and of the meaning of the Christian gospel for this nation.”
-- Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs. xiii-xiv)

Book review: Sister Citizen

Friday, 23 September 2011 09:15 Book Review by Kam Williams

“This book is concerned with understanding the emotional realities of Black women’s lives in order to answer a political, not a personal, question: What does it mean to be a Black woman and an American citizen?
…The particular histories of slavery, Jim Crow, urban segregation, racism, and patriarchy that are woven into the fabric of American politics have created a specific citizenship imperative for African-American women—a role and image to which they are expected to conform.
We can call this image the strong Black woman… The strong Black woman myth is a misrecognition of African-American women. But it creates specific expectations for their behavior.” -- Excerpted from the Introduction (pgs. 20-21)

Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?

Sunday, 18 September 2011 12:32 Book Review by Kam Williams

“We’re in a post-Black era when our identity options are limitless. And there’s no going back... Post-Black means we are like Obama: rooted in but not restricted by Blackness... Our community is too diverse, complex, imaginative, dynamic, fluid, creative, and beautiful to impose restraints on Blackness...In this book, I seek to legitimize and validate… that the definitions and boundaries of Blackness are expanding… into infinity.” -Excerpted from Chapter 1 (pg 12)

I Hate Muscular Dystrophy: Loving a Child with a Life-Altering Disease

Friday, 02 September 2011 10:49 Book Review by Kam Williams

“This is a personal story of a family’s ability to love and support each other through the unexpected challenges of a life-transforming condition. It speaks of the strength and resolve of a mother who believes that life is to be lived and celebrated, despite any real or perceived limitations…

It gives us poignant glimpses into the initial disillusionment of a parent’s dream for her child, while at the same time, openly embracing all of the gifs that this experience has to offer… I Hate Muscular Dystrophy shows us that life can be beautiful even during periods of despair and pain. It helps us know that miracle and wonder of life is found… in simple moments of mystery and grace.”
-- Excerpted from the Foreword by Dr. Julie vanPutten (pg. vii)

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