Audiobook7 hours
Disintegration: The Splintering of Black America
Written by Eugene Robinson
Narrated by Alan Bomar Jones
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The African American population in the United States has always been seen as a single entity: a "Black America" with unified interests and needs. In his groundbreaking book Disintegration, longtime Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson argues that, through decades of desegregation, affirmative action, and immigration, the concept of Black America has shattered. Now, instead of one, there are four distinct groups: a Mainstream middle-class majority with a solid stake in society; a large Abandoned minority with less hope than ever of escaping poverty; a small Transcendent elite, whose enormous wealth and power make even whites genuflect; and newly Emergent groups of mixed-race individuals and recent black immigrants who question what black even means.
Using historical research, reporting, census data, and polling, Robinson shows how these groups have become so distinct that they view each other with mistrust and apprehension. And yet all are reluctant to acknowledge division. Disintegration shines light on crucial debates about affirmative action, the importance of race versus social class, and the ultimate questions of whether and in what form racism and the black community endure.
Using historical research, reporting, census data, and polling, Robinson shows how these groups have become so distinct that they view each other with mistrust and apprehension. And yet all are reluctant to acknowledge division. Disintegration shines light on crucial debates about affirmative action, the importance of race versus social class, and the ultimate questions of whether and in what form racism and the black community endure.
Author
Eugene Robinson
Eugene Robinson has been at The Washington Post since 1980, serving as assistant managing editor since January 1999. His prior positions included foreign editor, London correspondent, and South American correspondent. Born in Orangeburg, S.C., he graduated from the University of Michigan and worked at the San Francisco Chronicle before joining the Post.
Related to Disintegration
Related audiobooks
The Reckoning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Say It Louder!: Black Voters, White Narratives, and Saving Our Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Power and the American Myth: 50th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Fortunes: The Story of the First Six African Americans Who Escaped Slavery and Became Millionaires Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5To Make Our World Anew: Volume II: A History of African Americans from 1880 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grift: The Downward Spiral of Black Republicans from the Party of Lincoln to the Cult of Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rise Up: Confronting a Country at the Crossroads Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Bound Man: Why We Are Excited About Obama and Why He Can't Win Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burden: African Americans and the Enduring Impact of Slavery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhite Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America's Black Cities Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Black Church in the African American Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Souls of Black Folk Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Social Science For You
Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Journey Through The Human Body Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You're Cute When You're Mad: Simple Steps for Confronting Sexism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Disintegration
Rating: 3.931034437931035 out of 5 stars
4/5
29 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Eugene Robinson, columnist for the Washington Post, presents an interesting thesis on make up of Black America at the same time bring the reader up to date on the last 60 years regarding race relations. One thing becomes clear in this book; race in this country is no longer just a matter of black & white. The growth of other minority groups, the recent immigration of families from Asia, Central America, Mexico and the Middle East, have made the issue more complex. There is also the matter of class to deal with. Class in America is a real issue, sometimes it is straight forward and other times it is confused or mixed up with race. If you want to understand where we may be headed socially as a country in the next 25 years read this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5DisintegrationEugene RobinsonEugene Robinson is perhaps best-known as a columnist for the Washington Post, where he comments on the national scene, particularly politics, from his post in the nation’s capital. But he is also an author of several books. This, his latest, is an examination of what he describes as the end of what had been a more or less monolithic Afro-American community.In Robinson’s view, previous to the mid-60s, Jim Crow laws in the South and de facto segregation in housing and discrimination in employment in the North resulted in a more or less communal experience among blacks, and forged an identity and unity that allowed them to survive and to struggle for their rights. But the passing of the Civil Rights Acts in the mid and late 60’s opened up possibilities in housing and employment for blacks that had not existed. In addition, reform of immigration laws saw a wave of black immigration from the Caribbean and Africa. These critical events, according to Robinson, resulted in the splintering of black Americans into four distinct groups: The Transcendent--those with wealth and power; the Mainstream--middle-and upper middle class blacks, the majority; the Emergent--two subgroups, those who are biracial and those who are the new immigrants; the Abandoned--those who live in a cycle of poverty and its attendant ills.To make his case, Robinson uses an impressive and eye-opening array of statistics about black America that had me amazed. “Everybody knows” about the Abandoned and their problems. But how many people really know about the other groups? I had no idea just how large the black middle class was, no idea of the extent of the Transcendent (of whom Barack Obama is merely the most obvious). While I knew that there was immigration from African countries and the Caribbean, I had no idea of the extent--or the kind of people who were immigrating; they are among the best educated of all immigrant groups. It goes on and on.I found it highly informative and utterly fascinating, doubly so because of having read Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns immediately before starting Robinson’s book.But the end of the book somewhat weakens what has gone before. Robinson seems to shift focus, as if he started out to do one thing with the book and wound up doing something else. He ends with serious concern about the Abandoned, which is natural enough--but has very little new to offer. As he himself says, “everyone knows” about these problems, “everyone knows” that Something Has To Be Done. But what? Robinson does not come up with any new ideas, just generalities that “everyone knows.”That was disappointing, but should not deter anyone from reading this excellent, informative book. Highly recommended.