Book Review Raymond Lucas ~ September 2008

A Love Letter to Black People; Audaciously hopeful Thoughts on Race and Success Brian McClellans book, A Love Letter to Black People; Audaciously hopeful Thoughts on Race and Success, is a powerful appeal to African Americans to re-embrace ways of thinking that were crucial to our incredible legacy of resilience and accomplishment. Through an artful use of reflection, McClellan examines the pathology of how our Blackness evolves within us, flagged by mile markers of experiences that define our personal perception of what it means to be Black. More importantly, McClellan has researched how the Young Black and Successful (YSBs) have trumped long held assumptions, cultural architypes and sterotypes by ignoring the evidence that statistics overwhelmingly imply about the inevitability of Black failure. McClellans message is one of self love and love for the Black Community, without which our glorious Black culture cannot survive. In a nutshell and through the insights of YSBs, McClellan expresses the love and optimistic mindset that Black People require, not just to achieve success, but to be RESILIENT in the face of the setbacks that we will inevitably encounter. McClellan has created a Best Practices manual for loving ourselves and the Black Community. He has equiped us to ignore the so called evidence of inevitable failure so we can continue to add to the incredible legacy of the greatness of our people. Raymond W. Lucas President, 100 Black Men of Maryland, Inc. raywlucas@gmail.com

Raymond Lucas Book Reviews 2011