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An incisive and candid look at how America got lost on the way to Dr. King’s Promised Land
Almost fifty years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, equality is the law of the land, but actual integration is still hard to find. Mammoth battles over forced busing, unfair housing practices, and affirmative action have hardly helped. The bleak fact is that black people and white people in the United States don’t spend much time together—at work, school, church, or anywhere. Tanner Colby, himself a child of a white-flight Southern suburb, set out to discover why.
Some of My Best Friends Are Black chronicles America’s troubling relationship with race through four interrelated stories: the transformation of a once-racist Birmingham school system; a Kansas City neighborhood’s fight against housing discrimination; the curious racial divide of the Madison Avenue ad world; and a Louisiana Catholic parish’s forty-year effort to build an integrated church. Writing with a reporter’s nose and a stylist’s flair, Colby uncovers the deep emotional fault lines set trembling by race and takes an unflinching look at an America still struggling to reach the mountaintop.
Preface xi
Part 1 Letter from a Birmingham Suburb
1 Bus Kid 3
2 A Place Apart 9
3 Oreo 25
4 What Can Brown Do for You? 39
5 Go Rebels? 54
Part 2 Planning for Permanence
1 There Goes the Neighborhood 73
2 "Have You Seen the Country Club District?" 82
3 49/63 or Fight 101
4 Turf 115
5 Desirable Associations 128
Part 3 Why Do Black People Drink Hawaiian Punch?
1 The Old Boys' Network 143
2 Mad Black Men 150
3 A Whole New Bag 166
4 The Inescapable Network 187
5 What's Black About It? 208
Part 4 Canaan
1 The Race That Prays Together 225
2 The Strange Career of Jesus Christ 234
3 The Miracle of Grand Coteau 246
4 In the Wilderness 259
5 Milk and Honey 277
Author's Note 289
Anonymous
Posted July 9, 2012
As a KC Realtor and as a JoCo kid who grew up in the 1970's (SM West Class of '83) I found the book enlightening to a history I didn't even know existed in our local market. Disturbing to say the least.
But also obvious that author grew up in a culture at least 15 years behind mine. I never really knew discrimination until I left KC and went to DC for 15 years. There I got a crash course in an "integrated" neighbothood. As a white guy I saw it from both blacks and whites and was sad for everyone involved.
Book is a great read. Author says he puts aside politics but never misses a chance to bust on a Republican administration all the while forgetting it was the Dems calling for easier access to mortgages in the late 90's and early 2000s.
But this conservative finds this a must read for everyone.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.When I purchased this book it was not quite what I expected by the title but extremely interesting. Having grown up during the time in history in the 50's and 60's when changes were starting to take place, my information about many of the changes was from the perspective of my parents in a white north. They talked about the issues, such as block busting, in a negative way blaming the black community for the things that happened, rather than white greed and exploitation. The author, provided alot of insite into what was and is really behind these issues. In each of the areas he noted the pros and cons of integration that I was not aware of, and the struggles, on both sides of the issue, to resolve some of the problems that lingered throughout the years.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Overview
An incisive and candid look at how America got lost on the way to Dr. King’s Promised Land
Almost fifty years after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech, equality is the law of the land, but actual integration is still hard to find. Mammoth battles over forced busing, unfair housing practices, and affirmative action have hardly helped. The bleak fact is that black people and white people in the United States don’t spend much time together—at work, school, church, or...