Mixing It Up: Taking On the Media Bullies and Other Reflections

by Ishmael Reed

Overview

A new collection of essays first published in The New York Times and Playboy. Reed tackles subjects including Oakland, eugenics, and domestic violence.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786721818
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	05/01/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	322
File size:	739 KB

About the Author

Ishmael Reed is a novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist who has published nine critically acclaimed novels and more than a dozen other books of poetry and essays. In additional to being nominated for a National Book Award for Poetry, recent awards have included the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award, a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and 2008 Blues Songwriter of the Year from the West Coast Blues Hall of Fame. He is Professor Emeritus at University of California at Berkeley.

Table of Contents

Introduction     1
Charles Chesnutt     43
Miles Davis     57
Sonny Rollins: Three Takes     63
A Playwright of the Blues     89
I Was a Victim of Unfair Lending Practices     99
Showing White Students Some Love     103
Assisted Homicide in Oakland     109
Black Philanthropy: Old Money, New Money     115
The Last Days of Black Harlem     123
The Colored Mind Doubles: How the Media Use Blacks to Chastise Blacks     129
Color-Blind Coverage?     151
Imus: How Imus's Media Collaborators Almost Rescued Their Chief and How Media and Academic Blacks Fell for Imus's Talking Point That It Was All About Hip-Hop     155
MJ, Kobe, and Ota Benga: Continuing the U.S. War against Black Men     187
Sneddon's Victory     221
Hurrah for Jeff Davis?     225
Back to the '30s?     239
The Patriot Act of the Eighteenth Century     243
Mom's Book     247
Miracle at Ein Raz     253
Bubba from Another Planet     277
Going Old South on Obama: Ma and Pa Clinton Flog Uppity Black Man     283
List of First Publications     305

Editorial Reviews

Reed (Blues City, 2003, etc.) thinks the media's portrayal of black people is racist-and he's probably right. The author is perhaps better known by vociferous reputation than for his prolific and diverse career as a writer, and his polemic spirit is alive and well in this latest collection of essays. Selections ruminate on subjects of varying closeness to the author (his mother figures largely in several), but all dance-or perhaps box-around the media's portrayal of African-Americans and its insidious effect on race politics. Reed, with ample evidence, albeit some hearsay, spares no one: Don Imus, Toni Morrison, Orlando Patterson and the Manhattan Institute are all skewered as enablers of racism. The validity of his arguments is at times somewhat undermined by his irascibility (and consequent clouded judgment), but this collection as a whole is provocative and relevant. "Assisted Homicide in Oakland" asks important questions about the city's skyrocketing crime rate and the power of the gun lobby. "The Patriot Act of the Eighteenth Century," originally published in Time, should be required reading for every lawmaker. Reed's dissection of minorities in the media in "The Colored Mind Doubles" is on par with any mainstream op-ed piece and, though surely controversial, makes a salient point about the lengths to which some networks go to advocate "scientific racism" and perpetuate the stereotype that African-American problems are largely self-inflicted. Also included is his landmark 1998 Baltimore Sun essay in which he calls President Clinton a "black" president, a qualified accolade that preceded similar, more widely publicized statements by Jack White and Toni Morrison. A MacArthur Fellow andPulitzer nominee, Reed's shortcomings are hardly analytical, but rather editorial: His talent is often preceded by the cacophony of sensational one-liners he's amassed over the years. As a critic of the media pundits, he should know better than to bait them. Worthwhile reading from an important voice.

Kirkus Reviews

Rain Taxi, Winter issue
“Ishmael Reed’s writing is a nearly irresistible force. Anyone who wants to read Reed seriously had better come prepared with facts, an open mind, and perhaps even a seatbelt…An adept mix of documentation and outrage shapes most of the pieces…[Reed’s] observations come in many registers, from the strident to the cool…In his ability to pull the comfortable rug out from under his readers and make us aspire to a higher ground of understanding, Reed is one of our most essential and irreplaceable voices.”

Magill Book Reviews
"Perceptive essays about social issues and media missteps, reminding readers why he is a provocative, respected writer, and thinker. It is tempting to compare Ishmael Reed to voices as varied as Mark Twain, Paul Robeson, or Susan Sontag, but that is incomplete and unfair to Reed. He is distinctive and fresh in his own right…This collection is less about race than sense…Spirited and bold throughout, never failing to enlighten…As an anthology, it is a treasure.”

From the Publisher