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Negroland A Memoir Margo Jefferson 9780307378453 Books

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Negroland A Memoir Margo Jefferson 9780307378453 Books

There was much to absorb and ponder in Margo Jefferson’s Negroland, a fascinating recollection of life growing up in the titular purgatory, between two worlds centered on race, class, and wealth in a changing American landscape. Jefferson’s parents were well-to-do professionals (“comfortable” as her mother described it to the young, curious author), rich by black standards, upper-middle class by white standards. Therefore, Ms. Jefferson had a rare experience for the times and one that caused on-going self-image frustrations and a constant internal tug-of-war. She describes her family as belonging to “…the Third Race, poised between the masses of Negroes and all classes of Caucasians.”

Ms. Jefferson’s writing brilliance gives a strong voice to these memoirs, tackling a host of topics, all couched within her personal family history, as she moves from child to adult. She gives her distinctive, biting perspective on the relentless and myriad demonstrations of racism from next-door neighbors to desk clerks in Atlantic City hotels. She learns by observing her parents’ frustrated and angry reactions to things she is too young and naïve to understand, like the discomfort or refusal by whites to address her pediatrician father as “Doctor,” or her fourth grade music teacher engaging the class in singing Stephen Foster songs with their racial epithets in the lyrics. Ms. Jefferson juggles the implicit racism from the white community, with the mixed messages and issues of authenticity she received as an educated, upper-middle-class black person in America. It was a delicate balancing act: “Negro privilege had to be circumspect; impeccable but not arrogant; confident yet obliging; dignified, not intrusive.”

It’s important to distinguish that this is no angry, vindictive rant against an America that continues to struggle with and even acknowledge racial problems, but rather a thoughtful retelling of one woman’s distinctive experience as a well-to-do black woman in a nation not yet ready to accept successful blacks as equal. This book is not overflowing with seething rage or snarky ridicule of racists, but offers instead the powerful and compelling memoirs of an intelligent and reflective woman with a gift for taut prose. In the wrong hands this could’ve been yet another wedge hammered into the chasm of our national racial split. In Ms. Jefferson’s talented hands, it is an evocative photograph, one that shows all Americans just how matter-of-fact these issues are. In short, this is who we are as Americans. These are the divisions that separate us by race, education, gender, and income, fueled by socially accepted stereotypes, evidenced in ways subtle and overt, benign and malignant.

Negroland is a book that will start debates, introspection, and shed light on racial relations in America. It’s a book that should be read because it gives such a unique and fresh perspective on being black in America. Given the news of the day, this book is enormously timely as well as being a great read.


Tags : Negroland: A Memoir [Margo Jefferson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>Winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography</b> A  NEW YORK TIMES</i> BESTSELLER New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2015</i> New York Times: Dwight Garner’s Best Books of 2015</i> Washington Post: 10 Best Books of 2015</i> Los Angeles Times: 31 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015</i> Marie Claire: Best Books of 2015</i> Vanity Fair: Best Book Gifts of 2015 TIME Best Books of 2015</i> At once incendiary and icy,Margo Jefferson,Negroland: A Memoir,Pantheon,0307378454,Ethnic Studies - African American Studies,Women's Studies,African American girls - Illinois - Chicago Region - Social conditions - 20th century,African American women - Illinois - Chicago,African American women;Illinois;Chicago;Biography.,African Americans - Illinois - Chicago - Social life and customs - 20th century,African Americans - Race identity,African Americans;Race identity.,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Cultural Heritage,Chicago (Ill.) - Race relations - History - 20th century,Chicago Region (Ill.),Chicago Region (Ill.) - Social life and customs - 20th century,Elite (Social sciences) - Illinois - Chicago Region,Elite (Social sciences);Illinois;Chicago Region.,Jefferson family,Jefferson, Margo - Childhood and youth,African American,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Cultural, Ethnic & Regional General,BLACKS IN THE U.S.,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: general,Chicago (Ill.) - Race relations - History - 20th century,Chicago Region (Ill.),Chicago Region (Ill.) - Social life and customs - 20th century,Cultural Heritage,Elite (Social sciences) - Illinois - Chicago Region,Elite (Social sciences);Illinois;Chicago Region.,Ethnic Studies - African American Studies,Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General,GENERAL,General Adult,HISTORY United States 20th Century,HistoryUnited States - 20th Century,Illinois,Jefferson family,Jefferson, Margo - Childhood and youth,Non-Fiction,SOCIAL SCIENCE Ethnic Studies African American Studies,SOCIAL SCIENCE Women's Studies,SOCIAL STRATIFICATION,Social ScienceEthnic Studies - African American Studies,United States,United States - 20th Century,WOMEN IN THE U.S.,Women's Studies,chicago; racism; race in america; negro land; sociology; us history; autobiography biography; memoir autobiography; martin luther king; african american history; black female writers; black history; pulitzer prize winners; pulitzer prize winners nonfiction; american history; segretation; book club; black history month; african american books; african american authors; book club recommendations; civil rights movement; feminist; feminism; award winning books; african american biographies and autobiographies; memoirs,race in america;negro land;sociology;us history;autobiography biography;memoir autobiography;martin luther king;african american history;black female writers;black history;pulitzer prize winners;pulitzer prize winners nonfiction;american history;segretation;book club;black history month;african american books;african american authors;book club recommendations;racism;civil rights movement;feminist;feminism;chicago;award winning books;african american biographies and autobiographies;memoirs,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY Cultural, Ethnic & Regional General,Cultural Heritage,Ethnic Studies - African American Studies - General,HISTORY United States 20th Century,HistoryUnited States - 20th Century,SOCIAL SCIENCE Ethnic Studies African American Studies,SOCIAL SCIENCE Women's Studies,Social ScienceEthnic Studies - African American Studies,United States - 20th Century,Biography Autobiography,Blacks In The U.S.,Women In The U.S.,Biography & Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: general

Negroland A Memoir Margo Jefferson 9780307378453 Books Reviews

Margo Jefferson's "Negroland" is a fascinating book that works on several levels -- social history, current politics, and the evolution of one person's identity over time. Often, two or even all three of these levels are in operation at once. That interplay gives the book a haunting resonance, and draws the reader in (this reader, anyway) as one would be drawn into a novel. Moreover, I thought the book was beautifully written. The writing is exquisitely precise at times, impressionistic and seemingly diffuse at others. Taken as a whole, however, the book adds up to a compelling exploration of an extraordinary woman's experience.

The first thing this book does is to look at how people lived in a narrow subset of American society at a particular time the black upper middle class in the 1950's and 1960's. Perhaps a particular place should be added - Chicago - but what's most clearly drawn are class and race differences. These people were top layer of an ethnic group that was at the low end of the American social scale, and held on to that positions with an extraordinary amount of discipline. It was far more "comfortable" to grow up as Margo Jefferson than as most other African American children in the period, but it was not necessarily any easier. She shows this in a multitude of ways, some very funny, some heart-breaking.

The next thing that happens, of course, is that time moves on, throwing Ms. Jefferson into the racial and gender turmoil of the 1960's and 1970's. All of a sudden, her careful, successful "Negroland" background was judged by many of her peers to be inauthentic, adopted, "not black enough". It was difficult enough to be a young white woman in the period, when lots of things you'd be brought up to believe turned out not to be so at all. Being a young black woman, Ms. Jefferson makes clear, was a whole lot harder. Even feminism, which was important to her, would be judged by others on the basis of race.

And through the whole social/political progression runs the memoir of an individual. Race is an inescapable part of that, since race necessarily affects so much that she experiences. But race affects different people in different ways. For example, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Ms. Jefferson both suffered from racism, but they are wildly different people, and write about race in wildly different ways. Ms. Jefferson's book is less dramatic, and less incendiary. For me, however, it was just as compelling an experience of seeing the world through someone else's eyes.
Not as good as Our Kind of People, and certainly doesn't measure up to Between the World and Me. In reading Negroland, I had a feeling that the author was holding back much of her personal life. This reads more like social and political musings, not a memoir. A memoir is supposed to be about open and honest personal memories, not so? This didn't do it for me. If the author was afraid after years of Jack and Jill, Links, etc, of revealing too much personal history, then why not write a social and political commentary? That's non-fiction too.
This is an amazing book. Congratulations to Margo Jefferson for writing a ground breaking socio-cultural view of a group of invisible Americans. She is brave for sharing her life experiences that might make some readers cringe and others nod their heads in agreement. Provocative and thought provoking--all the elements of a good read.
I read this book as part of my reading for a course at Fromm Institute in San Francisco. We read Frederick Douglas "My Dondage and My Freedom", and W.E.B DuBois, "The Souls of Black Folks" (I may be wrong about that title). This book, Negroland is a good update--a near modern day account of Ms. Jefferson's upbringing as an upper middle class black in the north. It does not flinch from telling both the challenges (lack of acceptance and respect) and the shortcomings, such as superficiality and attention to status.
There was much to absorb and ponder in Margo Jefferson’s Negroland, a fascinating recollection of life growing up in the titular purgatory, between two worlds centered on race, class, and wealth in a changing American landscape. Jefferson’s parents were well-to-do professionals (“comfortable” as her mother described it to the young, curious author), rich by black standards, upper-middle class by white standards. Therefore, Ms. Jefferson had a rare experience for the times and one that caused on-going self-image frustrations and a constant internal tug-of-war. She describes her family as belonging to “…the Third Race, poised between the masses of Negroes and all classes of Caucasians.”

Ms. Jefferson’s writing brilliance gives a strong voice to these memoirs, tackling a host of topics, all couched within her personal family history, as she moves from child to adult. She gives her distinctive, biting perspective on the relentless and myriad demonstrations of racism from next-door neighbors to desk clerks in Atlantic City hotels. She learns by observing her parents’ frustrated and angry reactions to things she is too young and naïve to understand, like the discomfort or refusal by whites to address her pediatrician father as “Doctor,” or her fourth grade music teacher engaging the class in singing Stephen Foster songs with their racial epithets in the lyrics. Ms. Jefferson juggles the implicit racism from the white community, with the mixed messages and issues of authenticity she received as an educated, upper-middle-class black person in America. It was a delicate balancing act “Negro privilege had to be circumspect; impeccable but not arrogant; confident yet obliging; dignified, not intrusive.”

It’s important to distinguish that this is no angry, vindictive rant against an America that continues to struggle with and even acknowledge racial problems, but rather a thoughtful retelling of one woman’s distinctive experience as a well-to-do black woman in a nation not yet ready to accept successful blacks as equal. This book is not overflowing with seething rage or snarky ridicule of racists, but offers instead the powerful and compelling memoirs of an intelligent and reflective woman with a gift for taut prose. In the wrong hands this could’ve been yet another wedge hammered into the chasm of our national racial split. In Ms. Jefferson’s talented hands, it is an evocative photograph, one that shows all Americans just how matter-of-fact these issues are. In short, this is who we are as Americans. These are the divisions that separate us by race, education, gender, and income, fueled by socially accepted stereotypes, evidenced in ways subtle and overt, benign and malignant.

Negroland is a book that will start debates, introspection, and shed light on racial relations in America. It’s a book that should be read because it gives such a unique and fresh perspective on being black in America. Given the news of the day, this book is enormously timely as well as being a great read.