Book Description
Back in Black is the fifth guilty pleasure in this witty and risqu series that takes readers behind the scenes of the intoxicating world of Hollywood glitterati. Its time for the Beverly Hills High senior class trip to Washington, D.C. But every year the reigning A-List call in sick and do their own trip to Vegas, baby, Vegas. Anna joins Cammie, Adam, Sam, Dee, and Parker on the Vegas trip to the uber-hip Palms Hotel and Casino. During a hypnosis show on The Strip, the group is hypnotized into telling the truth. Dee is confronted with just how whack-o shes become and Adam and Cammie are forced to confess their forbidden lusty secrets. When Annas oldest and best friend from New York, Cyn, and Annas long-time adolescent crush, Scott, show up in Vegas too, Anna finds out just how dangerous telling the truth can be. Soon to be a major motion picture from Universal Pictures, The A-List and its bestselling sequels, Girls on Film, Blonde Ambition, and Tall Cool One are full of page-turning action about the fast times of Beverly Hills most beautiful and glamorous people.
Customer Reviews:
Zoey 's back in her fifth book!.......2007-07-31
Zoey Dean is back in her fifth installment in the A- List Series. In this novel the A-listers go to Las Vegas as their end of the year senior trip, instead of Washington D.C. There everyone is having a fun time. Cammie and Adam are going good, Anna tries to reach Ben, but he never answers his phone. Sam is obsessing over Eduardo and Dee is going crazy of judaism and Ruby Hummingbird, Sam's stepsister. In Las Vegas everyone goes to a hypnosist show, where some of them reveal some deep secrets, which are later forgiven, and their vacation ends short when Dee is taken to a physciatric hospital after going crazy over Ruby and Poppy. While leaving Anna see's Ben and they both stay at the hotel. Zoey Dean's fifth was great. In fact this series has been really fun and interesting and I would definitely recommend it.
It is a good book.......2007-01-02
I gave this book 5 stars because the storyline was great and the characters were very interesting. Every chapter that I read was leading up to the main reason of the story and that is what I like in reading a book. I wouldn't like to read about the present time and then the next page be a flashback. That is just too confusing.
The characters were very interesting. The character I liked most was Anna because she was most down-to-earth person than any other character in my opinion. The author did a very good job with this book.
-Rasheenah
It is a good book.......2007-01-02
I gave this book 5 stars because the storyline was great and the characters were very interesting. Every chapter that I read was leading up to the main reason of the story and that is what I like in reading a book. I wouldn't like to read about the present time and then the next page be a flashback. That is just too confusing.
The characters were very interesting. The character I liked most was Anna because she was most down-to-earth person than any other character in my opinion. The author did a very good job with this book.
-Rasheenah
Great Story Line.......2006-11-09
I this book is pretty good because it's different than some of the different ones in the series. I like the fact that Anna is going to Las Vegas even though she wouldn't normaly choose to go there. For some reason I don't feel that Cammie really deserves Adam and in she is so mean about Anna. I don't like her but she makes the story more interesting.
What better place for naughtyness than in Sin City??.......2006-07-20
This book was hot hot hot! The most popular A-listers at BHH are going on a trip to Sin City instead of that boring trip to Washington-Parker, Sam, Cammie, Adam, Dee and of course Ana. The six of them check in at Las Vegas' finest Palms Hotel. Cammie decides all the girls should have a catty fashion contest, but when Cammie herself doesnt come appropiately dressed things get a little wild...
Poor Parker is low on cash and is willing to do anything to get some cash fast, but what happens when his gambling reaches a dead end? On the other hand, Anna is running low on love. She seems lost and cant stop thinking about Ben, so she leaves him a voicemail inviting him to Sin City. But what happens when Cyn and Scott show up? Scott is looking amazingly hot and Cyn is unsure about their relationship, will Anna make a move?
And to top off the cake they all go to a hypnotist for fun.But is it all fun and games when they are forced to share their deepest secrets on stage??Cammie confesses something about Adam, Adam confesses something about Cammie, and Anna confesses something about Scott! Sam just lays back with her mouth wide open as she hears these deep revealing secrets. And what happens when they decide to watch the tape? Will all end well? Will there be new hook-ups or break-ups??
And the frosting on top of this cake is that who else but Ben shows up at the Palms just before they're about to leave. Fortunetly, Anna spots him and stops the limo. Unfortunetly, although they express their feelings for each other and cant wait to ravish each other, Ben has a secret- he has a girlfriend waiting for him to come back to her at Princeton. Will this newly revealed secret affect the magic between Ben and Anna?
**READ THE BOOK TO FIND OUT!!!!**
Book Description
classic collection of feminist writings
Customer Reviews:
A classic, ground-breaking feminist of color anthology!.......2006-08-10
This is such an important anthology of writings by radical women of color on the politics of race, gender, class and sexual orientation. Though it is more than two decades old, the essays and poetry are still ispirational and relevant. Indeed, I strongly feel that this is a book that every feminist should read. That said, I am utterly baffled by how difficult it is to obtain. Could it really be out of print? If so, I hope (hint, hint) that some progressive publishing company like AK Press, South End Press, or Seal re-prints it. I would hate to think of it disappearing into the dustbin of obscurity.
Should be On Every Feminist Bookshelf, in Every Library........2005-11-23
Count yourself lucky if you are able to find a copy of the 3rd Edition. It is extremely rare and very hard to find. If you can't find it though, buy the 1st or 2nd Editions.
This is undoubtedly one of the most influential, groundbreaking, and important books ever to come from "Second Wave" feminist thought. Although it has been over 20 years since it was originally published, it still retains its edginess and thought-provoking qualities.
The book, which features the writings of Asian, Latin, African, and Native American women was also groundbreaking in that many of the women are lesbians and/or from working class backgrounds. (Although lesbian and/or working class anthologies are unsual now, it was significant back in 1981.)
Writers include Audre Lorde, Pat Parker, Barbara Smith, Anzaldua, Moraga, Barbara Cameron, and Aurora Levins Morales.
Essays, poems, short stories, creative and autobiographical pieces are the basis for this book. Although it is best known for confronting racism within and outside of the Women's Movement, the book also examines:
* the roots of the authors' radical politics
* theory vs. real life
* culture, class, and homophobia
* on being an ethic writer/artist
* visions for a better future
The 3rd Edition also contains pictures of art and sculpture by radical women of color artists circa late 1970s-early 1980s. These add more layers and depth to the book as the artists' works were chosen to compliment the writings. All 3 Editions (but especially the 3rd) contain an excellent bibliography for the reader who is further interested in reading more about women of color feminism.
Other books of interest (There are many, many good books by women of color feminists, these are just a few examples):
**** ~Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology~ edited by Barbara Smith
**** ~A Gathering of Spirit: Writing and Art by North American Indian Women~ edited by Beth Brant
**** ~Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian Amerian Women~ edited by Asian Women United of California
**** ~Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About~ edited by Carla Trujillo.
The late Anzaldua and AnaLouise Keatings also edited a sequel/daughter anthology to TBCMB It is called THIS BRIDGE CALLED MY HOME (2002). Lovers of the original -Bridge- book will be intrigued by how the follow-up anthology expands, critiques, and examines the issues found in TBCMB.
Very important collection.......2001-04-25
Oh my goodness!! This is an incredible ground-breaking book of awareness and consciousness. It was a must-read for anyone coming of age in the 1980's and it is still relevant today. I came on line to purchase it for a friend who had never seen it, and I am in shock that it is out of print, or even just out of stock (it's unclear which). The paperback is selling on ZBooks for $45. I'm confounded.
Book Description
Never before in paperback: A New York Times Notable Book-the life and times of the first Negro League star inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
Some say Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher ever-and certainly his dazzling record of perhaps as many as 2,000 wins, first in the Negro Leagues and then in the integrated major leagues, ranks as one of the most remarkable athletic feats of the century. He also became famous for the advice he freely offered others, including the now legendary
"Don't look back, something might be gaining on you." Mark Ribowsky gives the best picture yet of life in the Negro Leagues as he brings to life a man whose act as a lovable eccentric with a golden arm masked a decidedly darker side as womanizer, hard drinker, and contract jumper always on the lookout for number one. Sporting News hailed Don't Look Back as "a fine and perceptive biography... that captures the essence of a complicated and terribly significant person."
Customer Reviews:
Excellent bio,seperating myth from stereotype.......2001-03-09
Satchel Paige is an enigmatic figure in american histroy. Mention his name, people inevitably think of the negro leagues,or thta terrible bingo long movie.In fact, Paige was ,in many repects, the first modern ballplayer. He played for a percentage of the gate, would only pitch a couple of innings in these contests,had no compuction about jumping from team to team{or country to country}The minstel show,stephifetchit aura that he calculated with the all too eager white press was, of course, a huge ruse. He was a sometimes bitter man{quite understandably so}He knew, instinctively, that he was the best pitcher in the world{although,curiosly, his peers voted Smokey Joe williams better in a 1950 vote in the Pittsburgh Courrier} He despsed the Jim Crow laws, and what he had to do to get around them. HIs civil rights stands were taken in the 20's 30's and 40's, when such things often meant death. He pitched for what might have been the greatest team of all time{the Pittsburgh crawfords of the early 30's] Dimaggio called him ethe toughest pitcher he ever hit against.All of these nuggets are in this book. Mr. Ribowsky did a fine job here. Paige is a figure who should be celebrated for what he was:an american original,a species often sighted but rarely seen. A wonderful book!
Demi-God.......2000-07-28
After reading this book, I am utterly convinced that Satchel Paige is as much of a baseball legend as a Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth. This book not only entertains but it fascinates, so much that I would'nt be suprised if someone mistook this biography for a peice of baseball folklore or a non fictitious work designed to capture the imaginations of baseball fans. This book portrays the life of Robert Leroy Satchel Paige in a most interesting way. In some cases he stands biggerthan life portrayed as a demi-god in the face of the gods of Major League Baseball and in some cases his mortality is revealed in the very midst of his immortality, and this is what makes this portrayal so unique.
Customer Reviews:
A gift.......2003-01-20
Required reading not only for feminists - both men and women -but for writers and other artists. Valuable for all humans who have been silenced at some point in their lives. Since that includes most children, this book has much to offer all of us.
Her observations are wise. Her grasp of history is absolute. Her ideas stimulate intelligent and loving thought, conversation, and action. Read this book.
A New Way of Knowing.......2000-03-18
i'm one of those individuals who believes that frued was a fraud. and i might be indulging in some essentialist solopsism when i assert that there was never anything he said that would or could be of any value to this black man. but to the extent that i can function well in the world without any deference to freud's notions of mental health and self-regard, i might be onto something. i can say without a doubt that hooks and west were powerfully instrumental in helping me deal with my existential demons by contextualizing my struggle to be recognized as a thinking man who is black in american society. as the old gospel song says 'the burdens of my heart rolled away'.
there are many ways that i changed myself by changing my thinking. i was able to do so without discarding my background, which our society so often demands of african americans. this is something bell hooks was able to uniquely communicate to me in 'talking back: thinking feminist, thinking black'.
once upon a time in america, black children were not supposed to look at white adults eye to eye. we knew it was wrong, but we didn't know why and so we didn't say anything. hooks comes from all those places, and understands what's wrong with that and uses her considerable intellect to set our souls and our minds in balance. minds that were once shut down while our souls cried out can now work with the tools hooks crafts and put us sensibly back - clear eyed and straight up.
Book Description
'Inge has presented with astounding veracity the oppressive banality of the lives of his characters: the events of their lives have the nerve-lightening regularity of a dripping faucet. His female characters especially are engulfed by the bathos of their lives, and Inge capitalizes on this fact in order to heighten dramatically the moment of personal crisis which comes to each of them. In his four major successes--Come Back, Little Sheba; Picnic; Bus Stop; and The Dark at the Top of the Stairs--the play carries the audience through the moment of crisis; and the final curtain falls upon a note of hope and fulfillment.'--R. Baird Shuman
Customer Reviews:
FOUR AMERICAN PLAYS.......2003-09-25
Four plays by William Inge all published and produced on Broadway in the 1950s. The plays are underbellies of the American dream concerning modestly incomed average Americans facing conflict in a changing social environment, each with a deep dramatic sense of the human spirit riddled softly with a genuinely comedic edge. "Come Back, Little Sheba" is a low-key story of a recovering alcoholic which rises to thunderous and violent drama. "Picnic" follows two Kansas households whose lives are disrupted when a stranger comes to town during a Labor Day weekend. "Bus Stop" concerns an unlikely wedding engagement among a group of stranded passengers in a coffee shop bus stop. Only "Dark At The Top of The Stairs" is a little less focused in it's story of a 1920s family threatened by marital discord, the play is unfortunately reliant on a shock-value incident which seems to only serve as a melodramatic device. The book includes an essay by William Inges on being a successful playwright.
A Playwright in Need of Rediscovering?.......2001-07-31
Midwesterner William Inge was one of the most celebrated playwrights of his day. No one would have blinked to hear his name mentioned alongside Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. Today he is not much thought of, except for the four popular movies spawned by the four plays in this anthology...
Inge may or may not be "world class," but he shouldn't go ignored. He dealt with the "little people," common Midwesterners and how they lived. Inge was superb at slowly revealing the subtext of their lives--the situations and mishaps that had got them to the point where a pivotal decision had to be made and there were only one or two options to consider.
"Come Back, Little Sheba" is the first play, and the one the movie industry left almost untouched. With today's hindsight it becomes easier to understand Lola's depression in the context of Doc's incipient alcoholism, and the fact that they feel stuck with each other in a joyless middle age. As with Shakespeare, Inge would have made a terrific psychotherapist.
"Picnic" is a Freudian's dream. Inge tells a realistic story of a twentyish beauty from the wrong side of the tracks who feels trapped into marrying one of the town gentry until a sexy drifter hits town. At the same time, without compromising realism, the subtext screams with repressed sexuality. Pay attention in particular to the three schoolteachers and how they talk about the statue in the high school. Cinematically, Rosalind Russell made the best of this meaty part. When the play was "opened up" into a movie, it gained realism with excellent cinematography and outdoor settings, but lost much of the hothouse atmosphere that is quintessentially Inge.
"Bus Stop" is the most optimistic of these four plays. It concerns a likeable but socially and sexually naive young cowboy from Montana who falls head over heels in love (and lust) with a young woman trying to make a living singing in a seedy bar/nightclub. How this young bronco gets busted is interesting to watch--it's kind of an anti-screwball comedy although it ends well. Again, Inge relates his characters through dialog and you couldn't ask for a more colorful slice of Fifties Americana than this busload of strangers stuck for the night in a rundown diner/bus stop. The movie was a fine vehicle for Marilyn Monroe but except for a few scenes, doesn't follow the stage play...
Re: "The Dark at the Top of the Stairs": Without giving too much of the plot away, this play concerns a character that unfortunately has become too much of a stock figure in American fiction: the father who is too busy making money to take much interest in his children. This father, specifically, is a traveling salesman, and despite his wife's insistence on maintaining all the 1920s proprieties, the children become uncomfortably aware why Dad is out on the road more than is strictly necessary. Inge turned the pace down on this one to match the children's slower pace of recognition that the ideal moral world they had been instructed to live by wasn't always followed.
For the money "Four Plays" is a great investment. In particular, I urge anyone with an interest in American theater to buy it. With plays that are 40 to 50 years old, Inge does not read like a contemporary playwright; his product is very 1950s. To today's upper-middle-class, therapy-aware audiences, some of his Freudian insights might come across as laughably overstated. Bit simply as works of literature these plays are well worth the reading.
Heartbreak Country.......2001-05-19
The plays of William Inge depict the character of a very specific place: Southeast Kansas. The longing-for-elsewhere among the inhabitants of that part of Kansas is crafted into all of Inge's stories. Inge's gift is his awareness of that yearning and how it effects Kansans' daily lives. His writing makes it compelling and universally poignant.
Four Plays: All Great!.......2000-08-02
Mr. Inge, in "Bus Stop," has crafted a tale of first love and cynicism that we can all relate to. People jaded by life, people wanting something more, people content with their lot... it's all here.
The other classics contained in this volume are also well worth your time to read.
A superb overview of one of America's Best.......2000-07-26
William Inge certainly has been overshadowed by his contemporaries Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller and yet he was certainly their equal in many ways. Williams, a close personal friend to Inge who suggested he enter the playwrighting profession, even said that Inge was his favorite. And although his work does lack the dense poetic symbolism of the aforementioned playwrights, Inge grounds his characters in true spare dialouge and often heartbreaking simplicity that deceptively hides complex characters.
Proving to be easy stagable and ultimately actable, Inge's dialouge develops out of carefully drawn characters enacting direct and clear objectives. All the plays represented here also feature opportunities(especially "Bus Stop" and "Picnic")for strong ensemble work. Having both directed and acted in several productions of Inge's scripts, I can say from experience that Inge's language connects easily and brilliantly to the actor.
Inge managed to make art that is thouroughly accessible while being most personal. His plays all occur in Kansas and the midwest and yet they are about all of us. Granted this collection would be more complete with his Academy Award Winning script for "Splendor in the Grass", but as it stands, this is a great collection from a great playwright who deserves respect as one of America's finest dramatists. Five out of five stars.
Book Description
Beautiful adventuress Abbey Chase and her team are sexy agentsof the top-secret international spy agency known as DANGER GIRL.Together,they do battle with colorful fiends and evildoers bent on taking over theworld.In this volume, Abbey and Sydney Savage go undercoverto infiltrate anall-girl biker gang after a powerful and mysterious Native Americanartifact is stolen. From the black hills of California to the white sands of Daytona Beach, thegirls take a wild ride into the dangerous world of espionage, motorcyclesand black magic to track down the priceless item.
Customer Reviews:
Doesn't live up to "Danger Girl" name........2007-08-28
I think the two things that made the original Danger Girl run so much fun were the unapologetic campiness and the exaggerated artwork. Still, those need to be applied judiciously, and tied together with an engaging plot, and "Back in Black" didn't do that. The artwork just doesn't do it for me. The body work seems to be going more for the Abercrombie and Fitch work than anything. The high fashion influence on Johnny, Zero and Deuce is a little bit irritating -- they were better when they were ripped, and had chests. The chest thing goes for the girls too. What we get a lot of are gazes averted to the top corners of the pages and really big mouths. If you took Lar Desouza's art and cleaned it up, but left it every bit as obnoxious as ever, you'd have a pretty close approximation to the artwork in "Back in Black".
In short: The story isn't as fun, the art isn't as fun, the jokes aren't as funny, but it's still Danger Girl (and I'll take it).
Eh.......2007-08-23
After reading and enjoying the tongue in cheek humor of the original series maybe my hopes were too high for this one. I thought it was a little forced, the jokes a little too cliched, and the artwork isn't among my favorites. It's not a horrible book, just not what I was hoping to get.
Robert Ludlum Novel?....NOT!.......2007-07-27
This collection can be read .. or looked at, again and again. It's funny and has a "plot". Good drawings! A fine break from super heros . Not for young kids...Just old kids.
Tamer Danger.......2007-06-01
The cover aside, this is a tamer danger: Less curves most of the times, there are exceptions as when Sydney loses her top in the desert and her chaps are doing their best to go south and join her vest. But overall the drawing is outstanding without testing the outlandish the way Scott Campbell does, and the paper is not glossy so a lot of the color is subdued compared to the original Danger Girl; it's still very impressive.
Sophmoric jokes, cardboard villians, midgets, ninjas, tanks in the streets, unrequitted tattoo barracuda love, and the horror of all horrors old age abound in the plot line.
We all know where the journey ends, but it is a good ride with scenes that play like Tomb Raider and Spiderman... You have to see the turtle that gets spun around by the zooming biker girls; was it wearing a thong.
This is not Scott Campbell, but I can understand why the master allowed it to be published: it is really good, especially the covers.
Oh what fun!!.......2007-04-04
This story takes our danger girls into the seedy underworld of rough'n'tough biker gangs. But everything's not quite as it seems, as our danger girls face their Apparent Doom!!!...
Book Description
From the author of The Ethnic Myth comes this cogent analysis of how social science has placed a liberal gloss on racism and failed to champion civil rights. From a powerful critique of Gunnar Myrdal's classic An American Dilemma to a new epilogue that dismantles the myth of black progress, Turning Back offers a challenge to liberals as well as conservatives, blacks as well as whites, who have fueled the current backlash by providing a spurious intellectual cover for gutting affirmative action and other policies designed to advance the cause of racial justice.
Book Description
In Black Athena Writes Back Martin Bernal responds to the passionate debates set off by the 1987 publication of his book Black Athena. Producing a shock wave of reaction from scholars, Black Athena argued that the development of Greek civilization was heavily influenced by Afroasiatic civilizations. Moreover, Bernal asserted that this knowledge had been deliberately obscured by the rampant racism of nineteenth-century Europeans who could not abide the notion that Greek societyâfor centuries recognized as the originating culture of Europeâhad its origins in Africa and Southwest Asia.
The subsequent rancor among classicists over Bernal’s theory and accusations was picked up in the popular media, and his suggestion that Greek culture had its origin in Africa was widely derided. In a report on 60 Minutes, for example, it was suggested that Bernal’s hypothesis was essentially an attempt to provide blacks with self-esteem so that they would feel included in the march of progress.
In Black Athena Writes Back Bernal provides additional documentation to back up his thesis, as well as offering persuasive explanations of why traditional scholarship on the subject remains inaccurate and why specific arguments lobbed against his theories are themselves faulty.
Black Athena Writes Back requires no prior familiarity with either the Black Athena hypothesis or with the arguments advanced against it. It will be essential reading for those who have been following this long-running debate, as well as for those just discovering this fascinating subject.
Customer Reviews:
European mythology is not history ,it's PROPAGANDA.......2007-07-28
Exactly, European Mythology is not history,it's white supremacist propaganda. We are all aware of Europeans & their weapons of mass deception. They don't have any credibility with the origanal peoples anymore & are loosing credibilty with their own people. The legendary lying lore of white superiority is over & if you can't handle the truth that your racist ancestors have been supressing & distorting for the last 600yrs,then you have only your self to blame for your ignorance & arrogance. Don'trust these colonizers of history & people. You can't even tell the truth about amerikkkan foriegn or domestic policy maybe that's why wilfully ignorant amerikkans still think that Saddam had something to do with the 911 attacks. We can't trust a historical liar who can't acknowledge the truth. They can't even admit that racism and white priviledge is alive & well & that the legacy has been preserved in amerikkkas institutions wich still haunts us today. Europeans CAN NOT BE TRUSTED PERIOD !
SEMITIC ATHENA, not black Athena.......2006-01-14
That's right. The Egyptians and Phoenicians were Semitic/Hamitic,
NOT negroid. Egypt was only breifly ruled by negroid peoples at the invasion of the southern Nubians. Anybody who knows anything about the Ancient Hellenes, knows that they learnt a vast amount from the Egyptians and Phoenicians. I mean are language via Latin and Greek is related to the Phoenician alphabet via Egypt's...Duh!
If this author is criticizing a Eurocentric archetype, than he should equally criticize his afrocentric archetype. Greek culture, though it was heavily benefited from Asia and Africa is neither Euro or Afrocentric....it is Ancient Hellenic. We are projecting inept models and types on the Ancient Greeks!!!!!!!
Unless any of you people have studied a history book, Western Civilization is not apart of Ancient Greek Civilization, they are seperate. Furthermore what is wonderous about the Greeks is that they severed themselves from Asian/African cruelty and theocratic madness to form their own 'UNIQUE' culture in the first place!!!
Greece was not governed by a system religion or priestly caste which retained all the knowledge from the common man. THIS IS THE TRUE REBELLION AND MIRACLE IN HISTORY: THAT THE GREEKS WERE ABLE TO GROW FROM AND THEN REBEL AGAINST THE STERILE, THEOCRATIC CULTURES OF ASIA AND AFRICA TO FORM SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW!
RACIST GARBAGE!!!.......2005-06-16
It is funny reading the five-star reviewers. They have the least amount of knowledge in the field of classics, and yet they can make claims like the "Greeks learned everything in the science from the Egyptians who had mastered all of science first". Really? As I classics major myself who studied both the Greek as well as the Near Eastern histories I can assert that Greece absorbed very little from Egypt; and moreover, Greeks via the Hellenistic Empire of Alexander influenced Egypt far more. Bernal claims that the period of Egyptian involvment in Greece was during the proto-greek stage of the Myceneans, and the dark age that soon followed, which by the way is the most inconclusive period in Greek history. Yet, Bernal, a "scholar" not even trained in the Classics, can claim that this is obviosly because of western ignorance and rascism, that chooses to hide this shameful history. He claims that the Hyskos were a semitic people that invaded the Aegean region in time lending the Greeks their culture etc. First, the Hyskos where a minor group who are only mentioned in respect to Israelite history as they both are said to have entered Egypt at the same time. Bernal leaves out the fact that Egypt and the entire Levant was invaded by "Sea People" who originated form Ionia and the Aegean Islands and were the remnant of the Mycenean Age Homer wrote about. These Sea People devestated Egypt and the Levant, and actually forged colonies. The Egyptians named them the Peleset, who later are known as the Philistines. However they are Myceneans.
Further, Egypt was a theocracy with very little to offer the world in the sciences. The great breakthroughs came in the Classical and Hellenistic Age where Astronomy and Calculus flourished to name a few. Prior to this period the only other notable contributions came from the Babylonians in Mesopotamia.
Furthermore, SEMITIC PEOPLE ARE CAUCASIAN AS WELL.
Meaning Babylonians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Hyskos, Sumerians, and most likely Egyptians, a fact that can be seen in the present day inhabitants. While Arabic has been absorbed, this does not mean the aboriginal inhabitants have been erased. Furthermore, Bernal claims these eurocentric view is centered on a Greco-Roman model of western civilization; however western scholars are first to point out the contributions of other middle eastern peoples, like the the Mesopotamians, the Hittite, and the Persian. The latter two spoke indo-european by the way, in the midst of the so-called "black" semitic language he so readily attempts to usurp. In fact the word Arryan is the derived from the word Iran, as it literally mean the "land of the Arryans". Caucasians do not dwell soley in western Europe; in fact it might be better for these Afrocentric revisionists to expand their propaganda to calibrate for the entire Caucasian world which stretches into a Eurasian model going as far as the Russian steppes and Iranian peripheries.
Furthemore, this idea of Egypt as black is derived on the premise of non-european otherness, where because someone is not European it automatically means they are not white, and because they are not white that natuarally means they fall into the black camp. The whole train of though is ludicrous.
No More Western Arrogance .......2005-01-19
In Black Athens Bernal argued that Greek history had been written when racism was dominating Europe. The origins of "super", "pure" races had to be super and pure. We're still under the influence of this racist history. In the opening ceremony of 2004 Athens Olympic games, the NBC speaker had said "now the sport is returning to where it originated", as if there was no sport elsewhere in the world. European civilization advanced our world, and its origin Greece started everything from nothing. This is the idea Bernal criticizes.
But Can you name a civilization which didn't take from others? Building a civiliziation is all about trading ideas. But we were given the impression that Greeks created philosophy, art, mathematics and everything else out of nothing.
But didn't Phthogoras study in Egypt? Didn't Phoenicians invent the alphabet and give it to the Greeks? While even Herodotus mentions Egyptians colonizing Greece, how can we not appreciate Bernal's Black Athens and his this reply? Sure few of us have the sophistication to evaluate his and his opponents' evidence. But Bernal has a rock solid thesis which makes perfect sense. 19th and 20th centuries were the ages of positivism where there was a pure science (physics), where there were pure races. White race was drunk of its supremacy over blacks, native Americans, Indians and was justifying its ruthless colonization with the theory of evolution. Of course when the origin of Europe had to be pure, not contaminated by "backward" African Egyptians, and Semitic Phoenicians and Asians. This was the European-Western arrogance and it still exists today (e.g. current US policy in Iraq, EU Christian Democrats' statements against Turkey's EU membership). The truth is, Greece learned from Egyptians and Phoenicians, contributed to it, and gave it to the world.
Not Literally Black!.......2003-12-05
People may dislike Bernal's writing style, but that doesn't mean they should ignore his ideas.
By naming his books "Black Athena" Bernal doesn't mean that AthenaÑthe symbol of the Athenians and their culture, which we call Greek cultureÑwas imagined as black. More likely he believes she was a light mediterranean brown. Even the famous classicist Bernard Knox (a professor who wrote introductory essays to Robert Fagel's translations of The Illiad and Odyssey) conceeds this point in his ironic essay collection "The Oldest of the Dead White European Males" when he politely describes Greeks as an olive colored people.
Bernal's use of black in "Black Athena" refers to the historical misconception of her skin color by Romantics, Racists, and ImperialistsÑ who were not necessarily the same people! It also refers to the poetically and politically motivated misunderstanding of the historical origins of Greek myth, culture, and language. Not to say that Athena wasn't a Greek Goddess but rather that Greek ideas of Gods and Nature have significant (and uncredited) roots in more ancient civilizations (whether Egyptian, Sumerian, or more broadly Afro-Asiatic).
Bernal is attempting to undermine the false popular idea (especially among people who specialize in the study of the Greco-Roman Classics) thatÑ poetically speakingÑ Greek culture just sprang out of the ground like Cadmus' dragon teeth. Oh wait, no; actually, that myth tells of how a Phonecian, who we classify as Afroasiatic, brought literacy to the Greeks. Other ancient Greek sources attest to having recieved the basic tools of Greek Culture from their neighbors, why should we disbelieve them? Then there's etymology...
Of course, Afroasiatic roots do not detract from the genius of Greek theater, literature, and philosophy! That would be like saying Newton was an idiot because he didn't invent numbers. That would be like saying Shakespeare was worthless because he didn't create the theater, because he learnt from the literary examples of Geoffery Chaucer, Christopher Marlow, and Ben Johnson, because the subject matter of his plays were shaped by thousands of years of preceeding history, and because his plots were not original.
Clearly parents have a large role in the raising of children, but posterity does not praise parents for their childrens accomplishmentsÑ not with great artists, scientists, or statesmen. Though they lay the foundations of a child's moral, literary, and technological culture, what is built on those foundation is not their own. Ultimately Shakespeare's father was not Shakespeare, but who would believe that Shakespeare's family had no influence on his intellectual development? Likewise, using and improving the brilliant ideas of neighbors and ancestors does not rob scientific progress or artistic excellence of value. Is it more important that an idea is perfectly original? none are, or that it is good? Cultural innovators keep their worth when credit is given where credit is due, and their supporters have their importance recognized too.
It seems like the subject of intellectual precedence stirs up great anxiety in lovers of Classical literature. It shouldn't. Greek achievements are no less grand because they sprang from foreign soil. If anything, appreciation of Bernal's ideas will hopefully convince linguists and classicists with philosophical inclinations to shape up their fields erroneous notions of cultural originsÑ especially regarding etymology (read his books for details). It would be wonderful if a love of truth leads to more precise translations and a better understanding of the ancient literature we love.
Book Description
The final collaboration from Eddie and Gerald Levert: an intimate glimpse into their lives, their passions, and their musical legacy. But most important, I Got Your Back gets inside the special and rare father-son bond that these two R&B legends shared. Eddie and Gerald put their hearts and souls on the line and talk about their failures, concerns, fears, and triumphs as father and son. With a powerful message of reconciliation for broken families, Eddie and Gerald explore the themes of fatherhood, male bonding and male-female relationships. The book includes moving tributes from Eddie, Patti LaBelle, Steve Harvey and others, as well as treasured family photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable Read.......2007-08-31
I love Gerald and Eddie Levert. It was a good read on the weekend. I gained alot of respect for both of them through reading their story.
I Got Your Back.......2007-08-27
This was a heartfelt story told by a father and son. Their love and respect for each other was evident throughout. I was somewhat disappointed in how the story was told. I expected more details regarding the entertainment business and its impact on their lives.
Very Interesting.......2007-08-23
I enjoyed the book. It was very interesting to read and learn more personal information about Eddie and Gerald Levert. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting to read, but a good book to add to one's library.
I got your back.......2007-08-10
This book kept it real and gave great insight into the relationship between father and son Eddie and Gerald Levert. Both men have contibuted greatly through their music and the death of Gerald Levert was a great loss to the world . He will be missed. Eddie Levert continues the tradition he started over fifty years ago and has earned a place in musical history
Eddie and Gerald Uncut.......2007-07-28
It is rare in this day and age to see a father and son team that complements each other as well as the duo of Eddie and Gerald Levert. I GOT YOUR BACK: A Father and Son Keep it Real About Love, Fatherhood, Family and Friendship is a collaboration that brings out the real men behind the on-stage personas the world sees. They opened up to fans and laid it all out; their hopes, dreams, disappointments, mistakes and relationships. No stone was left unturned. They were human beings with faults just like anyone else. They kept it real and didn't try to make themselves appear bigger than life. They each admit their failings and how they learned from them, which in turn was a lesson for each of us. With the state of the black family as it is today, the lessons they imparted on the family are ones to heed.
Lyah LeFlore did an excellent job of uncovering the souls of the men within. The book was organized with many of the chapters starting or ending with lyrics from some of the songs performed by Eddie and/or Gerald Levert. Those songs now take on a whole new meaning for me when I hear them. The book is also written in a style that makes you feel as though you are in the midst of a conversation with both of these men. They shared so much of themselves, I feel I am now a part of the Levert family. Even though Gerald passed away before this project was published, I am sure he would be pleased with its outcome and the outpouring from friends included in the book. I GOT YOUR BACK is a wonderful tribute to the life he lived and shared with his father. When you get your copy, you'll laugh, you'll cry and you may even get mad, but most of all your perspective on life, family and friends will make a definite shift.
Reviewed by Brenda Lisbon
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
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