|
|
| Author |
Message |
Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2462 }
|
 Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 04:03 Post subject: ONE DROP by Bliss Broyard (Anatole's daughter) |
 |
|
Bliss could have done a great service to America and all victims of the "one drop" myth by defending her father's right to embrace his European heritage. Instead, she seems to support the idea that so-called "passing" is something morally wrong, no doubt coached by her new-found "black" relatives. Heaven spare her from wealthy liberal white women who learn about their partial "Negro blood."
| Quote: | ONE DROP
My Father's Hidden Life--A Story of Race & Family Secrets
Two months before he died of cancer, renowned literary critic Anatole Broyard called his grown son and daughter to his side, intending to reveal a secret he'd kept all their lives and most of his own: he was black. Born in the French Quarter in 1920, Anatole began to conceal his racial identity after the family moved from New Orleans to the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and his parents resorted to "passing" in order to get work. From his bohemian days in the cafés of Greenwich Village in the 1940s to his ascension in the ranks of the literary elite, he continued to maintain the façade.
Serving as a daily book critic for the New York Times for more than a decade, and as a columnist and editor at the New York Times Book Review for several years after that, Anatole was an influential voice in American culture. To his children he was a charming and attentive father who had strived to raise his family in the lush enclaves of Connecticut and Martha's Vineyard, providing an upbringing far removed from his own childhood. But even as he lay dying, the truth was too difficult for him to admit, and it was finally their mother who told Bliss and Todd that their sheltered New England childhood had come at a price.
In her remarkable memoir, Bliss Broyard examines her father's choices and the impact of this revelation on her own life. Seeking out unknown relatives in New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans, she uncovers the 250- year history of her family in America, and chronicles her own evolution from privileged Wasp to a woman of mixed-race ancestry. The result is a beautifully crafted and touching portrait of her father, and a provocative examination of the profound consequences of racial identity. |
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/books/7/0316163503/index.html
http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/authors/80/3842/index.html
http://blissbroyard.com/aboutauthor.html
http://www.oncewritten.com/EnterToWin/Title.php?TID=One-Drop
Deadline Friday Sept. 21
http://www.oncewritten.com/West-Hollywood-Book-Fair.php#Friends
EVENTS
New York, New York
Thursday, September 27th, 2007, 7:00 PM
Discussion and signing at Barnes & Noble Astor Place
http://blissbroyard.com/news&events.html
http://blissbroyard.com/onedrop.html
barnesandnoble
http://alia-broyard.katrina.aidpage.com/alia-broyard/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KNJ/is_12_2/ai_80206411/pg_4
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E2D61531F93BA25751C0A9679C8B63
link here
| Quote: | NEWS
An excerpt from ONE DROP will appear in Elle Magazine's September issue, on the newstands in early August.
Bliss is scheduled to be interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Check back for air times.
Watch Bliss on the PBS series African American Lives (hosted by Henry Louis Gates) in February, 2008.
EVENTS
New York, New York
Thursday, September 27th, 2007, 7:00 PM
Discussion and signing at Barnes & Noble Astor Place.
Houston, Texas
Sunday, October 21st, 2007, 5:30 PM
28th Annual Houston Chronicle Book and Author Dinner with Douglas Brinkley, Laura Lippman, and Jeffrey Toobin.
Oxford, Mississippi
Monday, October 22nd, 2007, 5:00 PM
Signing and Reception, 5:00 PM, Reading at 5:30 PM at Square Books.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 5:00 PM
Discussion and signing at the Garden District Bookshop.
Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Discussion and Signing in Metairie Borders Books.
Los Angeles, California
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
Discussion and Signing at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena.
Saturday, November 3rd, 2007, 5:00 PM
Reading and Signing at Book Soup in West Hollywood. |
To contact Bliss Broyard:
bliss.broyard@gmail.com |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 05:20 Post subject: |
|
|
| Maybe if he hadn't hidden his ancestry/his family from his children they wouldn't have had an issue. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fwsweet
Administrator
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
{Posts: 5380 }
Location: Palm Coast, FL
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 11:42 Post subject: |
|
|
| Ms. Broyard is sending me a copy of One Drop. I shall review it here in this forum when it arrives. I notice, however, that it was Bliss's mother who actually revealed Anatole's Coloured Creole ancestry, not her father. My point being that he did not keep it secret from his wife, and some of his friends have written that he never kept it secret from them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MP mulattoprince
Wizard
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
{Posts: 464 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 12:05 Post subject: |
|
|
| Yes it was their mother who told them that their father Anatole was part black. She did this while he was on his death bed. The mother kept asking Anatole to tel his kids before he died that he had black ancestry. Anatole did not. He kept beating around the bush debating when it would be a good time to do so. So the mother took them outside and told them (Bliss and Her Brother). Thank God people with white phenotypes don't have to hide their mixed race ancesrty if they don't want to. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fwsweet
Administrator
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
{Posts: 5380 }
Location: Palm Coast, FL
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 13:30 Post subject: |
|
|
| MP (mulattoprince) wrote: | | Yes it was their mother who told them that their father Anatole was part black. |
That is why I look forward to reading the book. If he never kept his Coloured Creole ancestry secret from his wife nor from his friends, then exactly who was he keeping it secret from? So far, we know for certain only that he kept it a secret from his two children (I wonder how old they were at the time) and from the Department of Black Studies at Harvard (with which he had no connection).
| MP (mulattoprince) wrote: | | Thank God people with white phenotypes don't have to hide their mixed race ancesrty if they don't want to. |
Come again? I don't know of anyone anywhere, no matter what they look like, who has "to hide their mixed race ancestry if they don't want to." Who are you talking about?
Last edited by fwsweet on Tue 18 Sep 2007 14:26; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MP mulattoprince
Wizard
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
{Posts: 464 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 14:20 Post subject: |
|
|
MP (mulattoprince) wrote:
Thank God people with white phenotypes don't have to hide their mixed race ancesrty if they don't want to.
F sweet said: Come again? I don't know of anyone anywhere, no matter what they look like, who has "to hide their mixed race ancestry if they don't want to." Who are you talking about?
MP: That is just my way of showing gratefulness that many mixed race people don't have to hide their mixed ancesrty. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 14:26 Post subject: |
|
|
| fwsweet wrote: | | If he never kept his Coloured Creole ancestry secret from his wife nor from his friends, then exactly who was he keeping it secret from? |
I missed the part where his friends knew? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MP mulattoprince
Wizard
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
{Posts: 464 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 14:37 Post subject: |
|
|
| Salsassin wrote: | | fwsweet wrote: | | If he never kept his Coloured Creole ancestry secret from his wife nor from his friends, then exactly who was he keeping it secret from? |
I missed the part where his friends knew? |
Milton Klonsky Knew that Broyard had black ancestry and he and Anatol Broyard were friends, Anatole told him. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 14:41 Post subject: |
|
|
| MP (mulattoprince) wrote: | | Salsassin wrote: | | fwsweet wrote: | | If he never kept his Coloured Creole ancestry secret from his wife nor from his friends, then exactly who was he keeping it secret from? |
I missed the part where his friends knew? |
Milton Klonsky Knew that Broyard had black ancestry and he and Anatol Broyard were friends, Anatole told him. |
Ah OK. SO intimate friends were aware. Maybe he felt out people and told the friends he could trust? And hid it from those he feared would react negatively or perceive him differently? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
odocoileus
Mentor
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
{Posts: 300 }
Location: Chatsworth, CA
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 15:12 Post subject: |
|
|
Does One Drop ideology really create "victims" in the present day? If so, how?
What specifically is the demonstrable harm? Not 70 years ago. Today? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 15:15 Post subject: |
|
|
| odocoileus wrote: | Does One Drop ideology really create "victims" in the present day? If so, how?
What specifically is the demonstrable harm? Not 70 years ago. Today? |
Constant media attacks because you choose to identify by an identity is not being a victim? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2462 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 16:38 Post subject: Diane McWhorter's racist description |
|
|
Liberal white Southern author Diane McWhorter's "praise" of Bliss Broyard's book is very disturbing. Note how she labels Bliss as "black" without knowing she is "black" and "passing" without knowing she is "passing" (invisible blackness to the max).
Notice how McWhorter also says "...color is simultaneously a meaningless abstraction and the all-pervasive marker of identity in America." What color? Anatole didn't have the "color" and neither does Bliss. I've seen this many times before, where the alleged "passer" is described as hiding his true "color."
http://blissbroyard.com/index.html
| Quote: | "Bliss Broyard’s account of discovering that she is black, after a childhood of unwittingly 'passing' at a tony prep school and a snooty yacht club, is among the most elegant and nuanced examinations of race I’ve encountered, an exquisite rendering of how color is simultaneously a meaningless abstraction and the all-pervasive marker of identity in America. One Drop transcends race, going to the essence of what it means simply to be."
--Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
fwsweet
Administrator
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
{Posts: 5380 }
Location: Palm Coast, FL
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 16:45 Post subject: Re: Diane McWhorter's racist description |
|
|
| Powell wrote: | | Anatole didn't have the "color" and neither does Bliss. I've seen this many times before, where the alleged "passer" is described as hiding his true "color." |
I recall a U.S. History seminar where the professor said, "a white-looking black person," and I chimed in with, "that is sort of like a short-looking tall person." Everybody stopped and looked at me as their brains processed the thought. A female student then exclaimed , "Yeah! and I am really thin inside. I just look fat!" The class broke up into waves of laughter. Sad to say, the professor never forgave me. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2462 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 16:54 Post subject: Re: Diane McWhorter's racist description |
|
|
| fwsweet wrote: | | Powell wrote: | | Anatole didn't have the "color" and neither does Bliss. I've seen this many times before, where the alleged "passer" is described as hiding his true "color." |
I recall a U.S. History seminar where the professor said, "a white-looking black person," and I chimed in with, "that is sort of like a short-looking tall person." Everybody stopped and looked at me as their brains processed the thought. A female student then exclaimed , "Yeah! and I am really thin inside. I just look fat!" The class broke up into waves of laughter. Sad to say, the professor never forgave me. |
I once had a sociology course in which the professor asked the class, "Why is it that all whites are white while blacks can be either black or white?" I replied that they're not, citing Hispanics, Arabs, etc. The professor got a constipated look on his face and dropped the subject. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
odocoileus
Mentor
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
{Posts: 300 }
Location: Chatsworth, CA
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:01 Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | Constant media attacks because you choose to identify by an identity is not being a victim? |
Which media? Ebony? Vibe? I don't regularly read publications like these, but what I have read convinces me that they're aimed largely at stupid people.
You'd know better than I would, but which mainstream media outlets have formally criticized multiracials for not embracing black American identity?
Indvidual "black" commentators? The ones I read are generally too sophisticated to weigh in on the issue. The ones who do weigh in are generally not taken seriously anyway.
Stand up comedians? Rappers? The same guys who make their living off of d!ck jokes and shoot each other for no reason? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:02 Post subject: Re: Diane McWhorter's racist description |
|
|
| Powell wrote: | Liberal white Southern author Diane McWhorter's "praise" of Bliss Broyard's book is very disturbing. Note how she labels Bliss as "black" without knowing she is "black" and "passing" without knowing she is "passing" (invisible blackness to the max).
Notice how McWhorter also says "...color is simultaneously a meaningless abstraction and the all-pervasive marker of identity in America." What color? Anatole didn't have the "color" and neither does Bliss. I've seen this many times before, where the alleged "passer" is described as hiding his true "color."
http://blissbroyard.com/index.html
| Quote: | "Bliss Broyard’s account of discovering that she is black, after a childhood of unwittingly 'passing' at a tony prep school and a snooty yacht club, is among the most elegant and nuanced examinations of race I’ve encountered, an exquisite rendering of how color is simultaneously a meaningless abstraction and the all-pervasive marker of identity in America. One Drop transcends race, going to the essence of what it means simply to be."
--Diane McWhorter, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution |
|
Who is to say she was not referring to her "White" colored skin in that comment? You assume it was Blackness. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:07 Post subject: Re: Diane McWhorter's racist description |
|
|
| fwsweet wrote: | | Powell wrote: | | Anatole didn't have the "color" and neither does Bliss. I've seen this many times before, where the alleged "passer" is described as hiding his true "color." |
I recall a U.S. History seminar where the professor said, "a white-looking black person," and I chimed in with, "that is sort of like a short-looking tall person." Everybody stopped and looked at me as their brains processed the thought. A female student then exclaimed , "Yeah! and I am really thin inside. I just look fat!" The class broke up into waves of laughter. Sad to say, the professor never forgave me. |
So I guess if a person has a Mixed identity but looks "White" or "Black" by eyeballing we just claim dissonance as well. Hilarious. Even the recollection of the joke violates your own rules Frank. You are attacking the identity of all Black identified Euro looking people as being comedic or oxymoronic. As Black is not just a descriptor but an ethnic identity, unless imposed you are making fun of people for their own choice of identity. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2462 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:09 Post subject: MARGARET A. HARRELL |
|
|
Here's another friend of Anatole who claims she knew he was "black." However, remember that it is only recently that Americans have once again acquired a vocabulary to express racial mixture (thanks to the Multiracial Movement).
Note that Broyard himself did not claim to be "black."
http://www.marharrell.com/Pages/collect1.htm
MARGARET A. HARRELL
e-mail: mharrell@ctc.net ;
fax/tel: 011 32 16 810268 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Salsassin
SuperWizard
Joined: 04 Apr 2005
{Posts: 3515 }
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:17 Post subject: |
|
|
Wow, he definitely looks mixed to me in that picture. I thought it was the commentator at first. I'm surprised his kids didn't figure out there was an "other" in his ancestry or at least suspect it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
odocoileus
Mentor
Joined: 05 Apr 2006
{Posts: 300 }
Location: Chatsworth, CA
|
| Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2007 17:34 Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | | However, remember that it is only recently that Americans have once again acquired a vocabulary to express racial mixture (thanks to the Multiracial Movement). |
Taken literally, this statement is clearly false. Terms like "mulatto" and (the unfortunate) "high yellow" never went out of use in the States.
What you mean, I guess, is that more Americans are able to conceive of and discuss racial mixing without seeing it as taboo.
Thanks in part to the black Civil Rights movement, and thanks in part to the multiracial movement that grew out of it. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
