Mulatto America : At the Crossroads of Black and White Culture: A Social History

Rating:
Summary: The Song of America sung in a Strange New Future Key
Review: Mr. Talty has written an intelligent, wonderfully lyrical book (like a 1950s riff in two-four time). If six stars were allowed I would give it to this book.

This romp through history teems with the optimistic sounds, rhythms, smells and tastes of all we have come to understand as the proverbial American "melting pot." It is a profoundly uplifting and optimistic read. It is an essential side of the untold-American story, but not the only one. Unfortunately it is as clear to us (the reader)-as it is to Mr. Talty that he has sampled only the best of America-the mélange that is, to our collective dismay, but the fringe on top.

Thus, it is so very easy to be seduced by this book. It is so well written. It reflects so much of the author's passion and love for this country. It is so intelligently thought-out. In short, it is wishful thinking at its delicious best. I love the place in the heart and soul from which this book sprung. At some point in our lives, most of us share that wonderfully optimistic out look on America. We want the best for our country and we also want only to think the best about it. We all yearn for this 400-year old experiment to succeed.

So it is easy to be seduced by Mr. Talty's book. Indeed we want to be seduced by it. And he wants to seduce us. But if one is not careful, he may be completely taken in by it and begin to think for instance that had Dennis Rodman and Madonna had kids their Mulattos off-springs too would have inherited the earth. We might forget that the hiphoppers are also rebelling against Louis Armstrong's grinning teeth. We might think that Elvis and Little Richard were some kind of ambassador for race-mixing. But alas it is not so! It is all a self-fulfilling mirage. There is a deeper realty underlying rock-and-roll, Jazz, hip-hop and black ghetto pimps.

It is the reality of that side of America born with D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"-which the author curiously failed to include in his very selective romp through American history.No one is more aware than the author that his romp--however lyrical and well stated it may be--is but the fringe sitting atop a burgeoning "rotten egg." One that seems always just one step away from bursting at the seam. One that after 400 years still has ("soft") white superiority--an epithet that remains the unwritten subtext of his book--written all over it. But the author cannot be blamed for that any more than a fish can be blamed for swimming in polluted waters.

Of course, for cosmetic reasons (reasons of collective denial) America's ideology of racism is no longer called that any more. There are any numbers of other euphemisms, recycled, as times require, that serve that purpose-such as: multiculturalism, color blind society, paper equality, "mulatto America," etc., ad infinitum.

The one in vogue today is "Social Darwinism," a generic name for "Republican and Democratic Conservatism." Social Darwinism is a "stand in" for snow white's famous "mirror, mirror on the wall kind of whiteness." The kind that says if America is to remain a white nation (as surely it must, at all cost) it must become a "Zero-Sum Society," a "Winner-Take-All Society," the "Cheating Society," the "Cynical Society," and the "Unconscious Civilization."

If not, the mirror on the wall is likely to answer: You are still the fairest in the land... but they (those Mulattoes, and reds, and browns, and blacks, and especially those yellows) are gaining on you fast.

Why is it that one half of the contribution to our national-race-mixing salsa--that part made by whites themselves--never quites gets discussed openly until its too late? [Like Strom Thursmond's mulatto daughter? Why leave discussing whiteness to the David Dukes of the world and to the "Turner Diaries, etc.?] Why is it that "Whiteness" is either the only conceptual reality, the only subjectivity, the only worldview or it has to remain a phantom in the background--the invisible substrate, the neutral background that pulls all the strings but cannot be seen except just beyond the shadows?

There is another problem with Mr. Talty's book. It is a technical one. Compared to England, or Germany, or almost any other advanced Western society, THERE IS NO "Mulatto America." Fifty per cent of Brits are intermarried with their non-white minorities. In America, even in 2004, it is still less that 5%. And although 25% of whites have some black blood and 50% of blacks and Indians with some white blood, it is all as a result of white male-on-black female rape during slavery and the later "passing for white" that was required by these Mulatto off-springs--not as a result of contemporary race mixing-which incidentally is so minimal compared to other Western nations that it has raised concerns among sociologists.

So, where is this mulatto America that Mr. Talty speaks of?

While all this is more a critique of the context of the book, than the book itself, it reflects how deeply this book can affect one's thinking, and how much it reflects America's yearning, no matter the color.

In sum, this is a heroic effort no matter how the book affects you. Please buy it. You won't be disappointed. I guarantee it.

As a parting shot, may I suggest that we need Mr. Talty's mind, passion and superb writing skills-working behind the screen of racism as well as in front of it--if we are to ever prick the poison in the rotten egg that lies beneath. Hopefully his next book will be about what lies beneath the fringe-for that too-perhaps even more profoundly and certainly more frightfully--is also America.

When humpty-dumpty is finally toppled from the wall, only then will we be able to sing a new song of America in a truly Mulatto key.

Rating:
Summary: The Song of America sung in a Strange New Future Key
Review: Mr. Talty has written an intelligent, wonderfully lyrical book (like a 1950s riff in two-four time). If six stars were allowed I would give it to this book.

This romp through history teems with the optimistic sounds, rhythms, smells and tastes of all we have come to understand as the proverbial American "melting pot." It is a profoundly uplifting and optimistic read. It is an essential side of the untold-American story, but not the only one. Unfortunately it is as clear to us (the reader)-as it is to Mr. Talty that he has sampled only the best of America-the mélange that is, to our collective dismay, but the fringe on top.

Thus, it is so very easy to be seduced by this book. It is so well written. It reflects so much of the author's passion and love for this country. It is so intelligently thought-out. In short, it is wishful thinking at its delicious best. I love the place in the heart and soul from which this book sprung. At some point in our lives, most of us share that wonderfully optimistic out look on America. We want the best for our country and we also want only to think the best about it. We all yearn for this 400-year old experiment to succeed.

So it is easy to be seduced by Mr. Talty's book. Indeed we want to be seduced by it. And he wants to seduce us. But if one is not careful, he may be completely taken in by it and begin to think for instance that had Dennis Rodman and Madonna had kids their Mulattos off-springs too would have inherited the earth. We might forget that the hiphoppers are also rebelling against Louis Armstrong's grinning teeth. We might think that Elvis and Little Richard were some kind of ambassador for race-mixing. But alas it is not so! It is all a self-fulfilling mirage. There is a deeper realty underlying rock-and-roll, Jazz, hip-hop and black ghetto pimps.

It is the reality of that side of America born with D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"-which the author curiously failed to include in his very selective romp through American history.No one is more aware than the author that his romp--however lyrical and well stated it may be--is but the fringe sitting atop a burgeoning "rotten egg." One that seems always just one step away from bursting at the seam. One that after 400 years still has ("soft") white superiority--an epithet that remains the unwritten subtext of his book--written all over it. But the author cannot be blamed for that any more than a fish can be blamed for swimming in polluted waters.

Of course, for cosmetic reasons (reasons of collective denial) America's ideology of racism is no longer called that any more. There are any numbers of other euphemisms, recycled, as times require, that serve that purpose-such as: multiculturalism, color blind society, paper equality, "mulatto America," etc., ad infinitum.

The one in vogue today is "Social Darwinism," a generic name for "Republican and Democratic Conservatism." Social Darwinism is a "stand in" for snow white's famous "mirror, mirror on the wall kind of whiteness." The kind that says if America is to remain a white nation (as surely it must, at all cost) it must become a "Zero-Sum Society," a "Winner-Take-All Society," the "Cheating Society," the "Cynical Society," and the "Unconscious Civilization."

If not, the mirror on the wall is likely to answer: You are still the fairest in the land... but they (those Mulattoes, and reds, and browns, and blacks, and especially those yellows) are gaining on you fast.

Why is it that one half of the contribution to our national-race-mixing salsa--that part made by whites themselves--never quites gets discussed openly until its too late? [Like Strom Thursmond's mulatto daughter? Why leave discussing whiteness to the David Dukes of the world and to the "Turner Diaries, etc.?] Why is it that "Whiteness" is either the only conceptual reality, the only subjectivity, the only worldview or it has to remain a phantom in the background--the invisible substrate, the neutral background that pulls all the strings but cannot be seen except just beyond the shadows?

There is another problem with Mr. Talty's book. It is a technical one. Compared to England, or Germany, or almost any other advanced Western society, THERE IS NO "Mulatto America." Fifty per cent of Brits are intermarried with their non-white minorities. In America, even in 2004, it is still less that 5%. And although 25% of whites have some black blood and 50% of blacks and Indians with some white blood, it is all as a result of white male-on-black female rape during slavery and the later "passing for white" that was required by these Mulatto off-springs--not as a result of contemporary race mixing-which incidentally is so minimal compared to other Western nations that it has raised concerns among sociologists.

So, where is this mulatto America that Mr. Talty speaks of?

While all this is more a critique of the context of the book, than the book itself, it reflects how deeply this book can affect one's thinking, and how much it reflects America's yearning, no matter the color.

In sum, this is a heroic effort no matter how the book affects you. Please buy it. You won't be disappointed. I guarantee it.

As a parting shot, may I suggest that we need Mr. Talty's mind, passion and superb writing skills-working behind the screen of racism as well as in front of it--if we are to ever prick the poison in the rotten egg that lies beneath. Hopefully his next book will be about what lies beneath the fringe-for that too-perhaps even more profoundly and certainly more frightfully--is also America.

When humpty-dumpty is finally toppled from the wall, only then will we be able to sing a new song of America in a truly Mulatto key.

Rating:
Summary: Iconoclastic views on the American experience
Review: The book gets off to a great start with iconoclastic tales of antebellum life in the United States. Chapter 1 covers American 'White' slavery, something that needs a lot more attention. Page 1 includes a photo of an adorable 'White' girl of about 8 whose freedom was purchased by abolishionists in the 1850s. Chapter 2 retells stories of the early 'tent revivals' now known as the 'Great Awakening'. The twist here is to tell it in terms of the slave reaction. Chapter 2 is probably the best chapter of the book. I've never seen anyone make a case for the Great Awakening enticing slaves to 'buy' the American dream, but Talty makes a good argument for it. The Great Awakening too often gets ignored in our overly materialist ethos.

The next two chapters lose a bit of energy. Chapter 3 is titled 'The Mulatto Flag: Interracial Love in Antebellum America." I'm not sure what flag Talty sees waving, because he never distinguishes 'mulatto' as a positive notion, in and of itself. Being 'mulatto' is just something that one happens to get labelled. There are some interesting stories here, though. I didn't know that there were documented cases of 'white' men drinking a few drops of their 'Black' lover's blood to claim mulatto status and get a marriage license. Apparently, this method of gaining mulatto status is written into the popular play 'Showboat.' Chapter four covers the Civil War in 6 short pages. I think this a mistake and the book never really recaptures it's narative drive.

Chapter 5 is called "Memorizing Shakespeare: The Black Elite". W.E.B. Du Bois is the central hero. Du Bois reacts against being 'whiter than white' (memorizing Shakespeare) and seeks to define a 3rd way. Talty argues Du Bois' book 'Souls of Black Folk' does this, but the argument is too abstract to gain traction.

With Du Bois out of the way, Talty spend the rest of the book doing musicology to avoid talking about the sexual taboos that define 'whiteness' or 'blackness.' I don't object to the detailed history of Jazz, but the music metaphor did little for me for the last 100 pages of the book. Explaining contemporary racism in terms of music history may provide a way to encode your thoughts without offending anyone, but whatever Talty's purpose, it eluded me.

The last chapter is called, 'The Death of Coercion'. I don't think the word 'mulatto' is mentioned once. Instead, Talty makes the mistake of hoping we will simply forget the terms 'white', 'black' and 'mulatto'. After describing Terry McMillan's 'A Day Late and a Dollar Short,' he writes, "Black style, black tradition, black suffering, the black story: all are as vital and real as one's blood type. But 'race' in the abstract - that unseen presence that defined one's essential place in the world - has lost most of its terrors and its charms."

This seems to avoid the issue. As best I can tell, despite 'race' meaning a lot of different things to different people, the notion continues to play a role in day to day life. The Supreme Court recently ruled colleges could use 'race' as a criteria for selecting new students. President Bush recently talked at a NAACP meeting while Democratic presidential hopefuls ignored a NAACP convention. Both events made the evening news. In Tulsa, legal action is being taken by victims of a 1920 era race riot.

The title 'Mulatto Nation' implies a commentary on 'amalgamation' and the 'melting pot' metaphor. Neither are popular intellectual ideas these days. 'Mulatto Nation' seems to suggest the melting is taking place unconsciously, in the music, in the way we act. Without addressing the conflict between unconscious and conscious, the book misses an important opportunity.

Personally, I object to forgetting about 'race'. Much of the 'race' problem is white fathers forgetting about their 'colored' descendents (whatever colored happened to mean). Thomas Jefferson didn't leave Monticello to his first born son. He freed him from slavery, but never acknowledged him. Fredrick Douglas came to terms with his plantation owning father after the Civil War, but he didn't inherit the farm. Until 1967, 17 states prohibited 'black' - 'white' marriages, but this didn't preclude many mixed common law marriages. What the laws accomplished was a denial of the rights of inheritance. The son of a white father and black mother could not inherit the father's estate. I don't think this sort of thing is easily forgotten. Check into the Bible for an idea of how long people continue talking about stolen inheritances.

Rating:
Summary: Iconoclastic views on the American experience
Review: The book gets off to a great start with iconoclastic tales of antebellum life in the United States. Chapter 1 covers American 'White' slavery, something that needs a lot more attention. Page 1 includes a photo of an adorable 'White' girl of about 8 whose freedom was purchased by abolishionists in the 1850s. Chapter 2 retells stories of the early 'tent revivals' now known as the 'Great Awakening'. The twist here is to tell it in terms of the slave reaction. Chapter 2 is probably the best chapter of the book. I've never seen anyone make a case for the Great Awakening enticing slaves to 'buy' the American dream, but Talty makes a good argument for it. The Great Awakening too often gets ignored in our overly materialist ethos.

The next two chapters lose a bit of energy. Chapter 3 is titled 'The Mulatto Flag: Interracial Love in Antebellum America." I'm not sure what flag Talty sees waving, because he never distinguishes 'mulatto' as a positive notion, in and of itself. Being 'mulatto' is just something that one happens to get labelled. There are some interesting stories here, though. I didn't know that there were documented cases of 'white' men drinking a few drops of their 'Black' lover's blood to claim mulatto status and get a marriage license. Apparently, this method of gaining mulatto status is written into the popular play 'Showboat.' Chapter four covers the Civil War in 6 short pages. I think this a mistake and the book never really recaptures it's narative drive.

Chapter 5 is called "Memorizing Shakespeare: The Black Elite". W.E.B. Du Bois is the central hero. Du Bois reacts against being 'whiter than white' (memorizing Shakespeare) and seeks to define a 3rd way. Talty argues Du Bois' book 'Souls of Black Folk' does this, but the argument is too abstract to gain traction.

With Du Bois out of the way, Talty spend the rest of the book doing musicology to avoid talking about the sexual taboos that define 'whiteness' or 'blackness.' I don't object to the detailed history of Jazz, but the music metaphor did little for me for the last 100 pages of the book. Explaining contemporary racism in terms of music history may provide a way to encode your thoughts without offending anyone, but whatever Talty's purpose, it eluded me.

The last chapter is called, 'The Death of Coercion'. I don't think the word 'mulatto' is mentioned once. Instead, Talty makes the mistake of hoping we will simply forget the terms 'white', 'black' and 'mulatto'. After describing Terry McMillan's 'A Day Late and a Dollar Short,' he writes, "Black style, black tradition, black suffering, the black story: all are as vital and real as one's blood type. But 'race' in the abstract - that unseen presence that defined one's essential place in the world - has lost most of its terrors and its charms."

This seems to avoid the issue. As best I can tell, despite 'race' meaning a lot of different things to different people, the notion continues to play a role in day to day life. The Supreme Court recently ruled colleges could use 'race' as a criteria for selecting new students. President Bush recently talked at a NAACP meeting while Democratic presidential hopefuls ignored a NAACP convention. Both events made the evening news. In Tulsa, legal action is being taken by victims of a 1920 era race riot.

The title 'Mulatto Nation' implies a commentary on 'amalgamation' and the 'melting pot' metaphor. Neither are popular intellectual ideas these days. 'Mulatto Nation' seems to suggest the melting is taking place unconsciously, in the music, in the way we act. Without addressing the conflict between unconscious and conscious, the book misses an important opportunity.

Personally, I object to forgetting about 'race'. Much of the 'race' problem is white fathers forgetting about their 'colored' descendents (whatever colored happened to mean). Thomas Jefferson didn't leave Monticello to his first born son. He freed him from slavery, but never acknowledged him. Fredrick Douglas came to terms with his plantation owning father after the Civil War, but he didn't inherit the farm. Until 1967, 17 states prohibited 'black' - 'white' marriages, but this didn't preclude many mixed common law marriages. What the laws accomplished was a denial of the rights of inheritance. The son of a white father and black mother could not inherit the father's estate. I don't think this sort of thing is easily forgotten. Check into the Bible for an idea of how long people continue talking about stolen inheritances.

Rating:
Summary: Less and more than history
Review: While exploring a number of interesting subjects, Talty's method creates some serious problems in the historical narrative. An historian has to make some effort to understand other eras on their own terms, and far too often Talty's narrative reminds us that he is very much a man of this time and place. Where the behavior of people doesn't accord with his modern expectations, he simply creates motivations which "explain" the behavior more to his liking. In this, the book often seems more an exercise in polemics than an exploration of the lives people led within the world as they saw it. In a great work of history, the author will fade into the background and the historical narrative will not reveal his presence, but one is continually reminded that this is the work of an American born in the late 20th Century. The simplistic racialism so characteristic of our time, across the political and social spectrum, and which so often tends to blur the complexity and reality of the world, is repeatedly in force. All too often we are told what "the blacks" or "the whites" were thinking at a given moment, far too often in greater detail than would be warranted by the historical sources in describing what even an individual may have been thinking.

This is a book which should be written, but by someone trained in historical methods rather than in journalism, so that the book would, as this one does not, transcend the present to reveal the past. This book reveals more about the author's ideological and cultural filters than about the events described.