Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries
click on the tile or cover to order online!

Patterson, Orlando
Basic Civitas Books. 352p.
ISBN: 1-58243-039-X. $13

Patterson's examination of the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow on African Americans and the society as a whole is told in three essays. He believes that the African American male-female relationship suffers in crisis.

Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class
click on the title or cover to order online!

Pattillo-McCoy, Mary
Chicago U. Press. 248p.
ISBN: 0-226-64928-8. $25

The black middle-class is often overlooked, but Pattillo-McCoy presents a stark and candid look at the community, surveying those who lived in Groveland, on the South Side of Chicago. She identifies the middle-class as living in single-family homes with a backyard and a two-car garage. However, Pattillo-McCoy challenges the myth that the black middle class has relocated to white suburban neighborhoods, and therefore abandoning the black underclass in the inner city. Instead, she demonstrates that the majority of the black middle class does live in black communities, which includes poor black neighborhoods. She also finds that the continuing inequities in the wider society make these family's economic position rather tenuous. In her study, Pattillo-McCoy focuses on Groveland's families, especially its youth. One thing remains clear to her—the black and white middle class are separate and unequal and for African Americans to advance, the black middle class will have to be included in the debate on policies regarding affirmative action, segregation, and poverty.