Magically Black and Other Essays

July 1, 2024
A Black professor analyzes the ways in which race shapes his life. When Walker, the author of How To Make a Slave and Other Essays and Street Shadows, was a child, his parents became enthralled with the Radio Church of God, accepting their dubious biblical evidence that Black people were inferior to white people. "Along with accepting the myth of white supremacy," he writes, "I had been denied meaningful exposure to Black traditions and culture." This strange inheritance led to the author's complex relationship with his Blackness. The essay "Master of the Lawn" is a second-person, choose your own adventure-style story that begins with a decision about whether a passing motorist yelled a racial slur or a benign pleasantry. Walker urges readers to "beware of racists, paranoia, self-pity, anger, and white privilege," all of which the author examines in "Lost," which describes how his son's tardiness caused the author to spiral with visions of his possible death at the hands of white police. Walker contends with these feelings in less serious situations as well. In "Combat Mode," another second-person essay, the author writes about how he and his wife decided whether to kill a cockroach before potential buyers visited their house. "This is not to say that the presence of one or more roaches means the presence of one or more Blacks, or vice versa," he writes. "Nor is it to say that the presence of Black homeowners means the presence of neglect and disrepair. But these are persistent stereotypes that, with so much at stake, you cannot risk falling victim to." Walker's humor is cuttingly circumspect, and his observations are poignant and insightful. The author's talent for identifying small but powerful moments is sometimes overshadowed by over-the-top self-deprecation. Nonetheless, Walker is a witty, talented writer. A funny and perspicacious essay collection about Black life in America.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 29, 2024
In these stirring pieces, Walker (How to Make a Slave and Other Essays), a creative writing professor at Emerson College, meditates on living as a Black man in America. In “The Curse,” Walker recounts how his parents worshipped in the Radio Church of God, which was headed by a white televangelist who believed only the most “exceptional Blacks” could enter heaven. According to Walker, Black Trump supporters similarly attempt to prove they’re “not really Black” by aligning themselves with a white supremacist leader. The author’s sardonic humor is on display in “Good Help,” which recounts how Walker hired a Black construction contractor whose lackluster work Walker had to critique constantly, prompting the contractor to accuse him of being racist. “That was true,” Walker quips. “Had he not been Black, I would have fired him long ago.” Other entries are more somber. For instance, Walker discusses in “Lost” how his teenage son Adrian’s later-than-expected return home one night caused him to panic that Adrian had become a victim of police violence, leading Walker to wonder whether raising his sons to believe themselves safe in their majority-white neighborhood had made them oblivious to the dangers of racial violence. Delivering sharp assessments of America’s racist mores and brimming with pathos and levity, this packs a punch.

Starred review from August 1, 2024
College professor, homeowner, and dutiful husband and father Walker reveals the churning cycle of anxiety, self-doubt, and frustration connected to contemporary Black respectability. There is the terror parents of Black boys face when a son is out late in a white neighborhood; the irony of working hard to live in a community that should be safe for Black boys, yet, ""by dint of their blackness, meant it was not safe for them to walk its streets at night." Familiar trappings of success do not insulate against racism, and frequently aggravate it, as when his suburban home is undervalued by a white appraiser who can't believe a Black man is the owner, or when he drives an expensive car and attracts police attention. Though tempted to despair at such absurdities, Walker strikes a balance between rage and rueful amusement, mocking his own insecurities and ambivalence about blaxploitation films, the n-word, and Serena Williams crip dancing at the Olympics. Blackness is powerful, a "choose your own adventure" demanding careful survival strategies. It is weeping over the anguish of slave ancestors while reveling in the badassery of Shaft and Superfly; daring to thrive in "a place where the flames of violence and hardship . . . forge lives into steel." Hilarious, witty, and heartbreaking, Walker's cool, ironic essays demand attention.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 18, 2024

Walker (creative writing and African American literature, Emerson Coll.; How To Make a Slave and Other Essays) offers a new collection of essays reflecting on his experiences as a Black man in the United States. He opens with a short history of his personal background: he grew up in a racist cult with five siblings, one of which is his twin, to parents who were both blind. As a child he often told his teachers he was Jewish, to explain why he and his siblings were taking off from school for religious holidays. Walker shares how he and his wife are often misidentified because they don't fit the image that many white people have of Black people. He challenges his predominantly white blue-collar college students by telling them that while in his class they are Black. He leads them through their new identities by a historical literary journey that confronts their implicit bias. VERDICT Walker's reflections are honest with trappings of anger, regret, and growth. Readers who enjoyed his previous titles will savor this one, as will new readers, who will want to read his previous works.--Laura Ellis

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