Collective Courage

Collective Courage: a history of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice  
by Jessica Gordon Nembhard, 311 pages.

Jessica Gordon Nembhard uncovers Black cooperative thought and practice in the United States: cooperation in farming, land, housing and grocery stores; these along with burial societies are the shared labor and economies that have been overlooked by historians but vibrant in the experience and oral traditions in many black communities. Collective economic organizing has contributed to the survival and prosperity of African Americans and their poor neighbors, but these have often been met with lynchings and death threats -- as in the case of the murdered owners of the Memphis grocery cooperative, and the accompanying death threat to Ida. B. Wells who left subsequently fled the city. Their collectiveity has been a courageous threat to the U.S. capitalistic economy that uses black labor and economic servitude to bolster profits. Rooted in collective experience, African Americans have also significantly contributed to visioning, theorizing and thinking about cooperative economies. And important book not only for history but also because black collective practices and theories are increasingly modifying, and may eventually help to replace, the present economic system.

Collective Courage

Collective Courage: a history of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice  by Jessica, 311 pages.

Nembhard reviews Black economic cooperation in farming, land, housing, grocery stores and; these and burial societies. These shared labor and economies have been overlooked by historians but have been crucial in the traditions, stories and experience of many black communities. Collective economic organizing has contributed to the survival and prosperity of African Americans but have often been met with local resistance, even death threats and lynchings -- as in the case of the murdered owners of the Memphis grocery cooperative, and the accompanying death threat to Ida. B. Wells who reported on the lynchings, was threatened and then fled the city to save her life. Black collectivity has been a courageous threat to the U.S. capitalistic economy that has otherwise used black labor and servitude to bolster profits. African Americans have also significantly contributed to visioning, theorizing and thinking about cooperative economies. Collective Courage is an important book not only for history but also because these collective practices and contemporary adaptations may eventually help to replace, the present exploitative economic system.

-- CraigSL

Twisted

Twisted: My Dreadlock Chronicles by Bert Ashe.  250 pages.

This nonfiction book by Bert Ashe isn't just a recounting of his decision to change his hair, but explores the cultural identity associated with dreadlocks.  His book-length essay addresses not only his own thoughts on dreadlocks, but also how people who have dreadlocks tend to have assumptions leveled at them.

For many Americans, if you ask them about dreadlocks, they refer to Bob Marley, and if you ask them about people who wear dreadlocks, a range of assumptions can follow: the person smokes ganja, they're counter-cultural, they're Jamaican.  As Bert Ashe writes,"Few styles in America have more symbolism and generate more conflicting views than dreadlocks."  

I found this book to be an interesting read, because Ashe writes in a way that intertwines his own experience with some sociological examination, a discussion of race and hair, and racial attitudes towards hair.  Ashe has an engaging writing style, and I found the book was interesting and informative.