Bryant K Smith

#BlackNotBlind Bryant K Smith

What happens when you take a Black male born and raised on the Southside of Chicago and place him in a small college town in South Carolina? The results are both a culture shock and a cultural awakening. #Black Not Blind is not just a good read it is a voyage through the mind of a Black man in transition, turmoil and a new state of personal and ethnic discovery. Divided into ï¬ve sections, Bryant provides a brutally honest commentary on racial issues reminiscent of James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time" but delivered with the love and concern expressed by Ta-Nahesi Coates in "Between The World And Me".-Black in the South, describes his fears and experiences moving from the midwest to the south.-Black at School details the many micro aggressions he faced going from a predominately Black educational environment in Chicago, IL to a predominately white institution in Normal, IL where he ï¬rst learned he was a "minority".-Black at Work chronicles what it is like to be the ï¬rst and the only Black male working in various departments on several college campuses.-Black in Thought is a new section only available in this anniversary edition whereby Bryant critiques everything from hip-hop to politics and life in the United States of America during the ï¬rst Black Presidency.-Black not Blue is a timely look at what it means to be Black and male and raising Black males in an American police state that is heavily invested in a prison industrial complex and a school to prison pipeline for Black males. Nothing is off limits as Bryant takes no prisoners and makes no apologies for his perspectives on topics ranging from racial proï¬ling to police misconduct to the most recent arrest of his son as a student protestor. The original Black Not Blind was ahead of its time, but this anniversary edition written some 15 years later and ripe with new content is a book that will provide as much insight as it does controversy. Written from the perspective of someone who not only is living these experiences, but has spent more than two decades ï¬ghting racism, white supremacy and white privilege, #Black Not Blind will take you on an emotion-ï¬lled journey of introspection, reflection and good old fashioned soul searching. Read this book and be transformed. Read this book and become angry. Read this book and ï¬nd hope, but most importantly read this book and gain some vision.