Have black folks left “blackness” behind? Local writer (and sometime Reader contributor) Ytasha L. Womack thinks so. In her new book, Post Black: How A New Generation Is Redefining African American Identity, she makes the case that the old ways of imagining African-Americans fail to encompass the dazzling diversity that now characterizes the community.
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As she phrases it in the book’s introduction, “Simply put, things have changed.” Anyone who knows who the president is knows that, but “the irons were in the fire for over a decade,” she writes. “There are new dynamics redefining African American life.” She explores these in a mix of personal anecdotes; wide-ranging conversations with artists, entrepreneurs, activists, and scholars; and reporting on cultural and socioeconomic trends.
If the title suggests another premature anatomy of racism’s demise, her argument is far from that. Even so, she’s already been taken to task by some critics and activists—and even, she says, by some friends—for attending to new possibilities at the expense of old hurts. “If you focus too much on this growing diversity, some will accuse you of downplaying some of our past and present challenges,” she told me. “And I understand that the challenges are serious. Nevertheless, it’s important also that we talk about these different dynamics.”
