This book mostly comes from a series of lectures that Gates gave at Harvard, with updates after getting feedback from the students.  I loved the introductory section, where he plays with the idea of the "black box" - as a metaphor for the slave ships, as the box in which one slave shipped himself to freedom in the North, as it's used in the psychological sense, and in the literal sense as the "race" box that new parents can check to indicate their child is Black.  I got bogged down in the first chapter, where he talks about the succession of organizations that newly freed Black people used to organize themselves, and the next few chapters were interesting but not highly engaging.  However, I loved the last two chapters!  Chapter 6 contrasts two literary styles, a "lyrical modernism" used by Zora Neale Hurston in Their Eyes Are Watching God and the "naturalism" used by Richard Wright in Native Son - two Black authors who wrote scathing reviews of each other's books.  I have the impression that Gates greatly prefers the Hurston approach, which allows characters to explore possibilities, over Wright's approach, which made his main character a victim with no accountability for his sometimes violent choices.  He discusses both styles with respect to Du Bois's "double consciousness."  It probably helps that I've read the Hurston and Du Bois books.  Then in Chapter 7, which he starts by talking about the classic film Imitation of Life, he explores the implications of the different types of "passing" as white, both literally and figuratively (the latter like Clarence Thomas).  In the afterword, he takes on Ron DeSantis's attitude towards critical race theory and teaching students about the history of Black Americans.  Great ideas, lots of nuance.  I decided to buy the book.

I got bored

NYT Notable Books 2024: 5/100

An interesting and well-written account of race identity in the United States. It's wild to me to hear how little has changed in some ways since the Civil Rights movement, but also not shocking at the same time. I'm glad I read this fairly soon after Jonathan Eig's <i> King </i> since it meant that I came to this work with more of a foundation than I had before. Gates' focus on Black writers was a new subject that I knew little about and I found myself constantly surprised by what I was learning. I knew of some of the writers and works that were covered, but many were new to me. I wish that Gates had gone further into modern Black writers, since so many have had major impacts on modern literature.