Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the Nigger Breakers
Rarely a week goes by that the Ishmael Reed’s important book of essays, "Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media, The Return of the Nigger Breakers," is not in the news. This is the book that was published in Montreal, Québec, because, according to Ishmael Reed’s agent, “no American publisher would touch it.”
Is the United States “post-race”? Ishmael Reed says no and makes a very convincing case in this book of essays covering the primaries, the 2008 presidential elections, and the aftermath.
“Isn’t it ironic,” writes Reed, “A media that scolded the Jim Crow South in the 1960s now finds itself hosting the bird.”
“With Ishmael Reed, the most persistent myths and prejudice crumble under powerful unrelenting jabs and razor-sharp insight.” Le Devoir, Montreal.
"Amazed at the many fronts on which [Ishmael Reed] has gathered little-reported facts.... I hope his book will lead to more journalistic self-reflection and intellectual honesty." --Werner Sollors, Professor of English Literature and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University