 "Very important for learning distinctions and non-distinctions" | 2008-06-04 |
| - Reviewed By wudwaen |
| Richard Rodriguez is a very provocative thinker from a well thought out perspective that should be shared and understood. It works well in contrast to older writings by Robert Ardrey. We are a visual species who categorizes, and will always categorize the people, places, things, and ideas we encounter based upon their literal and figurative appearance. Mr. Rodriguez brings to question some of those things we define, and some of those things we mis-define. After over 100 years of scientific research on exactly what makes a breed of man and a society there is no longer any excuse for questionaires which attempt to undermine inequality by mixing culture and race. As he points out, Hispanic is not a race - but a culure, and should not appear in a list to be checked next to white, black, or American Indian - which again are inaccurate. The entire system of boxing into said categories fails both in accuracy and only reinforces the divisions of modern prejudices. |
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 "trying to fit in and begging to be accepted" | 2008-05-01 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2J6D6D0NB1G44 |
I made the mistake of buying this book because the introduction intrigued me. His word play and analogies seemed interesting, but it quickly grew annoying.
He rarely makes any sense, and it seems like he's making one inside joke after another with himself or with people his age. I don't 'get' his obscure cultural references from the 60s. I'm not kidding, read through a few pages and you'll see that it sounds like he was high off his a$$ when he wrote it. His writing style is literary masturbation, like he's getting himself off by coming across as an intellectual making a good point, instead of making a good point with a solid argument. The use of 'fluff' words and unecessary prose will be the first thing you'll notice ruining this book.
I'm not one to put down a book and stop reading it, but this is the first one in years. As a Chicano, I cannot identify with this man. Aside from the front he's putting on by trying to come off as an 'educated man', he makes several references that he should be on the same shelf as great 'white authors'. That he does not want to be "The Hispanic" on the shelf. What's wrong with that? Is he not proud of what he is? I don't hear black authors complaining like this, because they have self acceptance. What does it matter if he's the Hispanic on the shelf? Is it a negative connotation to the word that he has on the back of his mind that bothers him? Is he afraid he'll be judged by whites by label alone? It's almost like he's trying to prove that he 'can do it too' and it's the first proof in a long list of evidence that Richard Rodriguez desperately wants to fit in within white circles and is begging to be accepted. Someone on here commented that it seems like he has an inferiority complex, and I would have to say that hit the nail on the head. The vibe I get from this guy is that his "brownness" is the only thing holding him back from receiving full acceptance, and he's out to prove that he shouldn't be judged by that. It's almost like a self serving agenda he has, instead of showing the virtues and accomplishments of "brown people".
I will not finish reading this book, and I have now crossed his other books off of my "to read" list. |
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| "Love this book! The "inconvenient" truth revealed-" | 2007-12-04 |
| - Reviewed By amarrayw |
That inconvenient truth or understanding that America is more than what some would like to still believe. We are not black or white (or Hispanic - a nice made up word). We are brown. Black and white both imply voids that either absorb everything (like black) or contrast completely (like white). The truth is in America we are all mixed up. I know that's an ugly truth for many. The reason that it becomes a hang-up here and not so much as in Catholic countries (like Mexico) is that Protestant/Puritan values still live on strong. Be who you want, but don't try to blend lines or anything. Keep to your true pure self! Listen only to "your" type of music. Only eat "your" type of food (none of us is guilty of this one as obese as the country is). Only wear "your" type of clothes. Yes, you can have freedom in America, as long as you fit into your little niche. "You're African-American! You're supposed to listen to Hip-Hop. What are you doing liking Classical music?" Beethoven was the stuff! But anyway the only "race" that in America is tolerated to "cross the lines" in terms of cultural identity is whites (Is it because white pigment blends with other colors without the colors losing their essence?). And this whole "race" thing! Skin has only one color! "Shock"....I'm not speaking blasphemy. It's true. The color is called MELINAN. Actually it's a pigment. The difference in people is the amount you have. Young people today don't have the hang-ups about "race" like the older generations have. It takes a while to get rid of deeply entrenched ideas. This book had my mind spinning. Very insightful and complex. It's dense like others mentioned, but hey life is dense. Americans would like to think of life as uncomplicated with our little categories to put things. But as life (and history) shows us time and time again nothing is really black and white except divinity. And even that isn't as straightforward as some believe. Consider the fact that Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, the Prophet Moses, the Prophet Muhammad, Adam and Eve were brown. Think about it!
The human world (Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and etc.) is brown.
Post-Note: According to the Rodriguez, Brown also means complexity not just the color itself.
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| "Rodriguez - Brown is All Cultures" | 2007-01-08 |
| - Reviewed By elizabethhoran |
| Rodriguez has written an ambitious book: who else would be willing to take on the idea of "brown" and all it involves, from the many perspectives from which this writer sees? I teach a university course on Biography and Memoir and his is one of my favorite books to include. I love his attention to the role of the public library, schools, how religion divides and unites us. Increasingly we all live in a "brown" world and Rodriguez shows us how books and culture help us explore that world in its origins and awesome potential for good and for ill. His riffs are right-on target: Malcolm X as latter-day Puritan, Frederick Douglass on the same shelf with Benjamin Franklin in terms of writing memoirs that tell us how to live honestly in This America of Ours. The poetry of Rodriguez's language is not at all what we might come to expect from an analytical writer. His work is closer to poetry that looks back to the multiple historical origins of these Americas, asks about the originary moments of various races, cultures, religions coming together, and what has happened since. By writing evocatively, rather than cut-and-dry rants or analyses, Rodriguez does much to explore the structures that pervade and are promised in present-day America. Rodriguez is worth, will pay back in insights every bit of time you put into reading him. Maybe his identity isn't yours, maybe you will want to dismiss him, but if you read through, stay with this book, I promise - he will get under your skin. |
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| "Great. Thought-provoking." | 2004-08-22 |
| - Reviewed By mt_healthy_mountaineer |
Rodriguez is a San Francisco-based writer who was asked to write a book about being Hispanic in America. I doubt this was the book that the publisher had in mind when they asked. Rodriguez is a political maverick whose thesis is that America is becoming "Brown" - a mixture of Anglo, Hispanic, Black, Asian and whatever else you want to throw in. America can embrace this future (and probably will) or it can reject it and deny the reality that surrounds us all (and does it matter if you deny reality - it is still there).
I first heard of Rodriguez on C-Span. He was giving a speech at the Texas Book Fair created by Laura Bush. His speech was truly wonderful and I just had to find his book. I could go into detail on his observations, but you would much prefer if you would read it the way he put them in his book - his writing style is so fluid that he sneaks major concepts into your thoughts before you even realize that they are there. I seriously enjoyed this book - at the risk of sounding like the back of a book cover - here are some thoughts that crossed my mind while reading it - important, poignant, personal and filled with insights.
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 "Where's the meatAA" | 2003-08-22 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| I was excited to get this book after listening to Mr. Rodriquez on NPR. But as too often happens, the book makes most of its points by referring to people, places, literary texts, etc. that are not familiar to a normal person with a college education in something other than literature. This book was obviously written to impress ideas on the elite, whether educationally, politically, or otherwise. If you are willing to trudge through a very lyrical, almost poetic writing style, there are some very good stories and points to be made. But reading this book just wore me out. I think if only the relevent text had been printed, it would have been long enough for an editorial, not a book. |
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 "We're all Brown" | 2003-07-22 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| As the child of a West African father and Black American mother I too am brown, although I'm black. I have often been disturbed by the American tendency to believe in absolute categories, and to assume that certain behaviors, opinions and tastes naturally accompany these categories. For them I am an anomaly, for me they are too. It is heartening to hear a voice speaking directly to America's mixed heritage and confronting her color/caste assumptions. Though Mr. Rodriguez meanders more than usual this time around, the final destination is worth it. |
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| "The Great American Melded Pot" | 2002-11-20 |
| - Reviewed By ortegacy1 |
| Anyone that things that race relations as an issue has fallen by the wayside or is somehow is a moot point will be enlightened by the eloquent, poetic point of view brought forth by Richard Rodriguez' latest book. Rodriguez does not forgo the often oversimplistic Black-White issue but suggests that they were always a hybrid issue of 'Brown'. America as a dynamic hotbed of ever-Westward expansion; and once the West was won of expansion of a more global nature. Selling the 'American Dream' in an effort to conquer and re-conquer in a never-ending quest for collective conciousness. Rodriguez suggests that the issue of race is not a physical one, but rather how one responds to this conciousness brought about by assimilation. His anecdotes brings things down to a very personal level without which 'Brown' would come across as speculative and academic. Rodriguez paces things so well and his words are so graceful that one is moved not only by his observations and experiences, but also their self-awareness in a historical context. |
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| "It's A Brown World" | 2002-06-11 |
| - Reviewed By agnostictrickster |
| Richard Rodriguez's Brown is a stream of consciousness journey through brown as metaphor for the very mixed world we are headed towards. As a man of mixed culture [gay, Catholic, American, Mexican descent, indian, writer, etc.], Rodriguez is the perfect person to take us on this brown journey. I know of Rodriguez's writings from the Sunday Los Angeles Times and I read this book on the strength of the newspaper pieces. It was a thought provoking read that had my head swirling and I only got bogged down in chapter 2. Be ready to hit the dictionary and the encyclopedia. I live in a brown neighborhood in Whittier, California, I teach at a brown high school in La Habra, California, and even though my students would label me Anglo [I have reddish hair and spotted skin if anyone cares], given my very eclectic upbringing and interesting ancestry, I hope that I fit in well to the brown world around me. I recommend that you read this book and let Richard Rodriguez get into your head. |
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| "Brown as A Racial Category -- Not according to Rodrigez" | 2002-04-29 |
| - Reviewed By Anonymous |
| Richard Rodrigues provides an excellent case on the creation of a somewhat mythical category of race that has come into common usage. While race is generally reserved for the major blood lines associated with the continents of the world, here in the United States we have made a complete mish-mash of our categorizations of race and ethnicity. Anyone who has recently filled out a form has likely been surveyed on the Race. We are provided with a check list. It appears to work it's way out of a very "white" (or more properly Caucasian" world-view. While we represent ourselves to be a melting pot and were founded on the principles of equality and freedom, we memers of the U.S. society too often responsible for efforts to continue to divide and categorize. Richard Rodriguez offers a clear argument on the fictive notions of "brown" and "latino" and uses his own personal life examples to illustrate his case. I have found Rodriguez writing to be much more engaging in his past two works. While he has always had a tendency to try to sound overly erudite and this has been an onstacle to enjoying his intelligent observations and beliefs about life, I found the writing in Brown to be too often strained with the "intellectualizations" that we often associate with tedious academic texts. I encourage Richard Rodriguez to allow his writing to stand on its own without the artifice of the scholarly tone. More than in his previous works, I found this to be a major distraction to his writing. Mr. Rodriguez is a brilliant man who is well-educated and articulate. He is also a man of passion and controversy. His best writing shines through the personal stories he tells. A very important contribution to the ongoing debates we continue to wage on cultures, race and ethnicity. Highly recommended. |
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