So I'll be doing some public stuff this week. First I'll be at McNally Robinson in Soho, on Tuesday, reading from my new memoir The Beautiful Struggle. The reading starts at 7:00. Click here to see the trailer and publicity.
Second I'll be chatting it up on Wednesday with a some very distinguished folks about the state of Black/Jewish relations. Personally, I think it all goes back to an anecdote in Nicholas Lehmann's book The Promised Land. Lehmann talks about how during the Civil Rights Movement, SNCC had a lot of Jewish cats in its ranks doing great work down South. Of course spending so much time around each other inevitably led to relationships, a lot of which apparently were Jewish women and black dudes. This pissed off a lot of the sisters in the organization, and a few years later SNCC rebranded itself as radically black nationalist and told all the whites--many of whom were Jewish--to take a hike.
So you see, like so much of what's wrong in America, the black/Jewish schism is really the fault of black women. Anyway, if you think that theory is particularly brilliant come out on Wednesday. I guarantee that I'll be armed with other such penetrating insights. Seriously though, come out if you can. It should be really engaging.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I wonder if this won't be brought up...
Racial tensions heat up in a Brooklyn neighborhood
NEW YORK (AP) -- Seventeen years after race riots left the streets of one New York City neighborhood bloodied, tensions are rising again there between Orthodox Jews and blacks.
First, a black man was badly beaten. Weeks later, a Jewish teenager said he was attacked by two young blacks while riding his bicycle, and angry Jewish residents took to the streets with signs saying ''Jewish blood is not cheap!'' and ''Every Jew a .22.''
And along the way, the district attorney accused an Orthodox Jewish street patrol of vigilantism and compared the group to street gangs like the Bloods and Crips. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Crown-Heights.html
I have no particular insight into this at all, but it doesn't sound like it's headed in a positive direction.
I'm sorry I'll miss you in New York, but if you're ever in Charleston, SC, I'll be front row. I'm in the middle of reading "A Deeper Black" right now and it's brilliant. Just thought I'd let you know.
If you aren't aware of the incident (and frankly, given your breadth of knowledge, I would be surprised if you weren't), start with Julius Lester's wikipedia page and research the Ocean Hill/Brownsville teacher's strike in 1968. Lester's giving air time on WBAI to a black poet to read what was perceived as an anti-semitic poem became a flash point for the Jewish/Black break-up. My memory is that there was a lot of over-reaction on both sides, but I have been away from that scene for a long, long time (I have been living in Europe for the past 21 years). WBAI, and Julius' show in particular, were must listens to me in those days. Bobby's assassination turned me off to politics (as a Jersey City kid you are never completely turned-off, but it certainly became backround noise), George W. Bush, et al's ascendency has gotten me involved again. I sure wish that time and distance didn't separate me from the discussion that you have coming up. I suspect I would find it more than fascinating.
JG.
Aw rats. Short notice, TNC! I'd love to come hear you read from your memoir, but don't know if I can make it to the one tonight.
Do post a schedule of your upcoming readings and I'll try to make one of them.