This was a page turner for me even though I listened to the audiobook. I will be purchasing this book, because there's some additional research I would like to do. Plus is a book I need to have available to me at any time.

There is so much information to learn and understand about Black relationships. I was awareof some of the information discussed, but there was a lot that learned during this journey.

I feel like everyone should read it.

The movie "Claudine" was mentioned in this book and yes I watched afterwards. All I have to say is, the system is messed up. It had me in my feelings.

This book provides a much-needed perspective on an aspect of systemic racism that's often ignored in America: the lingering effects of enslavement and oppression on marriage and intimate relationships. The stories are emotionally wrenching without being maudlin. A must-read for anyone interested in this subject.

I received a NetGalley ARC, and this is my honest review.

A detailed account of how love and marriage for black women arrived at this point in history.

Beginning with colonialism and tracing the history of black women's experience with love through personal narratives, laws, and historical events. This book explains how black women came to be systematically disadvantaged in western marriage practices and possible solutions to these challenges. The stories flowed into each other and told a continuous narrative. The explanations were engaging and easy for readers to follow. Readers will enjoy the untold history and story of events that shaped the lives of generations of Black women in America.

I've long been interested in how history impacts current events and social trends, so this book looked really interesting. It's an excellent study of historical and societal barriers to Black heterosexual love and marriage in the USA, spanning the horrors of slavery up until the prison industrial complex and mass incarceration today. It doesn't make much mention of LGBT+ or interracial relationships; however this is a deliberate research focus as it's impossible to cover everything on the topic, and should not be seen as a flaw. The book examines many salient points, drawing links from historical discrimination up to the current situation, and the various barriers to long-lasting and safe relationships that Black heterosexual women face. I found it incredibly informative, especially the depth of information on a number of harmful government policies, reproductive health violations and forced sterilization, the welfare system and the impacts of mass incarceration. The linkages drawn and the explanations of how barriers to relationships cause generational damage and systemic harm to the point of being a major civil rights issue were eye-opening. She explores the impacts of colourism and misogynoir, and patriarchal marriage as prescribed by widely adopted religions, contrasting them with traditional Africana kinship networks and matriarchal systems. While the book is mainly focused on the impacts on women, attention is also paid to the situation that Black men face, with government-imposed financial responsibility for relationships and children while being denied the capacity to attain financial success. The author draws on a range of thoroughly researched anecdotes to illustrate her points, which vividly show the real-world effect of policies and systemic racism.

Though this is a very informative book, the depth of information and the sometimes-technical language used seem better suited to academics, researchers or those with a deep interest in this field, rather than accessible to the casual reader or the general public. It's not a light or easy read. That's not a bad thing, it doesn't have to be, and the approach is appropriate for the topic. However, it's important to go in with expectations to match. Another aspect readers should know in advance is the level of gruesome detail on the horrors of slavery that were included. I'm from the Caribbean and I studied history up to the advanced level in high school, and even did one of my final projects on how female slaves suffered more under slavery in the Caribbean, so I'm no stranger to this aspect of history. However, many of the stories in this book were still difficult for me to read (I would advise not reading this while eating for the first half of the book). Again, this isn't a critique, these were realities that should be documented and known; but it is content that readers should know about and expect before getting into the book. Go into it expecting it to be heavy.

Though the majority of the book was really detailed and well explored, it kind of stuttered a bit coming up to the final chapter, where the analysis of the modern state of affairs and comparisons to pop culture seemed not quite fleshed out. There was some exploration of Black joy and success in love, but not that much.

Nevertheless, I would recommend this book as an invaluable resource to academics and anyone doing research on the topic, or anyone with a deeper interest who'd like more insight on barriers to Black love as a civil rights issue with a range of systemic repercussions. It's an excellent contribution to the body of work on this topic.

Black Women Black Love by Dianne M. Steward

9781580058186

337 Pages
Publisher: Perseus Books, Basic Books, Seal Press
Release Date: October 6, 2020

Nonfiction (Adult), African Americans, Black Women, Multicultural

This is an amazing book that chronicles the history of Black women in the United States. The author describes the lives of Black women during slave times and the consequences those times had on relationships between husbands and wives. One woman went as far as trying to kill her girl children, so they did not have to experience the degradation of living at the pleasure of the slave owner.

The statistical analysis is staggering in regards the percentage of married Black women compared with White or Hispanic. I am impressed with the amount of research done by the author. The writing is somewhat formal and academic, but the subject matter requires it. This is a book everyone interested in the topic.

From the beginnings of slavery, to the welfare system and everything in between, the author shows how this country has done as much damage as they can to the black family to keep it destroyed. I agree with most everything in the book, except the colorism part since I know of many women who are married and not fair complexioned, just like I know many women who are single and light skinned. Otherwise, there were a lot of truths in the book.

This book was free and sent to me an an ARC on NetGalley. However, all reviews are of my own opinions.

I really did struggle with this book for many reasons. I was excited to read it in the hope that it would grow my knowledge around BLM, however, I didn't get any of that. I found the first couple of pages quite understanding but then the footnotes became quite a big part in the book and I was getting fed up of going back and forwards so I eventually gave up reading the footnotes - but then I disconnected from the book because I wanted to know where the sources had come from. For me, it just felt like I was back in Uni and reading a paper as opposed to reading a story.

A truly compelling read about Black women in relationship to love, marriage, and domesticity. From digging into the dark history of Black love in the context of both progress made and where society still needs to go to delving behind statistics of eternally single Black women and the harmful stereotypes associated with them (eg “welfare queens”), this book is an important read about the issues of systemic racism and the work that still needs doing to push for equality.

An interesting read about black love.
I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Gallery Books, and was not required to give a positive review.

Errata:
"Repeating Laura’s name like a mantra, he ensured her" - I think maybe 'assured' her?

"Thirty-three-year-old Mary and her husband, Hazel “Hayes” Turner..." is fine, but the way Kindle mangled this book, 'Turner' was on the next page and indented like it was a new paragraph! Amazon will do that to you. That's why I don't do anything with them. Clearly Amazon's intention here was to split Mary and her husband, thereby making the author's point! LOL!

"T his severing of Black families..." - the gap after the 'T' was in the text. It may have been because the book had drop caps. That's a big no-no when Amazon is going to kindle your book. I use kindle in its original sense. Amazon can only handle plain vanilla text with any reliability - and forget pictures!

"h isTorically, The fear of..." - again mangled by Kindle. Several words had the letter 'T' capitalized for no apparent reason other than this is what Kindle does to your work. This one also had the initial letter not capitalized!

"...but never laid eyes on her husband after the county sheriff and two accompanying police officers first courted him off to jail." Hardly courted! I suspect the author meant 'carted him off'.

This book was hard to read and not because it was academic or because it uses a lot of big words - it doesn't, nor because Amazon had done its usual job of dicing and julienne-ing the text, but it does tell horrifying stories of how the African American community has been treated through its all-too-often tragic history on these shores. It's a history that both continues in far too many ways today, and can be understood from the roots it has, which extend all the way back to the forcible capture and enslavement of free Africans.

Further, it extrapolates from that long history and puts in perspective the fact that "more than 70 percent of Black women in America are unmarried." Reading this book will remove any surprise you may have as to why that is. Slavery wasn't the only oppression. There has been a history of suppression and oppression, of keeping people down and of treating people unfairly, and the heaviest burden of all of that has always fallen on the black community.

The book explores slavery, the Reconstruction, the Great Migration north, nd the continued history of abuses right up through modern times. It talks about welfare under which - and contrary to disparaging lies that are spread about it - the African American community seldom fares well, and which rather than encourage couples to marry and take joint responsibility for children, it very effectively mandates "that women remain single in order to receive government support." It discusses the modern repercussions of this unfair and unequal treatment including what the author labels "the prison-industrial complex," which unfairly targets people of color and thereby removes them from the pool of potential partners for black women.

Well-researched and unfortunately full of disturbing anecdotes from the people who have been abused by these various systems, this book tells a horrifying tale, but one that needs to be heard and internalized. I commend it fully.

This book explores how the history of racism in America has resulted in low levels of marriage recidivism among black families today. I went into this read skeptical of how these lines were going to be drawn but were quickly drawn in by the amount of compelling historical data, academic research, and public policy that has clearly attacked or resulted in attacks on the ability of African Americans to form marriage partnerships. There is clear disparity that has been caused by structural forces that must be addressed.

This book is stunning and a must-read for anyone in social science or politics.