Has anyone read, or perhaps currently reading, a good non PhD related book lately? Or is reading the last thing on anyone's idea of a way to spend free time after doing PhD work? Since the student gulag I am living in lacks either internet or TV access ( truly!) the forms of entertainment there are few and far between. I got a really good book yesterday called "Red River" by American writer, Lalita Tademy, based on her father's family experiences after the American Civil War in Louisiana.

It follows on from another book she wrote about her mother's family, called "Cane River." Lalita Tademy's ancestors were slaves, and struggled to make a life for themselves in the aftermath of the American Civil War where racism remained rampant.

This shocked me to no end--and was an upsetting truth to gras--but apparently from the mid 1870's until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's in the United States, African Americans were routinely denied their right to vote!!!!!!! It took the Civil Rights movement to accomplish this--late in the 20th century!!! At the same time, all of the fighting about school integration was on-going, and the Little Rock, Arkansas school system shut down for a year or more rather than admit African American students!!!

I knew bits and pieces of this history in the United States, but the reality of the amount of racism in that country, up to this moment in time, and how recent the denials of basic rights such as voting and education were--and how mainstream society DID NOT CARE--is a very upsetting truth.

This book really brings out the stark reality of what all of that meant to African Americans and how it continues to impact things in the present day.

Well I just finished Ben Elton's 'Bind Faith' which I enjoyed. It's a pretty dark satire though and probably only to be enjoyed by the atheists among us. I found it quite cathartic, as it refers to so many really irritating (to me) facets of modern culture.

Now I'm reading some science fiction - Stephen Baxter 'Transcendent' - 3rd in a series.

"This shocked me to no end--and was an upsetting truth to gras--but apparently from the mid 1870's until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960's in the United States, African Americans were routinely denied their right to vote!!!!!!! It took the Civil Rights movement to accomplish this--late in the 20th century!!! At the same time, all of the fighting about school integration was on-going, and the Little Rock, Arkansas school system shut down for a year or more rather than admit African American students!!!"

Not being rude (at all) but you didn't know this?

Yes, I "knew" it at an intellectual level, having studied it, and so forth, but it is put in an entirely different context when you read about how it impacted real people and real lives...and just how brutal racism is. Make no mistake that America's racism is "white washed" ( no pun intended) and it is quite easy to lead your life there ( as a white person) ignorant of those issues. America is still a very racist, very racially divided country. I was well aware of the Civil Rights movement, but did not realize the scale to which African Americans were being denied the right to vote--it was more than a handful of counties in some Deep South states.

Golf - I admit that ocurred to me. Mayybe this stuff is just not as generally known in Australia?

True - it's certianly possible to be a white American and not know about these things. But I have encountered the same ignorance of home truths just about everywhere - people don't like to know bad stuff about their own country.

I think a lot has to do with how the issues are presented. I learned about American Civil Rights in a context that minimized the ills that were being addressed and basically expressed that right, that is done and dusted, and we have now reconciled our racist past...the reality is of course what want on was much larger and more pervasive than I was taught or exposed to, and goes on in the present day. I grew up in a town where you could literally draw a line down the center--whites on one side, African Americans on the other. My parents made sure that their children went to the integrated schools, not the all white schools where white people had fled. I lived on a small close that had familes that were Jewish, Chinese, Armenian, African American, and Native American, as well as white bread middle American. I was brought up to BE concious of race issues, civil rights, integration, and even with all of that, there was much that remained under the surface.

This book brings it to light, and leaves me to bring on board in my own conciousness and conscience what that means and what response is required in every day living as well as on a larger scale.

Perhaps what is most disturbing to get to grips with is how "invisible" racism has been made to white America.

I thought you were Australian for some reason? Are you American then? I'm obviously not paying attention...

I am American. I think I mentioned in some post that I had spent time as a foreign exchange student in Australia during high school, maybe that was what you were thinking of!

That must be it - or i'm just a mad old bat...

Its the cat pee fumes...!

anyone ever read "bringing down the house"? I hears its really good