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Chideya has been a correspondent for ABC News, anchored the prime time program "Pure Oxygen" on the Oxygen women's channel, and contributed commentaries to CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and BET. In 1996 Chideya spent the Presidential election season as a CNN Political Analyst and was named to the New York Daily News' "Dream Team" of political reporters and commentators. Chideya's stereotype-shattering 1995 book, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans (Plume Penguin) is now in its eighth printing. In 1999, William Morrow published her second book, The Color of Our Future. Both books have been featured in college curricula across the country, including Duke, Syracuse, and Stanford Universities. From 1994-96 Chideya was a writer at MTV News, and from 1990 to 1994 she reported for Newsweek magazine in New York, Chicago and Washington, where her political coverage ranged from labor issues to following the President as a pool reporter on Air Force One. She was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated with a B.A. from Harvard University magna cum laude in 1990.
Hardcover: 368 pages Farai is thrilled about the publication of her first novel in
May 2009 by Atria Books. It's called Kiss the Sky, and Essence
Magazine has named it its book club pick for the month of May.
ISBN: 1932360263 In these provocative pieces, Farai Chideya looks at and beyond the daily political struggles to the heart of a nation at war with itself. The 2000 election highlighted the rift between liberal/conservative and Red State/Blue State. But that superficial crack, says Chideya, indicates much more serious, indeed foundational, damage. The United States, she argues, lacks the moral, legal, and psychological framework for debating complex issues in a pluralistic society, relying instead on an outdated dichotomy model that says each issue has two opposing sides instead of many interested parties. Covering recent and current campaigns and controversies, Chideya skips the easy answers, showing how black-and-white thinking (a key element of the Bush administration) stifles our moral and political responses. Topics include the War on Drugs, prisons, the Bush tax cuts, and, on a hopeful note, the silver lining of the 2000 presidential election. Who are the 100 million Americans'half of the electorate'who are unlikely to vote in 2004? Political analyst Farai Chideya looks beyond day-to-day political struggles to the heart of a nation at war with itself. The contentious 2000 election was decided by only 537 votes, while millions of Americans stayed away from the polls. It highlighted the rift between liberal/conservative and " Red State "/ " Blue State ." But that already profound divide is evidence of a much more serious, indeed foundational, damage in our society. The United States , Chideya argues, lacks the moral, legal, and psychological framework for debating complex issues in a pluralistic society. Instead we rely on an outdated idea of dichotomy, that each issue has two opposing sides instead of many interested parties. And in so doing, we have lost, in effect disenfranchised, half the country. Chideya's title essay compliments many other ones written in the course of covering campaigns and controversies. She skips the easy answer, showing how black/white thinking (a key element of the Bush Adminstration) restricts our moral and political responses. A real democracy will allow us to acknowledge the complexity of our own lives, as well as our political interests. As we do that, we will be able to craft a working vision of government and civic life.
Format: Hardcover, 272pp. Since the Civil Rights movement, most Americans have thought of race as a black and white issue. That won't be the case for long. By the year 2050, there will be more nonwhite than white Americans, and most of the nonwhite population will be Asian and Latino, not black. Increasingly, America is becoming a multiracial society. Americans in their teens and twenties are at the forefront of this cultural revolution. In The Color of Our Future, young journalist Farai Chideya explores how members of the next generation deal with race in their own lives and how the decisions they make determine America's future.
Format: Paperback, 265pp. Chideya's stereotype-shattering 1995 book, Don't Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African-Americans (Plume Penguin), is now in its eighth printing. Using statistics, she systematically undercuts the argument that African-Americans are at the root of problems like crime, welfare and drugs.
Related Links Farai Chideya... Pop and Politics...
Farai has something good to say about AALBC.com...
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Trust
: Reaching the 100 Million Missing Voters
Color
of Our Future 
Don't
Believe the Hype: Fighting Cultural Misinformation About African Americans