Plus, the iconoclastic author, in urging the incoming administration to address the concerns of the poor and underprivileged, cleverly invokes “the fierce urgency of now,” the same phrase coined by Dr. Martin Luther King and appropriated by Obama as his campaign theme. Props to Professor West for such a passionate reminder that the struggle for equality couldn’t possibly end automatically upon with the ascension of a black man to the nation’s highest office.
 

Only well into their marriage did a bell go off in her head, but by then he already had full-blown AIDS, and she was left in shock by the carousing, carelessness and sexual preferences by a partner she had incorrectly assumed to be a straight, faithful spouse. Not exactly anybody’s idea of a fairy tale romance, but a wake-up call ice to sisters who can’t be too careful, given the rampant spread of AIDS by convicts, intravenous drug users and brothers simply too afraid to admit they’re gay or bisexual due to the intolerant nature of a macho, inner-city culture marked by an intolerance of homosexuality.
 

So, Stringer never let on that she was going through chemo and caring for her seriously-ill mom while handling the crisis with the utmost poise and dignity. Poignantly written without a whit of bitterness, Standing Tall is as moving a memoir as I ever remember reading. The tears started flowing from the first page and didn’t stop till I finished the book.
 

Social Worker Terrie Williams is most persuasive, here, making the argument that life is hard in the ‘hood, that people are suffering from depression as a consequence, and that the time has arrived to remove the stigma in the community still attached to seeking out psychological help. A convincing call for African-Americans to trade in their self-defeating stoicism for some long-overdue mental health treatment.
 

The city is apparently a popular port of call with bourgie brothers from the U.S. due to the easy availability of local women who don’t have the attitude or emotional baggage they generally find attached to sisters back home. A rather revealing look at a disturbing cultural trend.
 

But before you jump to conclusions, you might want to read this collection of empowering essays by black men of the Hip-Hop Generation who have not abandoned their children. For this uplifting tome, which includes contributions by rapper Talib Kweli, writer Bakari Kitwana and filmmaker Byron Hunt, offers a heartening mix of poetry, prose and pictures designed to reassure skeptics about the prospects of the black family.
 

This bittersweet biography chronicles the author’s evolution from being diagnosed HIV+ to feeling desperate, frightened and abandoned to blossoming into a fearless AIDS activist. Now 24, this brave young lady deserves considerable credit for going public and thus putting a face on a still generally hidden and denied disease at a time when African-Americans account for the majority of new infections in the United States.
 

The author concludes that such opportunists who resort to the tactic of playing the race card “are the enemies of truth, social harmony, and social justice.” His solution? “For all decent and honest people” to join in condemning any such perpetrators. Certainly, food for thought in what has recently been dubbed “post-racial” America.
 

So, it is only fitting that he would choose to write a companion text for black females with the help such luminaries as Michelle Obama, Angela Bassett, Ruby Dee, Nikki Giovanni and Sanaa Lathan. This invaluable tome addresses a litany of concerns occupying the inquiring minds of impressionable girls still in their formative years. Overall, an uplifting collection of sage insights aimed at instilling self-confidence, self-respect and self-reliance.
 

According to the author, the key rests in African-Americans breaking the psychological bonds to their racial past by asserting their individuality, a step which he claims “has little to do with racism, prejudice, or discrimination.” A bitter pill to swallow, but so shockingly confrontational that its prescription for black sanity is a must read, despite the doctor’s apparent right-wing political allegiances.
 

All about the Beat: Why Hip-Hop Can't Save Black America
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by John H. McWhorter

Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Gotham (June 19, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1592403743
ISBN-13: 978-1592403745

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The Chronicles of a Gentleman (The Untold Truth)
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by Leroy Sanders

Paperback
Publisher: Aardvark Global Publishing (2008)
ISBN-10: 1427620628
ISBN-13: 978-1427620620

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Life as a Single Mom: It Isn’t Easy, or Is It? 10 Steps to Achieving success as a Single Mom
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by Stephanie M. Clark

Paperback: 162 pages
Publisher: MDK Media, Inc.; First edition (October 26, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 160402447X
ISBN-13: 978-1604024470

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