Authentic Blackness – «Real» Blackness - Essays on the Meaning of Blackness in Literature and Culture

Authentic Blackness – "Real" Blackness explores and explains the idea of authenticity, of "keeping it real," as it relates to the multi-faceted meanings of blackness in the United States and the world. Including reflections on hip-hop, comedy, literature, intellectual history, and autobiography, the collection gives both a broad overview of and intervenes in the debates concerning blackness. A comprehensive introductory essay outlines the history of the idea of "authentic blackness," while other chapters examine the contours of blackness in Canada and Jamaica ; the relationship between middle-class status and "real" blackness ; the link between "blackness" and hip-hop culture ; Dave Chappelle's comedy ; and the work of James Baldwin, Countee Cullen, Clarence Major, and John Edgar Wideman as it comments on authenticity in relation to race.