A review by jerihurd
You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston, Genevieve West, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

4.0

Let me start by saying Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God is hands-down, I-don't-even-have-to-think-about-it my all time favorite book. This is definitely not that. But these essays do show the quality and breadth of her thinking. I didn't read every one, and some are definitely "of the moment" (the essay on the Howard University "scandal" completely lost me); Nor are all of them successful (looking at you, "Noses"). However she shines most brightly when discussing language and, of course, race, which is a considerable part of the book. I wish she were here to get her take on Kendi , diAngelo and their cohort--I suspect she'd consider them part of the "sobbing school of negrohood," as she adamantly, eloquently and repeatedly argues that OF COURSE, black people are more than the color of their skin. She'd probably fall in more with McWhorter and Coleman Hughes. In any case she is, as always, a pleasure to read and I leave the book more enlightened than I entered. And now it's time to reread Their Eyes.