Review: Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South

Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South by Melton A. McLaurin
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

Melton McLaurin was a young white boy living in Wade, North Carolina in the 50s just prior to the Civil Rights movement. Wade is a small rural town that was very segregated during McLaurin's youth, with a specific mindset for both blacks and whites. His granddaddy ran the general store where Melton worked when he wasn't in school. McLaurin talked with everyone that came into the store and knew everyone well. It was these encounters that began to shape the impressions he had about racism. His daddy, grandaddy, and their cronies were segregationists. They were mostly kind to the blacks in town, but there were obvious racist views and separation between the two races. As young Melton grew older, though, he started questioning this ideology. Whites and blacks living in the same town, separated by color with distinctly different histories that intertwined.

In this book, Melton describes some of the stories of his youth about the people that helped shaped his ideas on the divisions between the races and the ones that helped unravel those views. He gets to know the blacks in town and forms a bond with many of them. As Melton progressed in his views, the tiny town of Wade began to change as well, slowly, but change did occur.

This is a side of the southern race story that is not often told. It is the view of a young, impressionable child who is taught to be a racist, but questions this philosophy. The book proves the point that racism is learned and passed through future generations until it is challenged and rejected. Sadly, there are many towns in the rural south that have not challenged these views but they are dwindling in numbers. This book is a reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to go.

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Review: How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses

How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses by Mark M. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Mark M. Smith covers a fascinating topic of how the senses play a large part in racial stereotyping. Covering the colonial era and slavery through the mid-20th century, just after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Smith discusses how all of the senses played a part in segregationist's views and prejudices. For many whites at the time, seeing sometimes failed to distinguish black and white, as mixed race descendants blurred the line of racial separation. Even if sight could distinguish between the races, sound and more especially smell gave the segregationist reason for continued division. They reasoned that blacks were inferior because they smelled and sounded different. Further, they believed blacks were more sexual and to be feared because of their inferiority. Smith showed how sensory racial stereotyping led to irrational fears in politics, religion, everyday life, and of course, in the fight for integration and civil rights.

Although this book covers the ideology of generations past, the theme still resonates today. How often do we use all of our senses to make snap decisions and form opinions today? If someone speaks differently than ourselves, do we make certain assumptions about that person? If we meet a stranger with sweaty body odor, do we assume they are dirty people or do we consider that they just finished some grueling physical work? Do those assumptions play into our prejudice of just that one person or on a broader scale of "people like them?"

This book really makes you think about how your own thoughts about other people, your own prejudices, as well as giving the reader new insights into the racial prejudices of a different era and how we went from slavery to civil rights and beyond. This should be required reading, especially for the student of southern history and civil rights.

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Review: On Death and Dying

On Death and Dying by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

On Death and Dying is Elizabeth Kubler-Ross' discourse on the psychological stages of grief before and after death. Ross headed a study in the 1960s where she and a team of students, doctors, and clergy interviewed patients who were suffering from various maladies with low to fair prognosis. Some of these patients knew they were in the end stages of life, others did not. Some interviewed were family members of the patients. Ross covered the various stages of death and grief and the effects on patients, family, and attending medical staff. Some were able to handle news of their prognosis better than others. Some were reluctant to talk, but all opened up once the questions began and felt better to have their stories told, their fear vocalized, and their hearts opened. It became evident that all wanted and needed to talk, even if it was just to open themselves to the inevitable.

This is a classic book written in the 60s but many of the lessons still ring true today. Everyone handles death and grief a little different but most go through the basic stages of denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Having recently lost my father and having lost my mother many years before, I realize that each died in much the same way and I now know that when it was time they were ready and were peaceful.


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Review: Worse Than Slavery

Worse Than Slavery by David M. Oshinsky
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a well researched, detailed expose on the Parchman State Penitentiary in Mississippi. The facility started out as a penal farm for black men struggling after the end of the Civil War. Most were arrested for some small or made up offense and sent to Parchman which was, at the time, a working cotton plantation. The imprisoned were worked until they died with many more coming in behind them. Over time, the facility changed to a full-on penitentiary. The cotton went away and so did the work, but not the abuse, never the abuse. Today Parchman is known as the Mississippi State Penitentiary, the only maximum security facility in the state. Many early men who were confined to the prison felt that their treatment at Parchman was worse than slavery. This book will clearly give you that feeling as well.

This was a very interesting read, albeit very sad to know the situations that put men and women there and the abuse they endured. Those who were imprisoned early on probably should have never been there. The prison was used as another way to enslave black men during the reconstruction years after the Civil War. I'm very surprised that Parchman existed and survived all those years, especially after the cotton fields were destroyed. Some men felt that the conditions were worse after the fields were gone because the cotton work at least gave them something to do to keep their mind off of prison life and kept them out of trouble with each other.

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Review: Caroline: Little House, Revisited

Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the wonderful reimagining of the book "Little House on the Prairie" from Laura Ingalls' mother's point of view. This is an adult version of the classic children's story. Caroline, the matriarch of the Ingalls clan holds together her family as they move from Wisconsin to the "Indian Territory" of Kansas in 1870. During that trip, Caroline is pregnant with baby Carrie, her soon to be namesake. New land is opening up to settlers and Caroline's husband Charles wants to be one of the early arrivals to get his pick of prime land. His dream is to own a large farm that would one day thrive, making a wonderful home for his family. The trip is rough, especially for a pregnant woman and is not without it's complications. More issues arise once the family stakes their claim, including visits from Indians, prairie fires, and malaria. It is a tough first year, but together with his wife Caroline, Charles and the family make the best of every situation they encounter.

I think that Caroline should be read along with or just after reading the original story. It really adds to the whole experience of this read. This book is definitely Caroline's story and it's definitely an adult retelling of the story. The classic book by Laura shows Caroline as a strong woman who is this perfect pillar of the family. This account shows the more human side of "Ma" as she deals with frustrations, fears, and concerns for her family. To her girls, and even to Charles, she still comes off as the strong, wise woman we meet in the original book, but Miller's account lets us see behind that proverbial curtain, giving the reader an understanding of how tough it was to hold together a family out on the prairie in Kansas. It was a trip she dreaded taking, but once they left Wisconsin, she was all in and resigned to making the best of this new life and adventure that "Pa" was taking them on.

This book has minor deviations here and there from the original story to be more historically accurate. The Little House collection that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote is mostly a work of fiction. It is Laura's retelling of some of the stories of her life growing up in the late 19th century, but as with many adults, childish memories can be a bit muddled. Sarah Miller did her homework to verify the timeline and locations of the Ingalls family between 1870 and 1873-ish. So there are a few deviations and additions but I do not think it takes away from the story at all. If anything, it strengthens the story. Most of the quotes and conversations in this book are straight from the original, which made it very fun to see these "recollections" told from both Laura and Caroline's point of view, if you read the original with this book. I was a fan of the classic books growing up and I am a fan of Miller's revisited story.

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Review: Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The classic tale of Laura Ingalls Wilder and the move her family made from Wisconsin to "Indian Territory" in Kansas. Laura's father Charles dreamed of moving to the newly opened land to settlers to build a large farm. They weather good and bad throughout the move and the first year of settlement. This is a children's story told from Laura's point of view.

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Review: The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A classic and eerie work of dystopian fiction. In a future society, the Republic of Gilead, Offred is a handmaid whose purpose in life is to procreate. The tale follows her life as a handmaid while she recalls her former life before the coup that led to the establishment of the new society. In the Republic of Gilead men and women have assigned roles. Many are left barren due to chemical warfare during the governmental overthrow. Women who can procreate are deemed handmaids and are assigned to men and their wives for the purpose of building a family. Rebels and those who do not follow their assigned tasks are executed and left for all to view. Offred tries to be the dutiful handmaid, but is constantly concerned about the friends and family she has been separated from since the establishment of the new government. It is a haunting look at what could happen when an overzealous religious and political power take control of federal government. Not so far fetched these days.

I'm not usually a fan of dystopian fiction, but this book certainly is worth reading during the crazy political climate that the US faces today. It is as relevant today, maybe more so, than at the time of the original writing in 1985.

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Review: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A classic story about a teacher, Miss Jean Brodie, who is in her prime. Brodie is not your typical teacher at a very conventional school and she mentors a specific set of girls known at the Brodie set.
Miss Jean Brodie is always introduced as being in her "prime" which loosely translates to being a young woman in love and is loose and free. Brodie just happens to be in love with someone she can't have, so she uses another man instead. The girls of the Brodie set are curious about sex and are constantly prying into Miss Brodie's personal life. In turn, she uses them to get information about the man she pines for.

Not my favorite story but it is a classic and a theme that has been re-done in many times.

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