A Rap on Race

A Rap on Race
First edition
Author	James Baldwin, Margaret Mead
Country	United States
Language	English
Publisher	J. B. Lippincott
Publication date	1971

A Rap on Race is a non-fiction book co-authored by writer and social critic James Baldwin and anthropologist Margaret Mead. It consists of transcriptions of conversations between the two.

Summary introduction

The transcript mentions 'New Guinea, South Africa, Women's Lib, the South, slavery, Christianity, their early childhood upbringings, Israel, the Arabs, the bomb, Paris, Istanbul, the English language, Huey Newton, John Wayne, the black bourgeoisie, Baldwin's 2-year-old grand nephew and Professor Mead's daughter.'^[1]

Literary significance and criticism

The book was dismissed as "the same old bilge you've heard from the fellow on the next stool to you in the saloon " by a reviewer at the New York Times when it was first published.^[1] More recently, writer Maria Popova called the book "a remarkable and prescient piece of the cultural record" and "a bittersweet testament to one of the recurring themes in their dialogue — our tendency to sideline the past as impertinent to the present, only to rediscover how central it is in understanding the driving forces of our world and harnessing them toward a better future." ^[2]

References

1 2 New York Times, A Rap on Race by Richard Elman, June 27, 1971
↑ Maria Popova, A Rap on Race: Margaret Mead and James Baldwin’s Rare Conversation on Forgiveness and the Difference Between Guilt and Responsibility by Maria Popova, March 19, 2015

Works by James Baldwin

Novels	Go Tell It on the Mountain Giovanni's Room Another Country Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone If Beale Street Could Talk Just Above My Head

Plays	The Amen Corner Blues for Mister Charlie

Short story collections	Going to Meet the Man "The Rockpile" "The Outing" "The Man Child" "Previous Condition" "Sonny's Blues" "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon" "Come Out the Wilderness" "Going to Meet the Man"

Essay collections	Notes of a Native Son Nobody Knows My Name The Fire Next Time No Name in the Street The Devil Finds Work The Evidence of Things Not Seen The Price of the Ticket

Collaborations	A Rap on Race A Dialogue Little Man Little Man: A Story of Childhood

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