Magically Black and Other Essays

Walker (creative writing and African American literature, Emerson Coll.; How To Make a Slave and Other Essays) offers a new collection of essays reflecting on his experiences as a Black man in the United States. He opens with a short history of his personal background: he grew up in a racist cult with five siblings, one of which is his twin, to parents who were both blind. As a child he often told his teachers he was Jewish, to explain why he and his siblings were taking off from school for religious holidays. Walker shares how he and his wife are often misidentified because they don’t fit the image that many white people have of Black people. He challenges his predominantly white blue-collar college students by telling them that while in his class they are Black. He leads them through their new identities by a historical literary journey that confronts their implicit bias.