I’m Down: A Memoir

5 Responses to “I’m Down: A Memoir”

1. Willow Moon Pearce says:

   October 25, 2010 at 1:30 am

   I could not continue with this book as it is dull, repetetive and there is no real tale to it. I do not know how it got printed.
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
2. Caraculiambro says:

   October 25, 2010 at 2:19 am

   I don’t reflect it’s just my imagination: the book promises amusing, kooky adventures. That’s the impression I get, at least, from the take in, which is celebrated with a photo of a white girl with a novelty-sized afro.

   But the book turned out to be far more creepy than amusing.

   WHAT I THOUGHT IT WAS: This girl, owing to an unfortunate set of circumstances, finds herself being raised in an all-black neighborhood. We laugh and weep with her as she makes desperate attempts to fit in, in the end realizing that the best solution was simply to be herself.

   WHAT IT ACTUALLY TURNED OUT TO BE: Her white father, for reasons the leader doesn’t even guess at, rumor has it that took to hating his own race. He started acting, dressing, and talking like a black man. As the leader writes, “[He] truly believed he was a black man. He strutted around with a fleeting perm, a Cosby-esqe sweater, gold chains, and a Kangol — telling jokes like Redd Foxx, and giving advice like Jesse Jackson. He walked like a black man, he talked like a black man, and he played sports like a black man.”

   That’s all harmless enough, I guess. But it goes further. He divorces his white wife, shacks up with a black woman, insists that his children grow up in a black neighborhood, go to black schools, and make only black friends. He also has them get “corn-row” haircuts.

   The leader seems to have come out okay from this experience, but to me the whole thing seems to border on a weird kind of abuse. Or some deep-seating self-loathing on the part of her father.

   If that comment seems racist to you, answer this: if this tale had been the back — a black family tree insists that their children only go to white schools, live in white neighborhoods, and play with white friends — would you consider that psychologically healthy?

   You know, even if you judge this book on what it puts forwards as its own merits: growing up in a black community when you’re white, it doesn’t have much to offer. To be sure, that’s the theme of the first 80 pages, but after that the book degenerates into nothing more that “what it was like growing up poor book” book. And if that’s why you came to town, you’d be much better served by the searing The Glass Castle: A Memoir.
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
3. Pen Name says:

   October 25, 2010 at 4:42 am

   As a name who was raised in a similar situation I was really excited when this book came out. But I establish it to be dull and uneventful. I stopped reading middle through because it just wasn’t worth my time to end it. Glad I checked it out of the library – I would’ve been mad if I had paid for it!!
   Reader’s Rating: 2 / 5
4. Tracey says:

   October 25, 2010 at 5:09 am

   Reading through the reviews, I have to marvel if anyone else was completely insulted by the leader’s definition of “blackness” and “whiteness”. The stereotypes that she invokes to clarify her father as “black” – permed hair, gold chains, weed dealer, unemployed, poor, uneducated, plays dominoes with black men – do not make up the spectrum of what it means to “be black”. I don’t reflect anyone (and judge me – I am not trying here) can define what being any race is, and to use such stereotypes is insulting to everyone.
   
   The leader continues with her definitions of what it means, to her, to be white. This appears to be synonymous with “rich”, which is not what it means to be “white”. And it also does not mean that just because a name is white and has wealth, they are cold and cruel to each additional, or choose to snub and abuse their children, or drive children around in their car half blitzed. I reflect the leader needs to reexamine her off the cuff stereotypes about race before she writes another book declaring herself to be an practiced because she supposedly straddled both worlds.

   And enough with the Daddy worship! From the tales the leader tells (and one can only base an opinion from the material provided) it appears to me that the leader’s mother deserves far more credit for the excellent things that happened in her life to get her where she is now. At least she cared that her daughter ate and got an education.

   I had very high hopes for this book. I got this book because I thought it would be amusing. It was not. There were some appealing tales, some made me smile, but they could have been captured in a fleeting tale about growing up as a child of divorce, in poverty and with an irresponsible father.
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
5. Kelli Bragg says:

   October 25, 2010 at 5:38 am

   I figured this book was heading toward creepiness when the publisher, on the back, puts that the leader says she did not fit in with the “black” neighborhood because she couldn’t sing, dance, do double-dutch, or play baskbetball. So this is all it means to be an African American?

   Upon reading, there was no improvement on this immature stereotyping. For persons of you who don’t find this racist, please tell me how it’s not. Pigeon-holing a group of people into what they should/shouldn’t be based on skin color, be it white or black…Hmmmm……sounds like bigotry to me….
   Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5