Encompassing more than just the diminishing homogeneity of gay ghettos, Ghaziani’s important work also demonstrates an...
Are gay and lesbian communities losing the safety-netted solidarity of their urban centers to gentrification?
In an attempt to understand a contemporary, hot-button issue facing iconic gay neighborhoods in flux, Ghaziani (Sociology/Univ. of British Columbia; The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington, 2008) mines the roots of “gayborhoods” to understand where and why they began and the challenges they face. As homosexuality gains wider societal acceptance, are the “gay ghettos,” once considered bastions of organized solidarity, sexual freedom, and safety from anti-gay bigotry and violence, feeling the pinch? In a book rich with demographical statistics of same-sex-couple households, useful charts and personal interviews, Ghaziani delivers an unbiased perspective carefully weighing the consequences and the benefits of conformity for formerly homogenous gayborhoods countrywide. He documents how “post-gay era” singles and those married (with or without children) are opting for more mainstream districts without fear of ostracism. Yet, he counters, housing, employment and relationship discrimination continues to flourish in less-tolerant areas of the country, still creating a need for these protective spaces. Ghaziani focuses primarily on the Chicago area, which is considered a “vibrant sexual laboratory” facing the same gentrification and social identity issues as other high-profile gay enclaves found in San Francisco and New York City. The author also examines generational shifts, the evaporation of gay businesses due to the ease of Internet commerce and a decline in the significance of sexual orientation. He points to this conundrum as a double-edged sword and a trade-off: a consequence of conformity and a byproduct of the equality fought for through decades of derision.
Encompassing more than just the diminishing homogeneity of gay ghettos, Ghaziani’s important work also demonstrates an appreciation for how the provocative past, present and future of gay culture continues to evoke impassioned rhetoric and opinion.Pub Date: Aug. 10, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-691-15879-2
Page Count: 360
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.
Straight talk to blacks and whites about the realities of racism.
In her feisty debut book, Oluo, essayist, blogger, and editor at large at the Establishment magazine, writes from the perspective of a black, queer, middle-class, college-educated woman living in a “white supremacist country.” The daughter of a white single mother, brought up in largely white Seattle, she sees race as “one of the most defining forces” in her life. Throughout the book, Oluo responds to questions that she has often been asked, and others that she wishes were asked, about racism “in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves.” “Is it really about race?” she is asked by whites who insist that class is a greater source of oppression. “Is police brutality really about race?” “What is cultural appropriation?” and “What is the model minority myth?” Her sharp, no-nonsense answers include talking points for both blacks and whites. She explains, for example, “when somebody asks you to ‘check your privilege’ they are asking you to pause and consider how the advantages you’ve had in life are contributing to your opinions and actions, and how the lack of disadvantages in certain areas is keeping you from fully understanding the struggles others are facing.” She unpacks the complicated term “intersectionality”: the idea that social justice must consider “a myriad of identities—our gender, class, race, sexuality, and so much more—that inform our experiences in life.” She asks whites to realize that when people of color talk about systemic racism, “they are opening up all of that pain and fear and anger to you” and are asking that they be heard. After devoting most of the book to talking, Oluo finishes with a chapter on action and its urgency. Action includes pressing for reform in schools, unions, and local governments; boycotting businesses that exploit people of color; contributing money to social justice organizations; and, most of all, voting for candidates who make “diversity, inclusion and racial justice a priority.”
A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-58005-677-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Seal Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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