Black Women for Beginners

For Beginners

by Saundra Pearl Sharp, Beverly Hawkins Hall (Illustrator)

Chronicles the experiences of Black women throughout history, describing Black women in various roles, and discussing the challenges African women from around the world have overcome

Genres: Feminism, Nonfiction, History, Politics

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

Reviews

[Rowena · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess you could say this is an interesting book about black women. It features a lot of pictures and historical facts about what black women have achieved in history. It also touches on how important it is to have a healthy self-esteem so as not to experience an identity crisis.

I felt the book just touched on the basics, understandable I guess since it's a beginner guide. However, I found the writing style a bit too chatty, and filled with African-American slang (since I would say most black women are not African-American, I didn't really see the point), swear words and way too much sarcasm. It was kind of hard to take the book seriously at times.

Also, as much as I believe that loving and appreciating your heritage and culture is a must, I don't think that gives anyone the right to put down or belittle another group of people, and I felt this is what the author was doing.

The view on Creationism (a black Eve) is afrocentric which I believe is just as bad as being eurocentric. There's no evidence to suggest Adam and Eve were black or even white so that part of the book was just odd.

I appreciate that the book wrote about the history and struggles of black women in other parts of the world, such as Asia, Africa and South America, as well as their achievements.

Anyway, it was a pretty quick read and I did enjoy the historical points, although I thought they could have been developed better, even though this is a beginners guide.

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

So inspiring!

[RICKY CROMWELL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very inspiring to read about the original race

[Jason Scoggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful Book

[yenni m · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has made me think about feminism so much. More so than anything I've read in a long time. About the feminism that I was introduced to and involved in around universities created for a specific audience. This was book was an introduction to black women and black history which is something that I haven't been taught at all. The women are incredible and people that we should be learning about, and from, at all times. Amazing and eye opening.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I immediately started thinking about how to use this book with a library ‘rights of passage’ program. What I like most about your
book is that it is an amalgam of other scholarly works… and it is
easy enough for our young people to read.”
Joan N. Eldridge, Compton [CA:] County Libraries