The Experience of Living While Black

All of the book’s narrative, thematic, and stylistic elements are defined by its central thematic consideration, i.e. the author’s perspective on the experience of living while black. It is important, first of all, to note that this perspective is defined by the author’s experience of being a black person in America, and more specifically the America of the early 21st Century. There are virtually no references to the lives and experiences of black people in other parts of the world, the author choosing to focus his writing and contemplations on what is arguably the socially, culturally, politically, economically, and historically unique circumstances of the United States.

It is also important to note that the author’s central perspective is not exclusively negative. Granted, the author’s primary concern is with the different ways in which whiteness as a concept...