Richburg, Keith

• Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa

  • This book is an author's reflection on his time spent in Africa as the bureau chief for the Washington Post. His stories of horror are made all the worse by the fact that the most horrible kinds of incidents (senseless genocide, starvation, etc) are treated as routine affairs by so many native Africans. His basic conclusion is "Thank God I'm an American" sounds as though he is saying that, for all the horrors of slavery, at least one positive good came out of it that so many African descendants eventually got to be a part of American society. It's a volatile, politically incorrect conclusion, but Richburg's response is "If you disagree, try travelling through Africa for a year." Based on this account, it is hard to argue. Even if you disagree with the conclusions, the journalism here, the firsthand accounts of so many historical and awful events, is very compelling stuff.

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