Nation of Cowards

David H. Ikard is Associate Professor of English at Florida State University and author of Breaking the Silence: Toward a Black Male Feminist Criticism. His blog "Nation of Cowards" (nationofcowards.blogspot.com) takes up contemporary racial topics and engages a wider intellectual and activist community.Martell Lee Teasley is Professor and Chair of the Department of Social Work at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

"A clarion call to our nation's conscience. Free from overly academic jargon, but full of powerful wordplay and brilliant juxtapositions, this book is a fascinating tour de force from start to finish. Those seeking a clear and concise explanation of the state of African America and the ongoing need for a 'black agenda' during–and even after–the administration of the first African American president need look no further."—Reiland Rabaka, author of Forms of Fanonism; Against Epistemic Apartheid; and Hip Hop's Amnesia"Nation of Cowards offers an analysis of the Obama administration is as thorough as it is compact. Here are the hard questions that must be asked of the first black presidency and an insightful draft of how history may regard it. Ikard and Teasley are well ahead of that curve."—Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress"A smart and energetic book that unravels the political grammar of hesitancy around questions of race in the United States. It walks us through the political minefield, revealing what appears to be a 21st century debate between Booker Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois, around jeremiads for personal responsibility to structural analyses of systematic racism, between thrusting the blame for disparity on the poor to pointing fingers at the immense theft of social wealth by the rich. A thoughtful book that will be a useful guide in a divisive election year."—Vijay Prashad, author of Uncle Swami: South Asian in America Today

• Introduction: Is America a Nation of Cowards or Has Attorney General Eric Holder Lost His Mind?1. The Teaching Moment that Never Was: Henry Louis Gates, Barack Obama, and the Post-Racial Dilemma2. "I Know What's in His Heart": Enlightened Exceptionalism and the Problem with Using Barack Obama as the Racial Litmus Test for Black Progress and Achievement3. The Audacity of Reverend Wright: Speaking Truth to Power in the 21st Century4. Setting the Record Straight: Why Barack Obama and America Cannot Afford to Ignore a Black Agenda5. Pull Yourself Up by Your Bootstraps: Barack Obama, the Black Poor, and the Problems of Racial Common SenseIndex