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Reviews by Pancho @ "Stop Being Niggardly" By Karen Hunter

🙉Stop Being Niggardly🙉

In this small-sized book, the author Karen Hunter ties a lot of great points to how the African American community fails themselves through the common things that have been done over centuries. Hunter uses a list of things that were originally written by Nannie Burroughs to compare and contrast just how far black people as a whole have come since the ending of slavery.  During her statements, she holds absolutely nothing back - reflecting not only on her upbringing but the upbringing of other black people through her own eyes.  Hunter shows the audience a true but heartbreaking reality of black communities, their intentions, and their small goals.  Oftentimes, these things that African American communities are so used to are the exact same thing that continues to plague more and more of the generations being brought up.

In the middle of the book, a brief historical moment is explained how some of the most notorious black figures harmed their people the most. I learned that the original CEO of BET (Black Entertainment Television) was actually one of the biggest crooks to destroy and monetize his own people. In a sense, the slave turned into a slave master. But the reality of that is there are so much more black people like the CEO of BET who continues to cripple their own race due to selfish reasons, regardless of who they are affecting. This book was more of an insight into my life because out of all the things Hunter listed, I felt like I resonated with more than 70% of it.  You would think that having similarities with these facts listed would make me feel better about myself. After reading it, however, I felt a sense of emptiness. I lived a life that I thought was right for people who looked like me.

When you're a kid, you don't know any better so I automatically took much of what everyone said for face value. I trusted and believed in their words, with passion. In my mind, it was how to live for a person with my color. Now that I'm older, I realize all that stuff was bullshit  - for the most part. Black people don't have to be as selfish as much as they are. They don't have to act as strong as they do. They don't need to be successful at an early age, like what most older black people preach. Speaking of preaching, Black people have a huge issue with practicing what they preach. More than likely, it stems from Slavery times, when the slave pastor would repeat and attempt to preach what they heard white people say in their churches. 

I'd give this book a 10/10. I like when authors are able to change my perspective on life and on how I view myself as a person. I feel like it would be a good thing for all black people to read this book. It could really give insight into the life we have to teach
to live versus the life we do live, free from the control of our elders.  

Thank you - Pancho. 


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