Book Review - Archives

March - May 2004

One thing that can be said about America for sure: Everything comes back to race. Think about it. Everything from job promotion, to success living in the finest neighborhoods complete with first-rate services is based along racial lines. If you take a look at any facet of American life, it will become clear that usually, the white race has the best choices of goods and services when compared to their black race counterparts.

In Coal To Cream, author Eugene Robinson explores this notion and looks at it in relationship to how race is perceived in Brazil as well as in other South American countries. However, he focuses the majority of his research process on Brazil. One of the first points he makes is that he was shocked not to see Brazilian life drawn along racial lines as it is in America. Being black in Brazil, he found, took on a whole new meaning. In fact, it was there that he realized that there was indeed another way to look at race than how he was used to seeing it. Robinson goes on to write about the most distinct difference he saw between how race is dealt with in America as opposed to how it is in Brazil. Moreover, how Americans see race, but not color, and how Brazilians see only color, but not race! In other words, a black person in America is black and that's it--nothing more nothing less. Paradoxically in Brazil, a black person is described in terms of his or her color. Thus, a Brazilian could be any one of dozens of colors such as after midnight, chocolate, coffee with milk, navy blue, black, white, mulatto or a ‘light-skinned black’. Robinson found that these various skin colors were discussed openly and that there was a certain peaceful co-existence among Brazilians without the rigidity of race that was absent in America.

Robinson's eye-opening experience began when he was assigned to South America as a foreign correspondent covering news stories for the Washington Post. He sought out that position because it offered him a challenge professionally as well as the chance to escape racial and political injustices in America. Coal To Cream is an interesting account of Robinson's cultural renaissance because it expertly mixes his memoirs about that experience with a detailed account of his trip through Brazil and South America. As a result of those newly-learned lessons, he began to look within his own family at the rainbow of colors they represented as well as the same in the black community at large. After that infamous day on the beach and the epiphany that transpired because of it, Robinson never regarded race and/or color the same as he had before relocating to Brazil. Granted, he saw some discrimination and inequalities in Brazilian culture, but sans the anger or profanity to describe or fight against it. It was when he took a deeper look into race, color, and identity that he found that being black was a good thing and not the prison he had taken it to be.

In retrospect, Coal To Cream is deep. This is a book that deserves to be read by those who enjoy sociology, history, and reading books that go beneath the surface. It's perfect for high school and college students seeking a worthy book for completing book reports or social science projects. This is not a book to read perfunctorily as the subject matter is serious and should be read for knowledge and clarity. Much information can be obtained from this well-written book that deserves to be in the library of any serious bibliophile. Kudos to author Eugene Robinson on a job well done and for shedding new light on an age-old issue.

Reviewed by Nathasha Brooks-Harris