1967, Holloway House Publishing Co.
About 30 years ago, I read The Nigger Bible by Robert DeCoy.
The WHAT Bible? I think I'd better stop right here for a moment and add a comment about The Nigger Bible posted on Goodreads.com which may help explain:
"The book's title will probably offend a lot of potential readers and the content itself is even more offensive. But, if you take the book for what it's trying to convey or at least what I believe it's trying to convey: a tongue in cheek/sarcastic message to African-Americans to think outside the box and not be overcome by racism, oppression, depression or anything else that may hold you back from achieving peace and your dreams." - Mark Nicholson, Goodreads.com.
I don't find the content is offensive, but it is very unusual, sometimes shocking and not simple to read.
As for my personal experience, all these 30 years, I thought the book's author was Dick Gregory; I also thought I remembered the book asking "If we can send people to the moon, why can't we solve world hunger?" which always struck a big chord with me. Why is the moon more important than people? I've always wanted to go back and read the book again, to find that part about the moon, so I dug it off my shelf recently, undeterred by the yellowed pages and small print, only to discover that Dick Gregory wrote the preface, not the book (he did write an autobiography entitled Nigger). And, I couldn't find more than a vague mention of the moon; how I turned it into a philosophy of prioritizing world hunger over the exploration of outer space, I can't say. But please, nonetheless, read on for just a few more lines.
The Nigger Bible is about African-Americans embracing themselves, their culture, their uniqueness, their difference and their power. Or as deCoy introduces his book:
The Nigger Bible is "written by an acknowledged Nigger about the experience of Niggers, addressed and directed exclusively to my Nigger people for whom it was purposely conceived."
Sample from book: When you must hate, my Son, you must not Hate people. Rather focus your Hatred upon the things which they stand for and abide. Then, it will not be necessary to profess Love and Assurance while you seek to destroy the very foundations upon which your Hatred is focused. (p 145, Chapter 10:58)
Comentários