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Index
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
pissed off to the highest degree of pisstivity
Sojourner Truth—" And a’n’t I a Woman?" (1851)
W. E. B. DuBois—" On Being Crazy" (1923)
Zora Neale Hurston—"’ Possum or Pig?" (1926)
Chester Himes—" Let Me at the Enemy— an’ George Brown" (1944)
Malcolm X—" Message to the Grass Roots" (1963)
Langston Hughes—" Pose-Outs" (1965)
Lightnin’ Hopkins—" Cadillac Blues" (performed 1968)
H. Rap Brown— from Die, Nigger, Die! (1969)
Sam Greenlee— from Tlie Spook Who Sat by the Door (1969)
Wanda Coleman—" April 15th 1985" (c. 1985)
"Identifying Marks" (c. 1985)
"On that Stuff That Ain’t Nevah Been Long Enuff for No Damn Body" (c. 1985)
Hattie Gossett—" yo daddy: an 80s version of the dozens" (1988)
Ammiri Baraka—" Wise 1" (1995)
Cornelius Eady—" The Cab Dover Who Ripped Me Off" (1997)
Tish Benson—" Fifth-Ward E-Mail" (2003)
Al Sharpton— Presidential campaign speech delivered to the San Francisco Commonwealth Club (2003)
Mike Tyson— The Wit and Wisdom of Mike Tyson (1987-2004)
(nothing serious) just buggin’
Paul Laurence Dunbar—" When De Co’n Pone’s Hot" (1895)
Bert Williams—" How Fried?" (1913)
Assorted jokes compiled by Alex Rogers (1918)
Rudolph Fisher—" The City of Refuge" (1925)
Zora Neale Hurston—" The Bone of Contention" (c. 1929).
George Schuyler— from Black No More (1931)
James Weldon Johnson—" Brer Rabbit, You’s de Cutes’ of ’Em All" (1935)
Sterling Brown—" Slim in Atlanta" (1932)
"Slim Lands a Job?" (1932)
"Crispus Attucks McKoy" (1965)
Gwendolyn Brooks—" at the hairdresser’s" (1945)
"One reason cats . . ." (1968)
"a song in the front yard" (1945)
Langston Hughes—" Adventure" (c. 1962)
Gary Belkin (writing as Muhammad Ali)— "Clay Comes Out to Meet Liston" (1963)
Henry Dumas—" Double Nigger" (1965)
Ishmael Reed— from Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down (1969)
Toni Cade Bambara—" The Lesson" (1972)
Etheridge Knight—" Dark Prophecy: I Sing of Shine" (1973)
"Memo #9" (1973)
"Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America" (1973)
Kyle Baker—" Sands of Blood," from The Cowboy Wally Show (1988)
Spike Lee— from Do the Right Thing (1989)
Patricia Smith—" Boy Sneezes, Head Explodes" (1991)
Darius James—" Lil’ Black Zambo," from Negrophobia (1992)
Lord Finesse—" Return of the Funky Man" (1992)
Hilton Als—" The Only One" (1994)
John Farris— In the Park After School with the Girl & the Boy (1994)
Elizabeth Alexander—" Talk Radio, D.C." (1996)
Erika Ellis— from Good Fences (1999)
Percival Everett— from Erasure (2001)
Colson Whitehead— from John Henry Days (2001)
Willie Perdomo—" Should Old Shit Be Forgot" (2003)
black absurdity
Zora. Neale Hurston—" Book of Harlem" (c. 1921)
Chester Himes—" Dirty Deceivers" (1948)
Ralph Ellison— from Invisible Man (1952)
Charles Wright— from The Wig (1966)
Bob Kaufman—" Abomunist Manifesto" (1965)
"Heavy Water Blues" (1967)
Cecil Brown— from Lite Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger (1969)
Steve Cannon— from Groove, Bang and Jive Around (1969)
Fran Ross— from Oreo (1974)
Franklyn Ajaye—" Be Black, Brother, Be Black"
"Disneyland High" (1977)
Trey Ellis— from Platitudes (1988)
Harryette Mullen—" Any Lit" (1991)
"Jinglejangle" (1991)
"Kamasutra Sutra" (1991)
"Souvenir from Anywhere" (1991)
Suzan-Lori Parks— Devotees in the Garden of Love (1991)
Willie Perdomo—" Nigger-Reecan Blues" (1996)
Danzy Senna—" The Mulatto Millennium" (1998)
John Rodriguez—" How to Be a Street Poet" (1999)
Darius James— from "Froggie Chocolates’ Christmas Eve" (2003)
Prophet Omega—" I Am What I Am" (date unknown)
"Swollen Feets" (date unknown)
Contributor Notes
Acknowledgments
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