Racism is traumatic. It has caused multigenerational trauma in the United States for the past several centuries.
Differences between groups of individuals have been used as weapons to keep systematically individuals of color divided and less than with the support of grimly inexact science. This is why America still has racism one hundred fifty-five (155) years after slavery was abolished. Layers of discriminatory policies, laws, and practices were carefully created to create systems of oppression. The significant intergenerational wound and its adverse health outcomes have continued to exist. And that is how King Bell tackles it in his “American’t” book, as it is inevitable for someone like King.
Review of the book: American’t
It is a strange time to be Black in America. In this country, waking up Black can be considered a crime. Through this gripping novel, you will embark on a journey that will make you laugh, cry, feel anger, but above all, think. Walk in the shoes of six Black men as they live through being Black in “American’t.”
Through this book, you’ll observe how Black men maneuver through corporate America, love, friendship, and religion while trying to understand why America CAN NOT love Black people. Are Black people citizens of America who love to wave its flag and boast of the bill of rights, constitution, and emancipation proclamation? Or are Black people STILL enslaved, subhuman at the bottom of a caste system? You be the judge, as this is their story.
What Readers Can Expect
- To feel the main character’s pain as he weighs his actions as a Black man who is expected to stick to European customs in the United States when everything he sees is a denial and derivative of Africa.
- To bear witness to the rawness of the Black Male and Female interaction when, instead of the expected norm, the Black male is the side piece.
- To be enlivened by the exchange of the everyday mundane with the main characters’ juxtaposition of the Black race as enslaved people yesterday and his belief that the Black race is still slaves today.
- To ride an emotional roller coaster and be forced to put the book down, if only for a moment, to think of your standing in American’t!
What Readers Are Saying
“If you are looking for a fiction novel that is a testament to the times we live in as African Americans, this is the book for you. Bell does a phenomenal job of pulling the reader outside their comfort zone and forcing them to think about life as a Black person living in America from a harsh but realistic perspective. American’t provoke some heated debates and needed discussions about the current race relations in America and how they continue to impact Blacks”. – Dr. Carey Y.
Author Bio
King Bell, also known as Jerome Nyjuan Bell, Sr., is an author and avid reader. He graduated in Business Administration from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1999. After serving ten years, he exited the United States Marine Corps and received his Master’s in Business Administration from Averett University in Danville, Virginia, in 2003. Mr. Bell is an Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor who resides in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The Corporate Plantation in Bell’s book, “American’t,” has created a community composed of those who understand not only the exasperations that come with waking up Black but the need to release the disappointments onto paper instead of using a bomb, gun, or storming the Capitol. This book is an emotional eye-opener; it tells of raw truths where cultures are being opened and perspectives are shifting.
