"Negroland: A Memoir" by Margo Jefferson

I'm sharing a few thoughts on Margo Jefferson's Negroland: A Memoir.

An idea which struck me was her insistence that contemplation of suicide is a civil right or privilege which blacks in America should seek to earn:

But one white female privilege had always been withheld from the girls of Negroland. Aside from the privilege of actually being white, they had been denied the privilege of freely yielding to depression, of flaunting neurosis as a mark of social and psychic complexity. A privilege that was glorified in the literature of white female suffering and resistance. A privilege Good Negro Girls had been denied by our history of duty, obligation, and discipline. Because our people had endured horrors and prevailed, even triumphed, their descendants should be too strong and too proud for such behavior. We were to be ladies, responsible Negro women, and indomitable Black Women. We were not to be depressed or unduly high-strung; we were not to have nervous collapses. We had a legacy. We were too strong for that. I craved the right to turn my face to the wall, to create a death commensurate with bourgeois achievement, political awareness, and aesthetically compelling feminine despair. (pp. 171-2)

I've never been very good dealing with people with depression, and I criticized Jay Asher's Th1rteen R3asons Why.

Here's a passage on housing segregation in Hyde Park, the home of University of Chicago, in the 1960s (p. 147):

Here's a passage about the mental price Margo Jefferson paid as a child trying to navigate the rules of race, gender and class which had been imposed on her and how her adult life has been an attempt to become "a person of inner consequence." (p. 156)

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

I bought the book Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher because the author is speaking today near my home, and I feel some kind of need to support local library activity. If the hype on the cover about this book's popularity among young adults is true, please protect your children from this crap.

My only caveat is I'm nearing 50 years old, so I'm probably the last person you want telling you what's good in Young Adult fiction, but here are my $0.02.

This review contains spoilers.

Review: The Right vs The Right to Die: Lessons from the Terri Schiavo Case and How to Stop It from Happening Again by Jon B. Eisenberg

I attended a presentation by Robert Rivas of Final Exit Network, a group which, after a screening process to confirm a terminal condition and informed consent, provides information to people who want to kill themselves. He recommended to me The Right vs The Right to Die: Lessons from the Terri Schiavo Case and How to Stop It from Happening Again by Jon B. Eisenberg.

Eisenberg did pro bono legal work on behalf of Michael Schiavo, who had requested the State of Florida to order the withdrawal of a feeding tube from his wife Terri Schiavo, who had been in persistent vegetative state for several years. Terri’s parents objected, and lawyers representing the parents littered the Florida and Federal court systems with motions and appeals to delay the withdrawal of the tube. Eventually, the original Florida county court judgment was upheld, after years of litigation, Terri’s feeding tube was withdrawn, and she died of dehydration.