Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Threshold Editions (2020), 320 pages
Description
Politics. Sociology. Nonfiction. HTML:NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER It's time for a black exit. Political activist and social media star Candace Owens addresses the many ways that Democrat Party policies hurt, rather than help, the African American community, and why she and many others are turning right. Black Americans have long been shackled to the Democrats. Seeing no viable alternative, they have watched liberal politicians take the black vote for granted without pledging anything in return. In Blackout, Owens argues that this automatic allegiance is both illogical and unearned. She contends that the Democrat Party has a long history of racism and exposes the ideals that hinder the black community's ability to rise above poverty, live independent and successful lives, and be an active part of the American Dream. Instead, Owens offers up a different ideology by issuing a challenge: It's time for a major black exodus. From dependency, from victimhood, from miseducation�??and the Democrat Party, which perpetuates all three. Owens explains that government assistance is a double-edged sword, that the Left dismisses the faith so important to the black community, that Democrat permissiveness toward abortion disproportionately affects black babies, that the #MeToo movement hurts black men, and much more. Weaving in her personal story, which ushered her from a roach-infested low-income apartment to1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, she demonstrates how she overcame her setbacks and challenges despite the cultural expectation that she should embrace a victim mentality. Well-researched and intelligently argued, Blackout lays bare the myth that all black people should vote Democrat�??and shows why turning to the right will leave them happier, more successful, and more self-suffi… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member SamSattler
I almost never read political opinion books written by elected officials anymore because I think the majority of them are actually written by the kind of hired-gun ghost writer paid handsomely to make the politician look a whole lot smarter than they actually are. I do, on the other hand, still
Candace Owens is one of those people, and Blackout is one of those books.
Owens is what used to be much more rare than it is today: a young, black conservative with the courage to publicly share her beliefs about today’s political environment. As such, she has often been viciously targeted by media people and/or via social media in an attempt to discredit her to the point that she shuts up or changes her message to suit her critics. To her credit, this articulate young woman has done neither. Instead, she has responded to those who want so badly to destroy her with Blackout, a compelling argument that African American culture is going to continue to deteriorate as long as her fellow blacks are willing to sell their votes to the Democratic Party so cheaply.
Owens contends that it is time for African Americans (she, I think, prefers the term “American Blacks”) to lose the herd mentality that has allowed one political party to claim roughly 95% of their votes for the last several decades. In that spirit, she has founded the “Blexit” movement by which she urges blacks to leave the Democratic Party until Democrat politicians actually earn their votes. She says that it is time to quit working for the Democrats for free.
But perhaps the most damning charge Owens makes against Democrat politicians is that they will never allow black Americans to quit thinking of themselves as victims of systemic racism. Her argument goes that as long as blacks have someone other than themselves to blame for their cultural failures, they do not have to do the hard work of solving their own problems. It is just too much easier to have someone else promise to do that for them, as both political parties do, even though both parties almost never deliver in a meaningful way on those promises. The concept of black victimhood, Owens says, is a card that the Democrats have relied on for too long, a card they can never afford to give up now because black bloc-voting is what keeps them in power.
Bottom Line: In Blackout Candace Owens makes a strong case for what she herself has only relatively recently come to believe about American culture. Along the way, the reader learns about Owens’s upbringing and why she changed her own mind about the relationship between the Democratic Party and American Blacks. Sadly, I doubt that a significant number of American Blacks are going to cut through all the noise and personal attacks on Owens long enough to read the book. That is part of the problem. And that is the saddest thing of all. Right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle of the real truth, Candace Owens deserves to be heard.
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occasionally read a political book written by a relative outsider, someone still far enough away from scene of the crime that they are not completely nauseated by the smell in the room. I generally prefer the ones written by respected historians (although my respect for even some of those people has slipped more than a notch or two in recent years) or by someone with a particularly interesting point-of-view. Candace Owens is one of those people, and Blackout is one of those books.
Owens is what used to be much more rare than it is today: a young, black conservative with the courage to publicly share her beliefs about today’s political environment. As such, she has often been viciously targeted by media people and/or via social media in an attempt to discredit her to the point that she shuts up or changes her message to suit her critics. To her credit, this articulate young woman has done neither. Instead, she has responded to those who want so badly to destroy her with Blackout, a compelling argument that African American culture is going to continue to deteriorate as long as her fellow blacks are willing to sell their votes to the Democratic Party so cheaply.
Owens contends that it is time for African Americans (she, I think, prefers the term “American Blacks”) to lose the herd mentality that has allowed one political party to claim roughly 95% of their votes for the last several decades. In that spirit, she has founded the “Blexit” movement by which she urges blacks to leave the Democratic Party until Democrat politicians actually earn their votes. She says that it is time to quit working for the Democrats for free.
But perhaps the most damning charge Owens makes against Democrat politicians is that they will never allow black Americans to quit thinking of themselves as victims of systemic racism. Her argument goes that as long as blacks have someone other than themselves to blame for their cultural failures, they do not have to do the hard work of solving their own problems. It is just too much easier to have someone else promise to do that for them, as both political parties do, even though both parties almost never deliver in a meaningful way on those promises. The concept of black victimhood, Owens says, is a card that the Democrats have relied on for too long, a card they can never afford to give up now because black bloc-voting is what keeps them in power.
Bottom Line: In Blackout Candace Owens makes a strong case for what she herself has only relatively recently come to believe about American culture. Along the way, the reader learns about Owens’s upbringing and why she changed her own mind about the relationship between the Democratic Party and American Blacks. Sadly, I doubt that a significant number of American Blacks are going to cut through all the noise and personal attacks on Owens long enough to read the book. That is part of the problem. And that is the saddest thing of all. Right, wrong, or somewhere in the middle of the real truth, Candace Owens deserves to be heard.
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LibraryThing member alanteder
A Black American J’Accuse
Review of the Threshold Editions hardcover edition (2020)
I read Blackout as part of my reading survey of various books in relation to the 2020 American Election. As a Canadian I’ve generally ignored American politics and elections in past years, but the drama of the
Author and Conservative activist Candace Owens is the primary advocate for what she calls Blexit, the exodus of black Americans from the Democratic Party. The slogan is obviously a take on the Brexit movement which was the label for Britain exiting from the European Union. Owens feels that the Democratic Party has betrayed their seeming advocacy for black Americans by disappointing them through various policy and policing initiatives. Owens likens this exit to an escape from the Democratic plantation, hearkening back to the days of slavery.
The history that she presents to support this betrayal covers everything from the founding of the racist Ku Klux Klan after the American Civil War by the remnants of the Confederacy (I don’t quite get the tie-in to the Democrats here though, is it enough that Lincoln was Republican?), the origins of Planned Parenthood (with eugenicist Margaret Sanger) which is seen as predominantly targeting black Americans), LBJ’s “Great Society” and the welfare state which serves to break up black American families, the 1994 Crime Bill which imposed stiff prison sentences for non-violent offenses such as drug possession etc.
As stated, Owens is a Conservative activist, and so her argument is obviously one-sided here. Still there are definitely indications that she is in the same zeitgeist as figures such as Kanye West with his independent run for the American Presidency and Ice Cube with his Contract with Black America (the latter said he was brushed off by the Democrats while having the Republicans at least discuss incorporating some of his ideas into their Platinum Plan for Black America). To add a further touch of arrogance to the mix, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden said on a remote interview with Charlamagne the God that "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black".
To sum up what is at stake here, this quote from the book seems the most relevant:
Today, black voters are considered the backbone of the Democrat Party, and for good reason. In 2012, Barack Obama received 93 percent of the black vote. Exit polls from the 2016 presidential election revealed that 88 percent of black voters supported Hillary Clinton. This 5 percent dip was a critical factor in Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump and represents a dangerous trend for Democrats, who would face a existential crisis if they lost another 5 percent in 2020. Not a single expert denies that there is absolutely no path to victory for Democrats if Republicans are able to peel off 20 percent of the black vote. It is therefore true to state that Democrats rely upon the black vote for success. It is also true that, just as in the time of slavery, the work we do for them is done at absolutely no benefit to us, as our communities continue to face criminal, economic, and moral decline.
Based on recent polling from such as Rasmussen, which showed a post-Final Presidential Debate positive approval rating for Donald Trump of 46% by likely black American voters, that existential crisis may be looming.
Review of the Threshold Editions hardcover edition (2020)
I read Blackout as part of my reading survey of various books in relation to the 2020 American Election. As a Canadian I’ve generally ignored American politics and elections in past years, but the drama of the
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situation in 2020 has heightened my interest. As I write this on October 31, 2020 the election is only a few days away although there seems to be a possibility that the results may not be final on the night of November 3, 2020 due to delayed mail-in ballots in the coronavirus pandemic situation. My gut instinct expects that it will be a Trump win as Biden seems to have been a weak candidate. There are countless other issues behind the scenes though which may also dramatically affect the result, one of these is the subject of this book.Author and Conservative activist Candace Owens is the primary advocate for what she calls Blexit, the exodus of black Americans from the Democratic Party. The slogan is obviously a take on the Brexit movement which was the label for Britain exiting from the European Union. Owens feels that the Democratic Party has betrayed their seeming advocacy for black Americans by disappointing them through various policy and policing initiatives. Owens likens this exit to an escape from the Democratic plantation, hearkening back to the days of slavery.
The history that she presents to support this betrayal covers everything from the founding of the racist Ku Klux Klan after the American Civil War by the remnants of the Confederacy (I don’t quite get the tie-in to the Democrats here though, is it enough that Lincoln was Republican?), the origins of Planned Parenthood (with eugenicist Margaret Sanger) which is seen as predominantly targeting black Americans), LBJ’s “Great Society” and the welfare state which serves to break up black American families, the 1994 Crime Bill which imposed stiff prison sentences for non-violent offenses such as drug possession etc.
As stated, Owens is a Conservative activist, and so her argument is obviously one-sided here. Still there are definitely indications that she is in the same zeitgeist as figures such as Kanye West with his independent run for the American Presidency and Ice Cube with his Contract with Black America (the latter said he was brushed off by the Democrats while having the Republicans at least discuss incorporating some of his ideas into their Platinum Plan for Black America). To add a further touch of arrogance to the mix, Democratic Presidential candidate Joe Biden said on a remote interview with Charlamagne the God that "If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black".
To sum up what is at stake here, this quote from the book seems the most relevant:
Today, black voters are considered the backbone of the Democrat Party, and for good reason. In 2012, Barack Obama received 93 percent of the black vote. Exit polls from the 2016 presidential election revealed that 88 percent of black voters supported Hillary Clinton. This 5 percent dip was a critical factor in Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump and represents a dangerous trend for Democrats, who would face a existential crisis if they lost another 5 percent in 2020. Not a single expert denies that there is absolutely no path to victory for Democrats if Republicans are able to peel off 20 percent of the black vote. It is therefore true to state that Democrats rely upon the black vote for success. It is also true that, just as in the time of slavery, the work we do for them is done at absolutely no benefit to us, as our communities continue to face criminal, economic, and moral decline.
Based on recent polling from such as Rasmussen, which showed a post-Final Presidential Debate positive approval rating for Donald Trump of 46% by likely black American voters, that existential crisis may be looming.
Show Less
LibraryThing member tuckerresearch
A good account of one woman's upbringing, life, and move to conservatism.
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
320 p.; 8.38 inches
ISBN
1982133279 / 9781982133276