Plot Summary of Beethoven Was Black & Browne Is White
" Multiculturalism. Affirmative Action. Racial quotas. Political Correctness. America in the 1990's. If you're a straight, white man in the U.S. today, you're the target of all the self-proclaimed victims' group.
The Pentagon issues a personnel memo outlining promotion criteria. No white males will be promoted above GS-15, unless they are handicapped. Only women, blacks, Asians, gays, and the disabled need apply for promotion. White guys can forget it.
Urban police forces and fire departments race-norm their tests for promotion. This practice involves adjusting test scores so that minorities scoring lower on tests have their scores "improved" to equal or better scores of white applicants.
In the midst of this total eclipse of the white man in America, Harry Browne, an ordinary, middle-aged Irishman, lands a job at a black college. This is his story. These are a few of the players Harry encounters at Freedman State College as he surfs on the new wave of color sweeping across America.
Dr. Washington Linen: President of Freedman State College. Linen's got a scheme for filling classroom seats and dorm rooms with student bodies, based on students' potential. One part snake-oil, one part CEO, and 100 percent self-aggrandizer, Linen never met an airplane he didn't want to buy.
Dean Acrecious Greenville: Academic Dean at Freedman State. An African-American with a theory. Education in the U.S. is a white plot designed to keep blacks from getting their piece of the pie. How? By using standardized tests against them. Why do Asians and Hispanics do well on these same tests? Don't ask. It may be why the college faculty call him Egregious.
Dr. Colossus Wadi: Professor of Victimology and powerful chairman of Freedman State's Promotion and Tenure Committee. He thinks The Atlantic magazine is a journal about oceanography, and The New Yorker is a book selling Chrysler cars and products.
Professor Dave Stanley: a black faculty member at Freedman State who doesn't want his own children to study Swahili. He insists they speak Standard English. Is he a race traitor?
This is a fly-on-the-wall look at what goes on at an historically black college and university (HBCU). A white prof teaches at a black college. There, he discovers black racism, social promotion in college, and academic scholarships for 800 on the SAT test.
Find out what Bill Cosby is talking about. Experience what most white people never see. Rollover, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news: BEETHOVEN WAS BLACK & BROWNE IS WHITE.
"
Michael Holden, Resident Scholar
Review Analysis of Beethoven Was Black & Browne Is White
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 1980's-1999
Political/social activism
Yes
Plotlet:
- minorities fighting for rights
Life of a profession:
- teacher
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Job/Profession/Status story
Yes
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- teacher
Age:
- 40's-50's
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- teacher
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- throughout most of the book.
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 3 (some)
United States
Yes
The US:
- Northeast
Style
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
Most similar books to Beethoven Was Black & Browne Is White
