BLACK GENOCIDE

Book by Daniel Z. Bakker Seeks to Expose Threats to African American Survival, Systemic Perils, Legacy of Slavery, Faltering U.S. Economy Analyzed

Historian Daniel Z. Bakker, author of "Black Genocide: The Hypocrisy of America Exposed" , offers a potent analysis of the factors that may be compromising the very survival of African Americans and an incisive warning on the state of the nation.

Structured in chapters that can be read as a series of distinct essays or as a cumulative expose of the conditions in which African Americans have lived during "two centuries of slavery and 141 years of racism," Bakker's book is both a historical record and a collection of arguments supporting the thesis that violations of dignity and human rights in African American communities are unparalleled in history and that it may be too late to reverse the trend toward the annihilation of these communities.

"The U.S. Bureau of census reported in 2005 that the African American population had slightly increased, yet a number of independent surveys report that the African American population is in decline," states Bakker. "The HIV/AIDS epidemic, infant mortality, health issues, domestic violence, and the permanent loss of black males to the prison system and lack of economic opportunity have taken their toll. My book chronicles all of these factors.

"Black Genocide" begins with a discussion of the roots and manifestation of racism in the U.S., touching on ties of the Ku Klux Klan to government officials, racial profiling in drug sentencing, disparities in application of the death penalty and the ghettoization of African Americans. It then proceeds to chart the present-day economic decline, aggravated by deindustrialization and pressures of globalization, that creates a context in which social problems continue to flourish and explains that Caucasian Americans, too, are endangered. The book moves on to focus on the fate of African Americans.

The remainder of the book showcases Bakker's gifts for research and crystallizing historic milestones and figures into fascinating yet instructive nuggets. The chapter "Slavery Touched Us All" reaches back to Ancient Rome and builds up to the U.S./European slave trade and it's enduring effects. "Stolen Legacy" chronicles the immense contributions of Africans throughout history and reveals such little-known findings as Beethoven's mixed race heritage. The remaining chapters, Pioneer Black Patriots," and Influential Black Pioneers," recount the lives of some of the greatest African Americans, from the famed Buffalo Soldiers and abolitionist Frederick Douglass to the first African American inventors, bankers and physicians.

"Black Genocide" offers hard truths regarding the crisis in African American communities, yet, the author suggests, the tragic evidence is not intended to paralyze the reader with despair but to compel exploration. As Bakker states, "After reading "Black Genocide", in all probability, you will question what you thought you already knew."