(News One) — When Ishmael Reed, professor emeritus at California State University-Berkeley, went shopping his book Barack Obama and the Jim Crow Media: The Return of the N-Word Breakers to the American publishing establishment, he came away with one nagging question: Are Black writers with a strong left of center political bent an endangered species in post-racial America? Reed is the author of at least 40 books. His prodigious body of work includes novels, plays, and essay collections. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1975 and MacArthur Genius Award in 1998.
