Reviews

• Five Stars

  I did not like the style it was written, but formable.

• Big brother has always been watching!!!!

  As described. New unread. I'm looking forward to delving into the history contained in this novel.

• This is the Perfect Example of Structural Racism...

  It's better to know than not to. Thus, every Black writer should at least glance at F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover's Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature. I'm glad I read it. In my head, I like to think of myself as an expert on African American literature. I am not. I learned quite a bit from this text. This book is organized by thesis. Thus the actual subject matter is sort of scattered throughout the book. I definitely wish the information was arranged chronologically. Nonetheless, this books is all about COINTELPRO. America's Counter Intelligence program administered by the FBI. And honestly, there was quite a bit of snooping and stopping, antagonizing, before COINTELPRO was formally established. The first thing to understand while reading this book is this is NOT the entire story. The file of Alain Locke, an early Black philosopher, was lost. Possibly moved. Other files were intentionally destroyed. The second thing to note, is that this book will not help you understand the role of intelligence agencies on the American literary scene now. Third, this book only deals with the FBI, if you want to know what the CIA or NSA has done to Black intellectuals, historically, you'll have to do research elsewhere. The most important conclusion that I took away from this book is -- Oh, this is what people mean when they talk about "Structural Racism". When I've heard talks of structural racism, I've heard accounts of slavery and accounts of predominately white universities. Now I understand the role of American intelligence agencies in the structure and proliferation of prejudice. I get it now. And so the best men of counterintelligence, "CI", were critics of English literature. Some the spy-products of the Yale English department. And so, some literary journals were actually funded by the CIA. And so there were FBI agents in Sonia Sanchez's early Black studies courses. And so the CIA was a possible precursor of the National Endowment of the Arts. Now, I see. If you control the literary cannon of a nation, you control how people think. And if you control how people think, you ultimately control the people. I admit, I had a very Hollywood build conception of espionage. I assumed it was people running around with weapons, prying into aspects of American life. Now, my understanding of intelligence includes reading through American literature, ghostwriting, listening and watching at Black owned bookstores, going to poetry open mics, infiltrating activist meetings in addition to bugging telephones and controlling international travel via passports. Through a different media, I learned that the pentagon owns many American publications. Through a different media, I found out that one of my favorite Black publications was run by a Skull and Bones man. Through a different media, I learned that the FBI and CIA are still interrogating great Black minds based off of what they read and listen to. This is the structure of racism. They never taught me in English class that the FBI or CIA controls the literary canon. I thought that if you knew the right people and you publish in the right places and you go to the right universities then you have a shot and being read for posterity. Now, I see there are FBI/CIA informants and agents at the universities and the literary journals and the literary grants. This book didn't cover the FBI/CIA presence in the American Historical Association, the American Philosophical Society or the American Literature Association. But now I wonder, just how deep American intelligence goes. And, I suppose, I am supposed to believe that America gave up it's foothold on Intellectual Thought after J. Edgar Hoover died? Amiri Baraka believed that the FBI killed Richard Wright. And personally, I think there are a few pages missing from the 700 page Amiri Baraka file. After all, Baraka did write a poem about Who Blew Up America. You could write 700 pages on that poem alone. And since Lorraine Hansberry died before the age of 40, I don't understand how her file ended up being over 1,000 pages long. I want to see those 1,000 pages for myself. Undidacted. I had never heard about Gloria Naylor's 1996 until now. I'll take the recommendation and read it.

• Five Stars

  Great book.

• Could have been so much better

  With the material he had to work with, I would have expected a lot more. In fact, the only reason I gave it two stars is that if you can sift through this disorganized text, you can find some nuggets. The link to the case files is, in fact, more interesting than the book itself. There is no question that the FBI and the rest of the government abused power over the course of the 20th century, but I am convinced that there are other books that better demonstrate that overreach. This is another in a long line of recent books that are preaching to the anti-national security state choir. All the right people sitting around the coffee shop will cheer. Everyone else is left with a barely readable disappointment.

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