The Lowdown

Two Recommended Books

by: David Low ’76

Looking for a Face Like Mine (Fine Tooth Press, 2005) by William H. Foster III MALS ’86 is an entertaining and informative collection of the author’s published essays, articles, and interviews that explore the historical portrayal of African Americans in comic books. Though many readers turn to comic books to escape into a fantasy world, Foster finds that a closer examination of this medium can provide interesting insights into the changing image of Black people in American society over time. The book includes surveys of Black male and female superheroes and other characters in comics and pays tribute to African American comic book creators whose work sometimes goes unrecognized.

In Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights (Random House, 2006), Yale University law professor Kenji Yoshino (who spoke on the Wesleyan campus last spring) draws upon his legal expertise and his personal experience as a gay Japanese American to consider how coerced conformity at work and in daily life can pose a hidden threat to our civil rights. As Yoshino writes in the book’s preface: “Everyone covers. To cover is to tone down a disfavored identity to fit into the mainstream.” Racial minorities feel pressured to “act white” by changing their names and cultural habits. Women are expected to “act like men” at work but are penalized when they are “too aggressive.” The highly religious are told to mask any obvious expressions of faith, while gays are obliged to hide public displays of same–sex affection. Yoshino recognizes how the act of covering can thwart our freedom to live authentic and productive lives. Not only does he offer a new way to look at civil rights law, he also reveals how he has struggled to remain true to himself.