"Black is being so shiftless and lazy you scrub floors six days a week"

Begins with Dictionary definition of "Black" -- with ALL negative definitions. Racism apparent in the Merriam Webster. No editorial comment or highlight of such omissions as good black economy as in not being in "red", or black letter law. Scientifically, "black" is ALL, all color, all elements, all people. After all, dictionaries rarely define "White" as etiolated vacant and diseased. The text is carefully crafted to present the naked injustice of racism. The twistedness of the racist lens. The distortion.

Ends with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Black is Beautiful". We note the biblical "Black AND Beautiful" of Song of Songs, 1:4-5. An entire book of the Bible sung by and to a beautiful Black woman.

The artwork by Ann Weisman is heart-breaking and well-matched to the pithy libretto by Brown.

Read it while working. Great illustrations. ( )