The Best American Essays Chapter Summary & Analysis - The Public Sphere: On Being Black and Middle Class, The Killing Game, and The Dramaturgy of Death Summary

The Public Sphere: On Being Black and Middle Class, The Killing Game, and The Dramaturgy of Death Summary and Analysis

On Being Black and Middle Class by Shelby Steele: Steele considers the tension between two of the largest components of his identity: He is both black and middle class. In the sixties, the black movement defined itself along class lines; the prototypical black man was the poor black living in the ghetto. The middle class was seen as the black man's exploiter and oppressor. Naturally, this perception caused a great conflict in Steele, for he was simultaneously cast as both victim and victimizer.

The Killing Game by Joy Williams: Williams denounces the cruelty of modern hunting practices which, she says, revolves around a barbaric delight in killing another living thing. She systematically refutes all of the various excuses hunters produce for their "sport." For example, they say that if hunters do not hunt then populations will grow out of control. They use this excuse...
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