In the interview, Owens discusses some of his life experiences that led to the book’s challenging critique of ideas surrounding Black Americans’ identity.  His examination of the terms “Black American” and “African American” are an especially interesting part of the book, which Owens also touches on in the interview in regard to Black Americans’ efforts to “carve out an identity from the American experience.”

Owens also notes the role of Hip Hop as a polarizing element in considerations of Black identity.  The author describes the need for Hip Hop to reshape itself in order to make a more positive impact, and his book effectively puts this vital and controversial movement in proper context as part of an effort to reach a consensus on Black identity.

Some of the author’s solutions to the “broken identity” of Black Americans are also discussed, including the need to re-educate and re-tell the early aspirations of Black Americans.  In Owens’s words,

“‘Black History Month’ was never the goal.  Black history is American history.”

This YouTube video is an excellent introduction to the book’s themes, and the author’s website is full of interesting resources on Black history and links to some of Owens’ other writings.

Yes I Am Who I Am is available at local bookstores, including Full Circle, as well as online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

Owens grew up in a segregated community in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but his experiences in a predominantly White, Catholic high school gave him a unique perspective on issues of racial identity and their effects on Americans’ worldviews.  During his career in the United States Navy, Owens was named the USS Los Alamos’s “Sailor of the Year” in 1990 and also served as an instructor at the Great Lakes Training Station.  Owens later completed a Master’s degree in Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the same college where his father worked as a custodian for many years.

Owens’s book has been described by one critic as “part history, part memoir, part reflection,” and ”ultimately a hope-filled summons to Blacks to embrace and claim their full identities as Americans.”  His critical examination of the term “African American” is a particularly thought-provoking element of the book, which also presents solutions to the challenges all Americans face to, as another commentator describes it, “become who you are.”

This compelling YouTube video is an excellent introduction to the book’s themes and the broader question of “what it means to be Black in America.”

Michael Owens will be appearing at Full Circle Bookstore this Saturday, February 21, to discuss and sign copies of Yes, I Am, Who I Am from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.