A Profile in Black

A young black American male struggles to develop a sense of racial equality in a world controlled by wealthy whites

Popular television personality Andre Carter's latest novel offers a unique perspective on young black American males and the experiences they have that, for better or worse, shape their attitudes regarding racial acceptance and equality.

A Profile in Black highlights Brandon, a young black man reared in a loving, concerned home in which education is prized. Told in the first person from Brandon's perspective, the novel explores how, in spite of great advancements in science and technology, society at large remains stuck in habits and attitudes that thwart genuine racial equality.

Brandon, whose mother abandoned him when he was an infant, grows up in a single- parent, two-generation household. His father is a hard-working, intelligent, and socially conscious architect, and his paternal grandmother more or less raises him.

This "verbally rambunctious" woman perpetually reminds Brandon that while times and laws have certainly changed for the better, the habits and attitudes of prejudice, hate, and racial separation in America will never change.

Brandon refuses to accept these opinions until he attends one of the top preparatory high schools in the southeast. What he experiences there is a rude awakening and then some, and the attitude he develops hinders his belief in the concept of racial equality.

Brandon's subsequent college experiences and introduction to corporate America further concentrate his disillusionment and growing outrage regarding what it means to be a black man in the United States of America, even in the twenty-first century.

Carter comments, "I wrote this book based on my experiences in private school and in corporate America. What I write about is far from rare, but it's also not the image the media typically portrays of black American males."

For Carter's efforts, A Profile in Black won the Bronze Medal for Urban Fiction in the 2015 IPPY (Independent Book Publishers) Book Awards.