Fred, Gilroy's work offers a critique of notions of identity based on genetics, most particularly in his concept of 'anti-anti-essentialism'. So his conception of Black identity is related to social and cultural processes and practices, rather than essentialist, genetic notions. The book is not exactly a 'page turner' and not the most readily assessible work. Charlie Patton's claims to having been a preacher and some responses to them by the likes of Son House are documented in Calt & Wardlow (1988) King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton and also in Woods (1998) Development Arrested: Race, Power, and the Blues in the Mississippi Delta Brian
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