Daniels, Cora

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Daniels, Cora

PERSONAL:

Married; children: one daughter. Education: Yale University, B.A.; Columbia University, M.S.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Asbury Park Press, Neptune, NJ, former metro reporter; Gannett Suburban Newspapers (now The Journal News), White Plains, NY, former business reporter; Working Mother, former editor; Fortune, former staff writer; commentator for television and radio, including for CNN, CNBC, BET, and NPR, and on ABC News and the Charlie Rose Show.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Has received awards for journalism.

WRITINGS:

Black Power Inc.: The New Voice of Success, John Wiley (Hoboken, NJ), 2004.

Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to periodicals, including O: The Oprah Magazine, Fortune Small Business, Savoy, Heart & Soul, USA Today, and the New York Times. Contributing writer and editor to Essence, Fast Company, and Men's Fitness.

SIDELIGHTS:

Journalist Cora Daniels has worked as a reporter for magazines and newspapers, specializing in business issues, about which she has commented on radio and television programs such as the Charlie Rose Show. Her first two books focus on black issues and business. In the first, Black Power Inc.: The New Voice of Success, she discusses the experiences of the generation of African Americans who have benefited from their parents' efforts to gain freedoms during the civil rights movement. Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless, her next publication, discusses how the ghetto culture has been exploited by corporate America, much to the disadvantage of black people everywhere. She also laments how the ghetto attitude has degraded American popular culture.

The inspiration for writing Black Power Inc. came from a 2002 cover story Daniels wrote for Fortune magazine titled "The 50 Most Powerful Black Executives in Corporate America." Expanding the article into a book, "Daniels reveals how far some of the post-Civil Rights generation has come and discloses how very far they still must go to get to the promised land of racial equality," related Rondall Brasher in a review on the African American Literature Book Club Web site. "She discusses openly how the civil rights movement has allowed African-Americans to accomplish more than our parents could have dreamt." Among the mostly thirty-something professionals she interviews are bankers, stock traders, and venture capitalists. While on the surface, these people seem to have integrated well into a corporate culture still dominated by whites, there is an underlying racial separation between them that is subtle but still present. Daniels also notes that many black professionals prefer to live and socialize with other African Americans after office hours. "This need for sanctuary may speak volumes that racial progress has its limits," observed Vernon Ford in a Booklist review. Through her interviews, the author forms new criteria for the next generation in the Black Power movement, including the growing importance of the role of black women professionals. Brasher called the results "a must have for anyone who thinks they know the rules of the game."

In Ghettonation, Daniels defines "ghetto" as a mindset and argues that it is no longer about where you live, but how you live. Daniels felt that she needed to write a book on this subject after "Paris Hilton, a rich white girl with a huge bank account and a brazen sex tape, commented about a track being ‘so ghetto,’" remarked Robert Fleming in a Black Issues Book Review article. Interviewing people in her New York City neighborhood, the author gets a feel for the ghetto attitude and how many people believe that "being ghetto" equates with being more black. "Sorry, it just makes you more ghetto," Daniels commented in an interview on the Nat Turner's Revenge Web site. The problem with this is not only that embracing such a culture lowers one's expectations for succeeding in society, but it also makes one vulnerable to exploitation from businesses. Daniels sees corporate America as taking advantage of the ghetto culture to sell everything from tennis shoes to rap music performed by rich musicians pretending to come from the ghetto. "So if we are dumb enough to degrade ourselves we shouldn't be surprised when companies figure out how to make a buck off our degradation," she said in the interview.

Some critics accused Daniels of being an elitist for writing Ghettonation, as the Nat Turner's Revenge contributor reported, but the author responded that this is a misconception. "I think when folks call the argument I am making an ‘elitist, anti-poor person, bourgie rant’ they are revealing their own biases," she insisted, adding that "nowhere in those 200 pages [of my book] do I limit ghetto to poor or to Black." Instead, in her view, ghetto crosses race and class lines. Other reviewers appreciated the satirical tone Daniels adopts in her commentary to help get her point across. "Infused with humor and entertaining asides—including lists of events and people that the author nominates for the Ghetto Hall of Fame, and a short section written entirely in ghetto slang—Ghettonation is a timely and engrossing report on a controversial social phenomenon," stated a critic on the Fresh Fiction Web site. Fleming similarly enjoyed the "satirical ‘stand-up’ … which is full of hilarious belly laughs that end in a straight face." Despite such humor, though, the serious message comes through. To quote from her book: "The danger when the worst that a community has to offer becomes the mainstream is that other, perhaps more uplifting, realities from that community get ignored." Entertainment Weekly contributor Laini Madhubuti concluded that, while Daniels is not necessarily breaking new ground with Ghettonation, she "widens the scope in a way that is blunt, personal, and challenging."

Daniels told CA: "I actually don't remember ever not liking writing. I was always writing stories and poems when I was young for fun in homemade journals. When I was in high school I joined the school newspaper and a big light bulb went off in my head that writing did not have to be a hobby but a profession. And I set my sights on becoming a journalist.

"I am a journalist—that is at the core of my writing—so, honestly, everything around me influences me. It is my duty to observe the world I live in and pay attention to moments that most people overlook. I think most people make the mistake of thinking of journalists as these obnoxious folks who ask a lot of questions. But the good journalists know how to listen. Sometimes the most important thing said is that which is not said. The goal is to uncover the stories that are not being told—and, as a writer, to give voice to those stories.

"I write because I want to make people think. Think about something they did not know before. Think about something differently that they did know. If my writing can make people stop and stumble and question then I've done my job. Because once you begin to question the world around you action will follow."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Black Issues Book Review, March 1, 2007, Robert Fleming, review of Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless, p. 27.

Booklist, May 15, 2004, Vernon Ford, review of Black Power Inc.: The New Voice of Success, p. 1585; April 1, 2007, Vernon Ford, review of Ghettonation, p. 8.

Diverse Issues in Higher Education, April 19, 2007, "Putting Ghetto on Blast," interview with Cora Daniels, p. 9.

Entertainment Weekly, April 20, 2007, Laini Madhubuti, review of Ghettonation, p. 67.

Journal of Organizational Excellence, winter, 2005, LaRoi Lawton, review of Black Power Inc.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2004, review of Black Power Inc., p. 103.

Washington Post Book World, April 1, 2007, Williams Jelani Cobb, review of Ghettonation, p. 4.