Blessings and Disasters by Alexis Okeowo
Summary of Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama Introduction and the Author’s Perspective Blessings and Disasters by Alexis Okeowo is a multi-generational exploration of Alabama that seeks to uncover an “alternate history” of the state, moving the footnotes and exceptions of the official narrative into the main text. Okeowo, a foreign correspondent who spent a decade writing about Africa, noticed a jarring similarity between how that continent is stereotyped and how the American Deep South is portrayed. Outsiders often view Alabama as a “lost cause” that is too racist, religious, and backward to understand without intervention. However, the author argues that Alabama is home to a complex reality where the best and worst of the American democratic experiment are on full display. Growing up in Montgomery, the author’s childhood was defined by the geographic and social boundaries of the city, from racing her family’s red Plymouth Voyager minivan to the mall to learning the importance of grace and social standing in everyday interactions. Okeowo’s own origin story as the daughter of Nigerian immigrants places her both inside and outside the traditional Black/white racial binary of the state. Her parents met as college students at Alabama State University, a Historically …
