U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said average Americans do not talk enough about things racial. "Blackspanic College" is an average American’s contribution to that conversation.

It’s also a funny, provocative and uplifting true story about a white, middle-class journalist who becomes a teacher and faculty adviser for the student newspaper at a mostly black and Hispanic community college in South-Central Los Angeles.

Initially overwhelmed, he’s befriended by some of the students, especially Blackjack Loco, a "retired" gangbanger fresh out of prison, and the wall between insecure teacher and semi-feral students, and black and white, starts to crack. Against the backdrop of 9/11, he’s accused of being a racist, forcing students to choose between old and new alliances. He regains the students' respect when he assigns his public relations class to create a P.R. campaign to bring peace to the Middle East, and explains the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in terms of ethnic frictions in America.

Filled with irreverent wit and wry observations about all things ethnic, if there’s a moral to the story, it’s that sometimes things aren’t black and white. And as America becomes more like its 44th president, places like Blackspanic College will become ever more precious and perishable.

"'Blackspanic College' is about America on the verge of Barack Obama, and some may find it politically incorrect," Koplowitz says. "My intent was not to offend, but to shine a light on a racial abyss that’s not a physical location, but a place inside of all of us."

A former news editor in Los Angeles, H.B. Koplowitz also wrote "Carbondale After Dark," an illustrated anthology about a Midwest college town in the riotous 1960s and partying '70s. He has been a journalist, educator and publicist who ghostwrote a book for an Illinois governor who did not go to prison.

"Blackspanic College" is available for $19.95 at hbkoplowitz.com, Amazon.com and select bookstores. For more information on H.B. Koplowitz and his writings, and to read a prequel short story called "Racial Baggage," visit hbkoplowitz.com.

---

"Blackspanic College," by H.B. Koplowitz, Dome Publications, 978-0-9791393-1-4, $19.95

Buy Books Here