Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Between the World and Me

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

51 reviews

keyradiator's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

Absolutely breathtaking. Loved damn near every word in this book.

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sellnow_hannah's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

6/5 star

A truly beautiful, moving, and poignant memoir. This is written as a letter to the author’s son about life in a black body in the world of the Dreamers. I read this at the same time as I was listening to The New Jim Crow and this was a great combination. Between the World and Me puts a personal face on some of the themes explored in the more academic New Jim Crow.
Coates’ writing is incredible - almost poetic at many points. I was in awe of his skill and the beauty of his words (and now I want to read his articles for The Atlantic).
As a white, educated woman this book - more than any other I’ve read - made me look closely at my own privilege. While I can never fully understand the experience of living in a black body, this gave a raw, personal, emotional insight into the lives of people Coates describes as living in another galaxy than myself.
I agree with the quote on the jacket, this absolutely should be required reading. This is a book to come back to again and again.

(I don’t rate memoirs below a 4 star because I think it takes a lot of courage to be this vulnerable and share your life story. So for me 4-4.25 is good, 4.5-4.75 is great, 5.0 is fantastic.)

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sarahsbookstacks's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.5

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readingelli's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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nnennaya_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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audc's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.75

It was well penned and put into words the fear of being black.
It’s informative of Coates’ experience and life as a black man in America which is packed with a lot of fear that then turns into anger.
While I agree with the sentiment of Dreamers in America and a majority being white or wanting to be white (ie. having power and authority to inflict destruction), I do not agree with how inflated, fatalist, galactic, racism is portrayed. While it has become cultural and institutionalized -integrated- I do not agree with Coates’ fatalistic view. He ends with the struggle and more of a call for ‘fight for yourself’ instead of strive as a collective.
For this, this book transmits fear and morphs it into anger. As he doesn’t spend nearly as much time on the solution as describing the problem. I can understand where and how he got to his conclusion, but there is a danger in generalising.

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mirandyli's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

What a beautifully written book. Ta-Nehisi Coates is truly an artist with the written word.

Through this letter to his son, he is ending the cycle of generational trauma. However, there is nothing he can do to end the cycle of racism in America. He, like all Black children, was told by everyone to be twice as good. White children aren't told to be twice as good. In fact, they are told to take twice as much.

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