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badatplants's review
5.0
“I do not believe we can stop them, Samori, because they ultimately must stop themselves.” White friends please please please read this book
gatz07's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
daumari's review against another edition
5.0
Essential reading- though written as a series of letter/essays aimed at his 15 year old son, BtWaM is important for standing in the shoes and understanding the Black experience in the United States, a perspective necessary for comprehending current events (especially if unfamiliar to you- I've had chats about anthem protests with people who genuinely seem to think it's bad because 'you shouldn't protest on the clock in a private job' without seeing the bigger picture).
kimmaloo's review against another edition
5.0
Everybody should read or listen to this book. The audio is excellent and read by the author.
wolfsonarchitect's review against another edition
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Gripping message and beautiful prose.
andotherworlds's review against another edition
5.0
5 // MUST READ - some of the best prose I’ve ever read PERIOD
outcolder's review against another edition
I'm not sure if it is a strength or a weakness of this book that he doesn't really discuss strategy or tactics. The point seems to be, he sees that his son is going through some identity stuff, so he describes his own path to some revelations, for example, that all of human culture and achievement belongs to all humans: The Tolstoy of the Zulus is Tolstoy. That journey is beautiful and a big help for everyone with that kind of baggage, whether or not your life is under constant threat of violence.
Also, school sucks, but afterwards, you can wind up at a place like Howard and learn what you really need to learn.
That said, I feel like it kind of leaves us hanging. If you are someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates' son, then you can have all these opportunities, not grow up in constant fear and other advantages, but, you can still just be killed like Coates's friend Prince Jones or like Trayvon. But what do you do about it? Just try to become a part of a nationwide bourgeois dinner table discussion about race in the hope of discovering the magic words to wake the people who think they are white from the Dream?
Coates can't get with the non-violent organizations and figures of the 1950s and early 1960s, and the Black Panthers get only one mention, and the kind of Afrocentrism that the Panthers rejected is also discarded, but then where does that leave you? It is better if white dudes like me just stay out of conversations about Black Nationalism or a specifically Black Freedom Struggle, I mean, telling Black people how to fight... I am not going to do that. But for me, I think those non-violent cats were and are a lot more complicated than whatever Coates got about them in Baltimore public schools and for people who want to be active in the kinds of struggles that people lately are calling social justice, there is a lot there to consider.
Coates name drops some shero women, mostly authors and poets, and he talks about real women in his real life who changed his path, but I was disappointed that his 90s, hip hop inspired exploration of Nationalism seems to have missed all those women in the Panthers and the other movements... especially Angela Davis who was also profiled in Vibe and the Source back then. That a book from a father to a son is pretty manly is to be expected I guess, but I was wishing for an index so I could really count how many times Malcolm gets "a dap" compared with the people who actually did the real work on the streets. No disrespect to Malcolm, I'm just saying.
This book is about some heavy stuff but it is a real page turner, an enjoyable read (for a gloomy guy like me anyway), it would only take an afternoon or so if you can block out that much time. And it seems like in lieu of something more exciting, reading this book can prepare you for that bourgeois dinner table discussion I mentioned above, and weak as that sometimes seems, it is a conversation worth having!
Also, school sucks, but afterwards, you can wind up at a place like Howard and learn what you really need to learn.
That said, I feel like it kind of leaves us hanging. If you are someone like Ta-Nehisi Coates' son, then you can have all these opportunities, not grow up in constant fear and other advantages, but, you can still just be killed like Coates's friend Prince Jones or like Trayvon. But what do you do about it? Just try to become a part of a nationwide bourgeois dinner table discussion about race in the hope of discovering the magic words to wake the people who think they are white from the Dream?
Coates can't get with the non-violent organizations and figures of the 1950s and early 1960s, and the Black Panthers get only one mention, and the kind of Afrocentrism that the Panthers rejected is also discarded, but then where does that leave you? It is better if white dudes like me just stay out of conversations about Black Nationalism or a specifically Black Freedom Struggle, I mean, telling Black people how to fight... I am not going to do that. But for me, I think those non-violent cats were and are a lot more complicated than whatever Coates got about them in Baltimore public schools and for people who want to be active in the kinds of struggles that people lately are calling social justice, there is a lot there to consider.
Coates name drops some shero women, mostly authors and poets, and he talks about real women in his real life who changed his path, but I was disappointed that his 90s, hip hop inspired exploration of Nationalism seems to have missed all those women in the Panthers and the other movements... especially Angela Davis who was also profiled in Vibe and the Source back then. That a book from a father to a son is pretty manly is to be expected I guess, but I was wishing for an index so I could really count how many times Malcolm gets "a dap" compared with the people who actually did the real work on the streets. No disrespect to Malcolm, I'm just saying.
This book is about some heavy stuff but it is a real page turner, an enjoyable read (for a gloomy guy like me anyway), it would only take an afternoon or so if you can block out that much time. And it seems like in lieu of something more exciting, reading this book can prepare you for that bourgeois dinner table discussion I mentioned above, and weak as that sometimes seems, it is a conversation worth having!