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4.45 AVERAGE
4.45 AVERAGE
This is my first Mychal Denzel Smith book, and I will tell you right now, I will be reading this a second time before January is up! I saw my experience in Mychal’s words and felt validation in his challenge of America’s storying of its myths, facts, and truths. His connection to Black Feminism was definitive and consistent with an understanding of how we get free today in America. Loved his examples about NYC neighborhoods, trash, homelessness, MAGA hats, the acceptance of America’s heroes without acknowledgement of its villains, mentions of Fredrick Douglas, MLK, and more.
Affirming work!
Affirming work!
This is so good. I would have liked it to be longer. I think Mychal Denzel Smith has more to say and I'm listening.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Police brutality, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Colonisation
Minor: Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic
“Myth can be where the imagination flourishes, where we tell stories about our ideal world. Such stories can contain the values we wish to uphold, the principles we believe must guide us, and the moral clarity to build systems that center empathy, care, justice, and equality. Without this imagining, there is no revolution. Where America has fucked up is by telling the myth as a history—pretending that who we want to be is who we have always been—then building a proud and belligerent national identity out of the myth. American myths obscure a shameful past and protect the powerful.”
A clear and succinct diagnosis of America’s pathologies and a breakdown of the collective myths, delusions, and lies we use to prop ourselves up. The tone strikes an interesting balance between urgency and disillusionment, which feels appropriate for its subject matter. The essays jump around in focus quite a bit, at times from paragraph to paragraph, and I admired the way Smith drew connections across disparate subjects. At the same time, I was occasionally uncertain as to what Smith was trying to accomplish with each essay, and at a few points I would have appreciated more of a close look at a single issue instead of a weaving together of a variety of distinct topics. I am hoping to explore the work of the writers and thinkers Smith draws on to get that deeper dive. That said, a searing read that felt very fitting for this moment.
A clear and succinct diagnosis of America’s pathologies and a breakdown of the collective myths, delusions, and lies we use to prop ourselves up. The tone strikes an interesting balance between urgency and disillusionment, which feels appropriate for its subject matter. The essays jump around in focus quite a bit, at times from paragraph to paragraph, and I admired the way Smith drew connections across disparate subjects. At the same time, I was occasionally uncertain as to what Smith was trying to accomplish with each essay, and at a few points I would have appreciated more of a close look at a single issue instead of a weaving together of a variety of distinct topics. I am hoping to explore the work of the writers and thinkers Smith draws on to get that deeper dive. That said, a searing read that felt very fitting for this moment.
There were so many times as I was reading this that I felt utter anger. At our society, our political climate, our history as a nation, but ultimately at myself. As good of a person as I believe I am, this book grabbed me by the collar and forced me to look in the mirror at the harm I have caused others by my good intentions, and my compliance of the racial injustices that have plagued our nation for centuries.
Broken down into 4 parts: Delusions, Justice, Accountability, and Freedom, Smith walks us through our history of what it means to be American, how we got to where we are today, and how we can move forward leaving the reader with the urgent message that “…stakes is high. They have never been higher. Our very survival is on the line.”
After the election of Donald Trump, many Americans were left asking, “how could this have happened?” and stating, “this is not who we are”, when in fact the lead up to his presidency has been coming since America was colonized and it is indeed “who we are”. After the election of Trump, “good white liberal folks….have since been in mourning of their America, where it was promised that hard work and determination would grant upon anyone who desired it the opportunity for a better life.” While it is no secret that the idea of lifting oneself up by his own bootstraps is racist in and of itself, Smith’s breakdown of how white liberals viewed this presidency was spot-on. Folks who want us to “get back to normal” must realize that “’normal is no solution for those who never existed in normal's good graces’”.
Smith points out that the scarceness of trash cans (and city workers to empty them) in “the hood” in NYC leads to more litter, which leads to outsiders believing its inhabitants simply don’t care about their surroundings and that there is a lack of respect for the environment when in reality it is a simple example of a conscious governmental decision to not provide Black and Brown communities the basic resources needed.
He covers how the Cosby show and its (inaccurate) demonstration of being Black in America gave white people a pass, “For thirty minutes, a color-blind reality, wherein white people had no responsibility for black success or failure, was possible.”
I really appreciated the quotes from Audre Lorde, Otessa Moshfegh, Rebecca Solnit, Shirley Chisolm, and others. My one critique is that I found most of the book to be hyper-focused on New York, and felt it would be more powerful had he included other cultural landscapes.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“..Justice is a proactive commitment to providing each person with the material and social conditions in which they can both survive and thrive as a healthy and self-actualized human being”.
On accountability, he quotes Angela Davis, “Prison relieves us of the responsibility of serious engaging with the problems of our society”.
“…what becomes illegal is…that which the powerful have deemed inconvenient to their maintenance of power”.
“Where America has fucked up is by telling the myth as history- pretending that who we want to be is who we have always been- then building a proud and belligerent national identity out of the myth. American myths obscure a shameful past and protect the powerful”.
“Choosing a new story cannot mean denying the old one. Doing so only leaves you with delusions of your own making.”
“Hard work is not in and of itself virtuous, though the unofficial American credo would have us believe otherwise. But convincing people that hard work is its own reward is a prime tool in the arsenal deployed by the capitalist class to ensure they never have to relinquish their ill-gotten wealth. They convince others that they already have their share.”
“Revolution must be swift and uncompromising; it will be scary and potentially violent. Before it can be any of those things, it must be thought of a possible. It must be a meaningful political stance that we take, to believe our future is worth the fight, worth the sacrifice. It will require our radical honesty about who we have been, who we are now, and the courage to move past the discomfort of such honesty toward the tremendous tsk of building a future worthy of our best ideals. It will ask us to have faith”
"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule', philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in On the Concept of History in 1940, and it endures. The nation finds itself in crisis, fretting over what comes next, debating what temporary measures can be taken to bring back normality even as it slips further away. But normal is no solution for those who never existed in normal's good graces. There ar those of us who can retreat to a fantastical America, and those of us who are always here- stuck".
Broken down into 4 parts: Delusions, Justice, Accountability, and Freedom, Smith walks us through our history of what it means to be American, how we got to where we are today, and how we can move forward leaving the reader with the urgent message that “…stakes is high. They have never been higher. Our very survival is on the line.”
After the election of Donald Trump, many Americans were left asking, “how could this have happened?” and stating, “this is not who we are”, when in fact the lead up to his presidency has been coming since America was colonized and it is indeed “who we are”. After the election of Trump, “good white liberal folks….have since been in mourning of their America, where it was promised that hard work and determination would grant upon anyone who desired it the opportunity for a better life.” While it is no secret that the idea of lifting oneself up by his own bootstraps is racist in and of itself, Smith’s breakdown of how white liberals viewed this presidency was spot-on. Folks who want us to “get back to normal” must realize that “’normal is no solution for those who never existed in normal's good graces’”.
Smith points out that the scarceness of trash cans (and city workers to empty them) in “the hood” in NYC leads to more litter, which leads to outsiders believing its inhabitants simply don’t care about their surroundings and that there is a lack of respect for the environment when in reality it is a simple example of a conscious governmental decision to not provide Black and Brown communities the basic resources needed.
He covers how the Cosby show and its (inaccurate) demonstration of being Black in America gave white people a pass, “For thirty minutes, a color-blind reality, wherein white people had no responsibility for black success or failure, was possible.”
I really appreciated the quotes from Audre Lorde, Otessa Moshfegh, Rebecca Solnit, Shirley Chisolm, and others. My one critique is that I found most of the book to be hyper-focused on New York, and felt it would be more powerful had he included other cultural landscapes.
Here are a few of my favorite quotes:
“..Justice is a proactive commitment to providing each person with the material and social conditions in which they can both survive and thrive as a healthy and self-actualized human being”.
On accountability, he quotes Angela Davis, “Prison relieves us of the responsibility of serious engaging with the problems of our society”.
“…what becomes illegal is…that which the powerful have deemed inconvenient to their maintenance of power”.
“Where America has fucked up is by telling the myth as history- pretending that who we want to be is who we have always been- then building a proud and belligerent national identity out of the myth. American myths obscure a shameful past and protect the powerful”.
“Choosing a new story cannot mean denying the old one. Doing so only leaves you with delusions of your own making.”
“Hard work is not in and of itself virtuous, though the unofficial American credo would have us believe otherwise. But convincing people that hard work is its own reward is a prime tool in the arsenal deployed by the capitalist class to ensure they never have to relinquish their ill-gotten wealth. They convince others that they already have their share.”
“Revolution must be swift and uncompromising; it will be scary and potentially violent. Before it can be any of those things, it must be thought of a possible. It must be a meaningful political stance that we take, to believe our future is worth the fight, worth the sacrifice. It will require our radical honesty about who we have been, who we are now, and the courage to move past the discomfort of such honesty toward the tremendous tsk of building a future worthy of our best ideals. It will ask us to have faith”
"The tradition of the oppressed teaches us that the 'state of emergency' in which we live is not the exception but the rule', philosopher Walter Benjamin wrote in On the Concept of History in 1940, and it endures. The nation finds itself in crisis, fretting over what comes next, debating what temporary measures can be taken to bring back normality even as it slips further away. But normal is no solution for those who never existed in normal's good graces. There ar those of us who can retreat to a fantastical America, and those of us who are always here- stuck".
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The stand-out essay from this book was "Accountability," an exploration of the connections between incarceration, patriarchy, sexual abuse, and justice in which Smith forges new and persuasive connections.
This is a perfect counterpart to Eddie Glaude's Begin Again; both have greatly informed my stance on America's current political landscape as we transition out of Trump's presidency.
This is a perfect counterpart to Eddie Glaude's Begin Again; both have greatly informed my stance on America's current political landscape as we transition out of Trump's presidency.
Very good read on important topics and the writing style is eloquent, relatable and interesting.