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4.45 AVERAGE
4.45 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
fast-paced
(7/26/21)!!!! I am dumbstruck and have no words outside of "Spectacular!!!" Please, just read this.
(8/12/21) This was a great read. The writing is clear, affirming, yet probing. This is the type of art that provides a quickening in the blood and consciousness yet still pushes the reader to almost “make use of their hands” and engage in praxis. This books marks a revisiting of truthful and common sense rendering of history that a nuanced commentary of the present. The book does more than attack this leviathan we call Capitalism/racism, white supremacy/ misogyny, it showcases its mortality by pointing to the delusions that empower and the desperate mechanisms used to protect it.
I was floored by the last chapter. Smith could have ended the book without it, leaving the reader in a dazed and intellectually satisfied-haze that we all experience after reading a compelling work. But he went further by writing himself into the book, his fears, anxiety, sense of urgency, and more so his own interest in seeing a more imaginative and honest world.
(8/12/21) This was a great read. The writing is clear, affirming, yet probing. This is the type of art that provides a quickening in the blood and consciousness yet still pushes the reader to almost “make use of their hands” and engage in praxis. This books marks a revisiting of truthful and common sense rendering of history that a nuanced commentary of the present. The book does more than attack this leviathan we call Capitalism/racism, white supremacy/ misogyny, it showcases its mortality by pointing to the delusions that empower and the desperate mechanisms used to protect it.
I was floored by the last chapter. Smith could have ended the book without it, leaving the reader in a dazed and intellectually satisfied-haze that we all experience after reading a compelling work. But he went further by writing himself into the book, his fears, anxiety, sense of urgency, and more so his own interest in seeing a more imaginative and honest world.
Woahhhh. Talk about an unflinching CRITIQUE of the myths, lies and fragility around the “American Dream!!!”
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
In Stakes is High, Mychael Denzel Smith challenges us to wrestle with what it means to be an "American" as well as the concept of American exceptionalism. In the backdrop are analyses of racism, misogyny, capitalism, and poverty. Smith also prompts us to expand our imagination of what our society could be in his discussion what is needed for a world without police or prisons.
One thing I appreciated in particular was how much historical context is a part of Smith analysis. Not only is there history, but there are the voices of many groundbreaking theorists, political figures, artists, and activists echoed throughout this book from Shirley Chisolm and Angela Davis to Gil Scott Herron and Ralph Ellison. It's also a highlight in the sense that the current moment of Trump and vocal white supremacist sentiment isn't discussed as existing in a sociopolitical vacuum or as an aberration, but rather, an inevitability. In discussing Trump, Smith says:
"America always returns to itself... Trump secured the nomination because at least one major American political party has always explicitly or implicitly endorsed white supremacy as the ruling ideology... An institution created for the protection of white supremacy installed that white supremacist into the nation’s highest office. The system worked precisely as it was intended to."
A brilliant, truthful and timely read that helps to make sense of our seemingly senseless times and leads us to interrogate our view of society as it is while opening up our political and social imaginations to work toward what it could be.
One thing I appreciated in particular was how much historical context is a part of Smith analysis. Not only is there history, but there are the voices of many groundbreaking theorists, political figures, artists, and activists echoed throughout this book from Shirley Chisolm and Angela Davis to Gil Scott Herron and Ralph Ellison. It's also a highlight in the sense that the current moment of Trump and vocal white supremacist sentiment isn't discussed as existing in a sociopolitical vacuum or as an aberration, but rather, an inevitability. In discussing Trump, Smith says:
"America always returns to itself... Trump secured the nomination because at least one major American political party has always explicitly or implicitly endorsed white supremacy as the ruling ideology... An institution created for the protection of white supremacy installed that white supremacist into the nation’s highest office. The system worked precisely as it was intended to."
A brilliant, truthful and timely read that helps to make sense of our seemingly senseless times and leads us to interrogate our view of society as it is while opening up our political and social imaginations to work toward what it could be.
A dis track to the United States of America, but make it a book.
Stakes is High diligently explores the delusion of what American is and the monsters it has created. By believing in what is the American Dream we have basically bought into in a myth.
“A nation unwilling to tell the truth about itself to itself will circle its delusions until there is nothing left to tether it to reality.” Pg 158
Smith talks about several different topics at length that demonstrate why the American dream is essentially a bunch of BS— the lack of justice in terms policing, the fact that we have created a society where some men like Bill Cosby and Jeffery Epstein can get away with heinous acts of sexual violence, and the fact that Donald Trump was elected as president, evidence of what the American Dream actually produced to which Smith poses a very good question:
“Is the potential for the American Dream worth enduring the brutality of American Life?”
If the American Dream produces men like freaking Donald Trump, is this what we really want?! Heck no. Smith poses we need real revolution. I’ll leave you with this quote which adequately summarizes the point of this book:
“I hope I can convince you to feel alongside me: stakes is high. They have never been higher. Our very survival is on the line. And I am writing not just to convince you that stakes is high but that something can be done about it. Revolution must be swift and uncompromising; it will be scary and potentially violent. Before it can be any of those things, it must be though of as 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 thecourage to move past the discomfort of such honesty toward the tremendous task of building a future worthy of our best ideals. It will ask us to have faith.”
Stakes is High diligently explores the delusion of what American is and the monsters it has created. By believing in what is the American Dream we have basically bought into in a myth.
“A nation unwilling to tell the truth about itself to itself will circle its delusions until there is nothing left to tether it to reality.” Pg 158
Smith talks about several different topics at length that demonstrate why the American dream is essentially a bunch of BS— the lack of justice in terms policing, the fact that we have created a society where some men like Bill Cosby and Jeffery Epstein can get away with heinous acts of sexual violence, and the fact that Donald Trump was elected as president, evidence of what the American Dream actually produced to which Smith poses a very good question:
“Is the potential for the American Dream worth enduring the brutality of American Life?”
If the American Dream produces men like freaking Donald Trump, is this what we really want?! Heck no. Smith poses we need real revolution. I’ll leave you with this quote which adequately summarizes the point of this book:
“I hope I can convince you to feel alongside me: stakes is high. They have never been higher. Our very survival is on the line. And I am writing not just to convince you that stakes is high but that something can be done about it. Revolution must be swift and uncompromising; it will be scary and potentially violent. Before it can be any of those things, it must be though of as 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 thecourage to move past the discomfort of such honesty toward the tremendous task of building a future worthy of our best ideals. It will ask us to have faith.”
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
informative
medium-paced
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Holy moly, I gotta read it again. Every page is a gem. Every line is one to sit with. Mychal Denzel Smith writes with such stinging clarity. He holds nothing back and says exactly what he means and the power in that precision is just utter perfection. Absolutely loved this book