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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!
youngthespian42's review against another edition
3.0
I really struggle with my relationship with this book. I do not believe that authorial intention matters and this book hit me at the right time in the uprising for racial justice after the murder of George Floyd in my hometown of Minneapolis.
This book spoke to me on an emotional and human level. It is written so poetically and brutally that I do think is captures a lot of the emotional experience of being Black in America and dealing with our challenging legacy of race.
That being said it feels like this book has taken on a life of the face of the fervor of anti-racism. A large group of people in the anti-racism coalition have taken this book up as nonfiction or pure factual. While this book references historical events I find it pretty intellectually lacking in rigor. In a world where Howard Zinn's People History of the United States exists, or the excellent documentary Exterminate all the Brutes by Raoul Peck it feels offensive to pass this book off as scholarly work.
While I find this book is culturally relevant and immensely powerful I am concerned with the context it is being spread around in.
This book spoke to me on an emotional and human level. It is written so poetically and brutally that I do think is captures a lot of the emotional experience of being Black in America and dealing with our challenging legacy of race.
That being said it feels like this book has taken on a life of the face of the fervor of anti-racism. A large group of people in the anti-racism coalition have taken this book up as nonfiction or pure factual. While this book references historical events I find it pretty intellectually lacking in rigor. In a world where Howard Zinn's People History of the United States exists, or the excellent documentary Exterminate all the Brutes by Raoul Peck it feels offensive to pass this book off as scholarly work.
While I find this book is culturally relevant and immensely powerful I am concerned with the context it is being spread around in.
natalie_is_reading's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars
I read between the world and me back in high school for class yet when I saw it on my shelf I realized I didn’t remember anything from it. So I decided to give it a reread and it was great to take my time and ponder it a bit more than I did when I was required to read it. This book is excellent !
I read between the world and me back in high school for class yet when I saw it on my shelf I realized I didn’t remember anything from it. So I decided to give it a reread and it was great to take my time and ponder it a bit more than I did when I was required to read it. This book is excellent !
cfmosely's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
carlyxdeexx's review against another edition
5.0
I felt my perspective alter while reading this. I’m not even sure what to say. “The Dream” is such an accurate concept and reference point. There is so much nuance here that often ends up falling to the wayside in shorter forms, articles and comments circulating on various online media. This is a book to share and talk about, a book I will share and talk about. Its accolades are much deserved.
serenspace's review
dark
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Murder, Slavery, and Racism