Reviews with content warning for Racism - An African American and Latinx History: An African American and Latinx History of the United States

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

An African American and Latinx History: An African American and Latinx History of the United States by Paul Ortiz

6 reviews

snarkycrafter's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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kylepatino's review against another edition

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challenging dark hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

Does a great job of explaining the history that’s left out of the curriculum. Its eye-changing and serves as a good broad stroke of AA and Lx history, I really enjoy all of the quotes and it has inspired me to read a lot more about the history of Latin America. This was the first nonfiction book that I’ve read on my own volition, and I will definitely be reading more, I enjoyed this book a lot!

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cemeterygay's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

A pretty good introduction into Latinx and African American history, some issues with descriptions of race in Latin America and some glossing over of some of the harmful anti-immigrant beliefs of some chicano activists but beyond that a pretty good overview on the subject.

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bluejayreads's review

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informative sad slow-paced

4.0

When I picked up this book, I wondered why African American history and Latinx history were lumped together. Why didn’t each get its own book? But after reading a little bit, I understand. African American history and Latinx history in the United States are deeply intertwined, more than I would have expected or guessed.

I really appreciated that this book did not cover in depth the history everybody knows. It goes from the arrival of the first imported Africans in the American colonies nearly to present day, covering laws and events relevant to African American and Latinx communities, how they felt about them, and how they reacted, and very few things in these pages are things I already knew. Abraham Lincoln was mentioned twice and the Emancipation Proclamation only once; Martin Luther King Jr. was discussed only in the context of labor rights and unionization. This is not the same old stuff you covered in history class – this is history you don’t get taught in your ordinary history curriculum. Some of these events I was alive for and still had no idea about.

My only issue with this book was that it throws around terms without actually defining them. I figured out “racial capitalism” from nomenclature and context, but I’m still not entirely sure what “emancipatory internationalism” is. I wish there was an appendix of definitions at the back (although I read the audiobook, so there may very well be definitions in the print version).

This is a very worthwhile book. It taught me history that I never learned, illustrated racism, classism, and colonialism with real historical examples, and gave me perspectives on the United States that I don’t often hear. It’s a little drier than I usually like to read, but it’s worth reading anyway.

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peachani's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

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skitch41's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

America has a long history of promoting democracy and human rights, but also denying those basic rights to African-Americans and Latinx people. While there are a lot of histories that look at the history of both African-Americans and Latinx people as oppressed groups, nearly all of them treat each group separately. While there is great value in doing so, it does leave out the ways in which both groups supported each other’s fight for freedom and democratic rights and also implicitly perpetuates the false narrative that these two groups’ struggles are distinct from each other. In this incredible examination of American history from the point of view of both groups, Dr. Ortiz links both of their struggles for freedom and shows how America has too often been on the wrong side of history and freedom not just in America, but in its dealings with the Americas too.

For my full review, check out my book blog here.

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