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4.61 AVERAGE
4.61 AVERAGE
emotional
informative
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
This is hard for me to rate. Most of what Coates talks about was not new to me, or else I may have appreciated his journey more.
I appreciate this is a lot of Americans' first notice of the apartheid and genocide orchestrated by Israel. A helpful perspective indeed.
I appreciate this is a lot of Americans' first notice of the apartheid and genocide orchestrated by Israel. A helpful perspective indeed.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Jews after the Holocaust: Hey so we need a place where we’re respected and safe so we can collectively heal
America: Yeah we don’t really do that. But we’re like REALLY good at colonizing and ethnic cleansing if it’ll make you go somewhere else! :)
That doesn’t make sense. It’s kind of the opposite of what we need
Don’t worry! We’re like really good at tying a narrative with people’s sense of self so they won’t even realize the plot holes without having a crisis. Makes resistance more personal and anyone you want inhuman!
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I’ve always been fascinated by stories and this book goes into social justice and injustice through the stories that shape us. How we can be convinced of another person’s inhumanity to justify generations of systemic oppression. How America was one of the main inspirations for Nazism, South African apartheid, and the Zionist occupation. The same tactics used here are imitated and adapted there only to be brought back and used here. But we still defend it or else question our place entirely. And I do believe a lot of people will and do refuse to dehumanize one another and instead recognize the patterns that harm us. But that also means the ones who double down against empathy harm not only others but themselves while believing they’re right. That kind of power in a narrative would be impressive if it wasn’t so deeply unsettling and infuriating
I do love this author and his writing never fails to haunt me
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
This book surprised me in that I felt like it read as more a journal of continuous thoughts instead of essays but nonetheless it is true beauty the way Ta-Nehisi Coates writes. He speaks in poetry and his prose captures so much emotion about such thought-provoking issues. I found each of the topics in this book interesting, although also infuriating, especially in South Carolina where he attended school meetings in which his own books were being banned. The section on Palestine felt the longest but overall felt it was really well written and quite gripping to read.
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced