Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Black Boy by Richard Wright, Jerry W. Ward Jr.

3 reviews

earthtokb's review against another edition

5.0

hard to get through, but I'm glad I got through it. interesting to read about issues in the south 100 years ago, & to realize that conditions -- social, economical, emotional -- aren't better or worse for Black men, just different. happy to have read this, and wish I did before I wrote my own memoir about similar topics!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, and Racism

Moderate: Bullying, Racial slurs, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Hate crime, Antisemitism, Murder, Child abuse, and Chronic illness

Minor: Mental illness, War, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Classism

babymandrake_666's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Police brutality, Violence, and Hate crime

notthatcosta's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

4.25

I found Black Boy to be a highly frustrating book at times; Richard Wright viscerally recounts what it is like to grow up as a perennial outsider, merely for wanting agency and respect in a world that denied both to him at every turn.

My knowledge of American history has many gaps, so the additional context offered by this book around the North/South divide was very insightful.

Despite it being very slow-paced and dense, I found myself getting much more into the book as it progressed, particularly from his late teens onwards. My main complaint would be that a lot of time was spent on his childhood, and while those formative experiences were very important and defining for him, I found it excruciating read about him getting accused of acting a certain way and beaten, and then repeat by several adults. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Bullying, Classism, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Murder, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Abandonment, and Animal death