Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith

76 reviews

anna_rubin's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, and Racial slurs

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Powerful. Compelling. Devastating. I learned a lot I didn’t know about myriad locations around the country (and world) that were and still are institutions of slavery and oppression. There’s a lot to unpack and reckon with about our history as a nation in this book and I think it’s worth the discomfort to know more about the nation’s real history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Colonisation, Gore, Classism, Death, Racial slurs, War, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Child abuse, and Child death

overthinkereading's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

5.0

"What would it take - what does it take - for you to confront a false history even if it means shattering the stories you have been told throughout your life?"

How the Word is Passed fundamentally is a shattering of many stories, both those of the official record and those of legend and lore, in pursuit of the truth at the core of United States history: that slavery was central to our founding and is inextricable from every aspect of historical and contemporary American life.

Despite the (for some, painful) deconstruction inherent in Smith's work, he takes great care with presenting his research and experiences. It is obvious he brings a level of humanity, compassion, and artistry amid this reckoning, and even during the most harrowing passages of the book, his writing is profoundly beautiful.  (His experience as a poet is evident especially in descriptions of place).

To answer the question, "What would it take to confront our false history?" we ought to start here, with this book. Highly recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Violence, Death, Racial slurs, Torture, Sexual violence, Racism, Colonisation, Classism, and Police brutality

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

5.0

This is a must read!! Clint Smith. What an incredible book and an incredible author. As a white woman who grew up in the South, I did not learn true depictions of slavery, until I went to college and took an American History course that opened my eyes to so much violence and horror. Coming from a point of privilege, it could be easy for me to brush it off and say that it’s so much better now than it was then, but there is so much that has happened since the founding of the U.S. that is gross and appalling and surprising yet unsurprising that there is still so much systematic racism everywhere you look. 

This was an entire experience listening to Clint narrate through each section of this book. He took so much time to research, interview, document, and write his findings, beliefs, history, and so much more. 

I highly recommend this book, especially if you grew up in the U.S. and were not educated well on slavery and the transatlantic slave trade due to the never-ending whitewashing of history.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape

kallsypage's review

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Rape

maevedora's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racial slurs, Grief, Death, Colonisation, Slavery, Torture, Confinement, and Racism

lizziaha's review against another edition

4.5

Prose written by a poet is just so lovely. And it was interesting to see how a story takes shape: the twists and turns, the reconstructions and the lies. The way that place holds such a deep meaning, and that place is imbued with history. The way that we are still molding history, that our current actions are both informed by history and become history. This book is part of that story that we tell about history. One particular section that I (a white southerner educated in the public school system) plan to revisit is Smith’s discussion of the South’s rallying cry of States Rights and how the story diverges from the history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Confinement, Grief, Murder, Hate crime, Sexual harassment, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Racism, and Torture

Moderate: Deportation

zosiablue's review

challenging informative sad medium-paced

4.25

Incredibly powerful and personal. The author visits sites around US (and one in Africa) to explore those places' relationships with slavery. Most of the history I didn't know, including the chapter about the cemetery a mile from my parents' house, one I drove by every day on my last visit. The Angola prison section was especially shocking to me; I didn't know there was a gift shop attached to the prison mocking its cruelty. I also appreciated how the author was open about his own gaps here - parts he didn't know or details he focused on that later he realized weren't important. Smith is a poet, so occasionally the writing got a little purple, but not enough to detract. An important book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Genocide, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Classism, Colonisation, and Racism

Moderate: Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, and Grief

elisegmusic's review

informative reflective slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs

kennedybullen's review against another edition

challenging dark informative tense fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Hate crime, and Slavery