Reviews tagging 'Rape'

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

44 reviews

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

triple_m's review against another edition

emotional informative medium-paced

5.0

This book is part history and part personal reflection about Clint Smith’s  journey as a Black man learning parts of history that have previously been buried.

Well-written and important. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Racism, and Rape

leahgustafson's review

hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

This beautifully written piece of nonfiction demonstrates how the institution of slavery is so intricately woven into our systems and daily lives. How the Word Is Passed should be required reading in American schools.

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While it may sound strange for nonfiction, Clint Smith is a masterful storyteller. The way he depicts the history of the places he visits and how he confronts the truths about history and slavery is both moving and profound. The stories in this book make it so much more real, relatable, and accessible. The accessibility of this book is why I feel it has the ability to makesuch a strong impact. 

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I learned a lot from this book. It also led me to reflect on and think more deeply about a lot of things—on my current beliefs, my own education and experiences, and some new perspectives shared in this book.

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If you’re looking for some solid nonfiction to add to your TBR, this is definitely some of the best  I’ve read! The audio is also fantastic—Clint Smith narrates his own work, and his ability to share these stories is incredible!

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Check out what I’m reading next on Instagram @LeahsLitReview!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Racism

Moderate: Rape

wifeslife's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual violence, Rape, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Genocide, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Child death, Death, Deportation, Violence, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

brynalexa's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

Poetic, powerful, and thought-provoking. Filled in some gaps in my education while inspiring me to seek out more information on the world’s cruel history. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Rape, Slavery, Bullying, Torture, Violence, Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Kidnapping, Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Genocide, Hate crime, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia

amsswim's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I very much encourage everyone to read or listen to this book. Follow the author to important heritage sites to the legacy of slavery through the US and beyond; plantations, prisons, confederate cemeteries.  Made me very reflective on random interactions I have had over the years and how the people in my family history may have interacted. The content is graphic and unflinching, which is entirely necessary. It is also one of the best written non-fiction books I have read, I believe because you are going on a journey with the author. I am unable to summarize so much of one amazing book, so I am just going to say again read it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, Trafficking, Racism, Confinement, Murder, Racial slurs, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Slavery, Sexual violence, and Rape

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

This is such a poignant and well-written book. Smith has such a talent for making the locations mentioned (and by extension, their history) so viscerally tangible; it felt like you were standing there with him, experiencing the weight of those places alongside him.

The locations themselves were well-curated: highlighting both places where we, as present day Americans, are attempting to reckon with our nation’s past relationship with chattel slavery, and places where we are instead choosing to prioritize comfort over truth.

It asks us to question (among other things) all we’ve been taught about a) those who were supposedly “the good guys” like Thomas Jefferson, and b) the “innocence” of northern cities, both pre- and post-civil war. It asks us not to shy away from discomfort, but to face the ugly truth head on. And no matter what was being discussed, it continued to remind us of the personhood of enslaved people—never allowing us to reduce the enslaved population of the United States to a faceless, amorphous concept in our minds, but instead repeatedly giving enslaved people names, identities, cultures, and deep familial bonds. Always always always reminding us: these were human beings. These were people. I really appreciated that aspect of Smith’s storytelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Colonisation, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual violence, Murder, Racism, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

jaiari12's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Racism, Classism, Police brutality, Violence, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Rape, and Racial slurs

zachtrotz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Physical abuse, Genocide, and Rape