Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

37 reviews

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

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

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

rmperezpadilla's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Slavery, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

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

analenegrace's review

challenging informative

I was fortunate enough to meet Clint Smith and get a free signed copy at a university book event over a year ago, but I just now got to reading it. Smith is an amazing writer whose poetry clearly influences his prose, and it is written in such a compelling and beautiful book, even with the difficult subject matter. 

I cannot recommend reading this book, especially if you're trying to deconstruct what racism in America looks like. While there are so many lines I marked as pivotal to the book, the most important comes on page 289 in his epilogue, 

"The history of slavery is the history of the United States. It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it. This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Classism, War, Racism, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Murder, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Confinement, Death, Medical content, Hate crime, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Trafficking

heatherilene's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual assault, Classism, Racism, Violence, Slavery, Child death, and Confinement