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gmarie23's review against another edition
4.0
Incredibly interesting, and a truly critical look at our country historical (and current) treatment of African Americans. I need to re-read because it was dense and packed full of information. Not a light read, but an important one.
junefish's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and Murder
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Slavery, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Islamophobia
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation
moreteamorecats's review against another edition
3.0
Two interlocking arguments here. The first will be familiar to readers of [a: Ta-Nehisi Coates|1214964|Ta-Nehisi Coates|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1300129823p2/1214964.jpg], whom Taylor quotes approvingly: When Black people live poor and die at the police's hands, it means society is working as designed. (Coates, roughly, sees this as an operation of whiteness as such, while for Taylor it's capitalism.)
The second argument is even more pointed: African-American elites' interests are more aligned with White American elites than with poor people of any color, so conventionally successful Black leaders tend to be worse than complicit in poor Black folks' suffering. This case makes up the bulk of the book's history, much of it new to me and very interesting. That said, the history is clearly polemical: Taylor, for instance, describes the Union Army as "led by two hundred thousand Black troops," which describes the USCT's moral leadership well (by war's end Union soldiers were consciously as well as objectively abolitionist) but not their power within either uniformed or civilian war leadership.
The second argument is even more pointed: African-American elites' interests are more aligned with White American elites than with poor people of any color, so conventionally successful Black leaders tend to be worse than complicit in poor Black folks' suffering. This case makes up the bulk of the book's history, much of it new to me and very interesting. That said, the history is clearly polemical: Taylor, for instance, describes the Union Army as "led by two hundred thousand Black troops," which describes the USCT's moral leadership well (by war's end Union soldiers were consciously as well as objectively abolitionist) but not their power within either uniformed or civilian war leadership.
gfox3737's review against another edition
5.0
Fantastic first full-length book from author. Highly informative and moving: the book makes me rethink how I can be a better ally. Taylor connects the history of the U.S. and the systemic racism embedded in the current structure of our Constitution with, yeah, Capitalism. Our structure is rotten, grassroots are essential, Black Lives Matter is an incredible movement, the systems and high up White politicians/people will denounce the organization (and it came to pass).
tesslaah's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
5.0
There's so much to love about this book. My copy has sentences & paragraphs underlined on almost every page--I'm sure your copy will too. At the most basic level, this book is about Black Liberation. In particular, where the United States fails at this and how we can create a new way to get us to this liberation. On page 194, Taylor says "Perhaps at its most basic level, Black liberation implies a world where Black people can live in peace, without the constant threat of the social, economic, and political woes of a society that places almost no value on the vast majority of Black lives... In that sense, Black liberation is bound up with the project of human liberation and social transformation." Taylor uses endless evidence and explanation that all point to this idea. What is Black liberation? How do we know when we've gotten there? When Black lives matter.
This book is beautifully written, dives deep below surface level, and pushes back against common "post-racial" society tropes all while inspiring the reader to imagine a better world. Taylor makes me believe this better world is possible, but it requires a lot of work.
"Can there be Black liberation in the United States as the country is currently constituted? No." (page 216)
This book is beautifully written, dives deep below surface level, and pushes back against common "post-racial" society tropes all while inspiring the reader to imagine a better world. Taylor makes me believe this better world is possible, but it requires a lot of work.
"Can there be Black liberation in the United States as the country is currently constituted? No." (page 216)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and Police brutality