Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

8 reviews

chronicacademia's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Classism, Gun violence, Hate crime, Grief, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, Colonisation, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Sexism, and Misogyny

hanhantap's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Slavery, Grief, Child abuse, Violence, Death, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia

mildlypretentiousreader's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

Coates' frames Between the World and Me as a sweeping letter to his son about being black in America. As such, the book is intensely personal, an intimate look at the grief, pain, anger, joy, bitterness, and fears intrinsic to the Struggle. Much of Part One focuses on this juxtaposition, that between the delusions of the Dreamers, who need there to be a black race so that themselves can be white, and the constant fear that consumes those outside the Dream--namely, those who live in daily fear of losing their bodies.

Coates' outlining of his own experiences, from his childhood in Baltimore trapped between the schools and the streets, to his coming of age in the "Mecca" of Howard University, to his careful confrontation and deconstruction of his own illusions, to his constant presence and consciousness within the struggle, is deeply profound and extraordinarily articulate. I particularly enjoyed his examination of history and its role in our lives and in the fight, particularly as he confronts his own African heritage while at Howard: "Being black does not immunize us from history's logic or the lure of the dream...My history professors thought nothing of telling me that my search for myth was doomed, that the stories I wanted to tell myself could not be matched to truths. Indeed, they felt it their duty to disabuse me of my weaponized history." Equally compelling are Coates' contemplations on religion and atheism, and his discussion of the psychology behind the creation and institutionalization of race, and the ways in which a warped desire to belong to a powerful and exclusive club doesn't begin and end with race, but underlies the "othering" of any number of people and groups for any number of reasons. As Coates' confronts his own biases, he is demanding that all of us similarly confront ours.

Part three, however, was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Here, Coates' meets with the mother of an old college acquaintance who has been shot to death by the police. In what is perhaps the most emotional segment of the book, Coates manages to leave the reader breathless. His conversation with Prince Jones' resolute, steadfast mother is profound, but it is the final reflections it prompts from Coates to his son that left me most moved. Coates' message is not necessarily a call to action. There isn't, in fact, any plan set forth at the end of the book to actively drive readers into the struggle and see it through to the other side. Coates knows his son will be within the struggle all of his life. All he seeks is to help him find a way to "live within the all of it," to live beyond the chance that Dreamers will awaken, and to find meaning in that life. The book is not a neatly outlined plan for activism but a broader plea to continue to strive to be a conscious citizen of the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Homophobia

zanm's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

3.5

I had to read this for class and I’m pretty torn on it. I had a two-three hour discussion with a friend and we came to several conclusions:

It is a good book because its controversy sparks discussion and the writing style is extremely raw. 

It is a bad book because it panders just a bit too much and doesn’t expand nearly enough on certain issues (ex. how racism is ingrained in America via capitalism). 

So you see- I’m torn. 

Personally, this gave me the feel of a book written so white people can read it and say they’ve “done the research.” I also really liked specific parts of it and hated others, but that’s crucial to a book on race. It’s not supposed to be comfortable. 

Another thing that immensely bothered me is that it’s marketed as “a book for his son” when it’s so clearly not. 

TLDR: Worth reading but only if you rip it apart and use it as a jumping point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Gun violence, Death, Classism, Violence, Racism, Hate crime, Police brutality, and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny, Antisemitism, and Homophobia

afion's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Child abuse

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Rape

readbycarina's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Death, Hate crime, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Gun violence and Colonisation

Minor: War, Rape, and Homophobia

hyperpension's review

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

This book is beautifully written. A must read

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Violence, Child death, Hate crime, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Slavery, Abandonment, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Drug use

applesaucecreachur's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

4.75

This was an honest, necessary memoir told through the loving voice of a father to his son. Coates in his book puts into words all of the painful, and beautiful, and dangerous, and also incredibly mundane things that being Black can mean. He writes with urgency and with the voice of a man who has spent decades on his craft. Reading this intimate book felt almost invasive at times as Coates laid vulnerabilities bare for the child who likely still sees him as a superhero. 

From this book, I have come to better understand that I am white (or whatever people see me as) at all times. I will never be Black and have my body, my sole physical connection to the world and those I love, made to look as a threat or of less value to those in power. It was humbling to read both as a white-passing person and as a human being.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, and Police brutality

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Racial slurs

Minor: Homophobia and Rape