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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
tense
slow-paced
My black friend suggested this to me, I get why. I am sorry. Black lives matter
Though I read a handful of these when they were published, re-visiting them still leaves me with much to chew on and grapple with. When you are dealing with an intellectual giant like Ta-Nehisi Coates, that grappling is to be expected.
The author chose 1 piece of writing from each year of the Obama administration and accompanied each piece with a new essay, discussing the piece itself, what key events from that year may have shaped its writing and, also some humble self-critique. I appreciated the humility, but I still find Coates' mastery of the longform piece - part reportage, part criticism, part memoir to be just that -- masterful.
I plan on reading through these pieces again, and exploring further many of the sources that aided in a lot of the research and source material.
Personally, I think "The Case For Reparations" may be one of THE BEST longform pieces ever written. If you pick that up, go straight to that one, it won't disappoint.
The author chose 1 piece of writing from each year of the Obama administration and accompanied each piece with a new essay, discussing the piece itself, what key events from that year may have shaped its writing and, also some humble self-critique. I appreciated the humility, but I still find Coates' mastery of the longform piece - part reportage, part criticism, part memoir to be just that -- masterful.
I plan on reading through these pieces again, and exploring further many of the sources that aided in a lot of the research and source material.
Personally, I think "The Case For Reparations" may be one of THE BEST longform pieces ever written. If you pick that up, go straight to that one, it won't disappoint.
I have been trying to read this book for years and it has been very stop and go. In 2022, a lot of these ideas don't feel as fresh and there is a bit too much repetition throughout the collection. I do love how Coates sets the scene for each essay and incorporates memoir. Those moments shine. The last few essays were standouts and brought the whole thing together.
Devastating. Lyrical. Beautiful. Coates will cut you deep with his beautiful words. A thoughtful reflection of Obama’s 8 years woven together with vignettes from Coates’ own life at the time. It makes you think about race, power, a meaningful life, why we should resist oppression.
It's really hard to put into words how I felt after reading this book. I felt at once exhilirated, inspired, and utterly exhausted.
Ta-Nehisi Coates demands a lot from his reader; intellgience and action being paramount. I am a Canadian so I found this book affect me in a different way. I began to think about the similarities between how black Americans and indigenous people have been treated.
I hope this book will develop a pan-empathy. What is necessary is that the reader feel offended. Don't justify or push aside the feelings and facts expressed in this book. It is important to recognize that a majority of Americans and Canadians were able to get a step up in the 'new world' by stepping on the backs of those they considered less than.
I really can't recommend this book enough. It is powerful and mind-blowing and I plan to educate myself further so I don't slip into passivity.
Ta-Nehisi Coates demands a lot from his reader; intellgience and action being paramount. I am a Canadian so I found this book affect me in a different way. I began to think about the similarities between how black Americans and indigenous people have been treated.
I hope this book will develop a pan-empathy. What is necessary is that the reader feel offended. Don't justify or push aside the feelings and facts expressed in this book. It is important to recognize that a majority of Americans and Canadians were able to get a step up in the 'new world' by stepping on the backs of those they considered less than.
I really can't recommend this book enough. It is powerful and mind-blowing and I plan to educate myself further so I don't slip into passivity.
A master class in the essay form AND in speaking truth to power.
Read this and you will understand how Trump was elected in 2016.
This book really taught me about racism for the first time. Not about racism as some ordinary discrimination, perhaps familiar from understanding sexism, misogyny and other chauvinistic attitudes close to home; but racism as the systematic threat to one race and theft of their rightful property and opportunities, over generations, legally, and as yet still without a proper remedy. This might sound extreme and perhaps (I have no right to judge for I am white) not as bad here in the U.K. because we have less recent and less severe history of slavery to deal with (though we are not absolved); but it brought home to me for the first time how materially different it is to live in the US if you’re black compared to white.
And for that reason, this is the book that finally enabled me to understand why white people voted for Trump, even if they were poor and even if they were female; because he is, as Coates says, America’s “first white president,” the first one elected as a binary opposite and a correction to his predecessor. Trump is overwhelmingly represented in every white voter group, the rich ones as well as the poor ones. Whereas the working class - if they were black - did not vote for him; and yet they have suffered from globalism and its discontents more than the white working class that have sought to justify their choice economically. And women - if they were black - did not vote for him. But white women - they voted for him in their droves, because even though women are an oppressed group, white women are inextricably attached to the systems of privilege and racism that secure their incomes and positions at the expense of black women and men. And they know it and they profit from that knowledge and privilege.
After reading Hillary’s book and feeling baffled - now I understand.
What a tragedy.
And for that reason, this is the book that finally enabled me to understand why white people voted for Trump, even if they were poor and even if they were female; because he is, as Coates says, America’s “first white president,” the first one elected as a binary opposite and a correction to his predecessor. Trump is overwhelmingly represented in every white voter group, the rich ones as well as the poor ones. Whereas the working class - if they were black - did not vote for him; and yet they have suffered from globalism and its discontents more than the white working class that have sought to justify their choice economically. And women - if they were black - did not vote for him. But white women - they voted for him in their droves, because even though women are an oppressed group, white women are inextricably attached to the systems of privilege and racism that secure their incomes and positions at the expense of black women and men. And they know it and they profit from that knowledge and privilege.
After reading Hillary’s book and feeling baffled - now I understand.
What a tragedy.