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4.43 AVERAGE
4.43 AVERAGE
Another great and important book by Ta-Nehisi Coates, though I enjoyed Between the World and Me more. I think what I liked about the latter was how it distilled American racism down to several key insights and repeated them: the fiction of whiteness, the tight coupling between slavery and capitalism, the systemic plunder of African-Americans' bodies and how it continues today. It was singular in focus, and I liked the memoir of Coates's life.
This book is, instead, a collection of essays - and so, while the same, strong, clarifying, enraging themes come up, each essay has a different focus and the energy feels different. I think the brilliance of Ta-Nehisi Coates (or, as he says, the mystery of why white people are so affected by his writing) is that he enrages and enlightens in equal measure: Between the World and Me blew my mind open. I guess: his writing doesn't equivocate or hide behind an academic veneer? It just states, plainly and angrily, the systemic injustice of American racism.
This past year has been a constant, unrelenting loss of my "white innocence". I remember the SNL skit with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, that was basically our election party and featured Chappelle and Rock's bemused spectating at white liberal shock at the reality of racism in America. Coates is likewise incisive, painfully so, about white liberalism's inability to confront the harsh truth: racism elected Trump, Trump is a white supremacist candidate, and so on. By continuing to talk about class as the main issue (even when Trump's base is richer than the received wisdom would have), it ignores - dangerously - the continuation of American racism, and the tension between a country founded on Enlightenment ideals, built by slavery.
Maybe the most dispiriting part of the book is that This Has All Happened Before. The title doesn't (only) refer to Obama's two terms, it's actually a quote by some late 19th century black politicians, as they lamented the crumbling of Reconstruction under Jim Crow. The way that progress - like emancipation, or the civil rights movement, or Obama's presidency - has been consistently, historically, been met with fierce and terrible backlashes. How we're living through one of them now.
Also stinging was Coates's portrayal of Obama's optimism; he is a black man that was raised by well-meaning white liberals, and so he remained as blind to Trump's force as the rest of the left-wing establishment. Similarly, Obama's (necessary?) eliding of most race discussions (and the way white America reacted to his brief moments of acknowledging his blackness; "if I had had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon") is... well, like the rest of it, dispiriting and discouraging.
I would put this next to George Packer's The Unwinding, which also comprehensively explains Trump and also makes me despair.
This book is, instead, a collection of essays - and so, while the same, strong, clarifying, enraging themes come up, each essay has a different focus and the energy feels different. I think the brilliance of Ta-Nehisi Coates (or, as he says, the mystery of why white people are so affected by his writing) is that he enrages and enlightens in equal measure: Between the World and Me blew my mind open. I guess: his writing doesn't equivocate or hide behind an academic veneer? It just states, plainly and angrily, the systemic injustice of American racism.
This past year has been a constant, unrelenting loss of my "white innocence". I remember the SNL skit with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, that was basically our election party and featured Chappelle and Rock's bemused spectating at white liberal shock at the reality of racism in America. Coates is likewise incisive, painfully so, about white liberalism's inability to confront the harsh truth: racism elected Trump, Trump is a white supremacist candidate, and so on. By continuing to talk about class as the main issue (even when Trump's base is richer than the received wisdom would have), it ignores - dangerously - the continuation of American racism, and the tension between a country founded on Enlightenment ideals, built by slavery.
Maybe the most dispiriting part of the book is that This Has All Happened Before. The title doesn't (only) refer to Obama's two terms, it's actually a quote by some late 19th century black politicians, as they lamented the crumbling of Reconstruction under Jim Crow. The way that progress - like emancipation, or the civil rights movement, or Obama's presidency - has been consistently, historically, been met with fierce and terrible backlashes. How we're living through one of them now.
Also stinging was Coates's portrayal of Obama's optimism; he is a black man that was raised by well-meaning white liberals, and so he remained as blind to Trump's force as the rest of the left-wing establishment. Similarly, Obama's (necessary?) eliding of most race discussions (and the way white America reacted to his brief moments of acknowledging his blackness; "if I had had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon") is... well, like the rest of it, dispiriting and discouraging.
I would put this next to George Packer's The Unwinding, which also comprehensively explains Trump and also makes me despair.
Quite an enlightening book for a middle class, middle aged white guy. I realize that the book is made up of a series of essays, but there was a fair amount of repetition in the essays, which was a little irritating. But I enjoy the updating introductions to each essay.
informative
medium-paced
From one of the biggest essayists of this era, We Were Eight Years in Power is a critical revisiting of the shining, scandal-free administrations of America’s First Black President. It draws on insights from centuries of American history to unsettle ideals of American democracy, freedom, and equality especially drawn on race.
I have now read almost everything that Ta-Nehisi Coates has written, including the Marvel comics, and there is no one who writes about the African American experience, history, and state of affairs in America like Coates. Not only that, there are few people who write as well as him in general. His prose is almost poetic, evincing his affinity for the great artists of hip-hop and R&B music. Backed by logic and filled with emotion, his message is both enlightened and romantic.
For much of my life I struggled to understand what was happening with race in America. Between the World and Me opened my mind and helped me to understand what black men experience today–at least as much as that is possible for someone who has never had to endure the terrifying prejudices deeply rooted in our society. The Beautiful Struggle expanded on this by using Coates's childhood to connect his experience to his father–a member of the Black Panther party–and African American scholarship, history, and tradition. We Were Eight Years in Power gets into more of the nuts and bolts of the role of racism in American politics throughout history and how the distant past connects to what is happening today. This was in many ways even more eye-opening than Between the World and Me because there is so much dark history in the recent past that established policies that continue to oppress black Americans. The way that Coates explains how it is possible for America to go from an Obama presidency to a Trump presidency is eye-opening and unnerving. It reveals frightening truths that Americans must face head on if we want this to be the country of our founding ideals instead of one of ignorant, hypocritical exceptionalism.
We Were Eight Years in Power includes an essay from each year that President Obama was in office. Each essay gets an introduction that is often memoir-like, adding Coates's personal experiences from the time that he wrote each piece. The research of the essays is the top-notch stuff you would expect from articles that were published in The Atlantic, and the additional writing ties them together into a narrative that is both saddening and maddening. The epilogue adds further cohesiveness and raw emotion to the anthology. The writing throughout every piece in the book has all the eloquence one would expect from Coates. It is beautiful and engaging.
I truly believe that Coates will go down in history as one of the greatest African American writers, orators, and activists. I would not hesitate to throw his name in with Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, and others of that caliber. His writing has the rhythm and soul of that tradition as well as the quality and originality that lets it stand on its own as great literature. This and his other titles I mention in this review are absolutely essential reading for every American. Put down whatever you are reading right now and pick up a Ta-Nehisi Coates book.
For much of my life I struggled to understand what was happening with race in America. Between the World and Me opened my mind and helped me to understand what black men experience today–at least as much as that is possible for someone who has never had to endure the terrifying prejudices deeply rooted in our society. The Beautiful Struggle expanded on this by using Coates's childhood to connect his experience to his father–a member of the Black Panther party–and African American scholarship, history, and tradition. We Were Eight Years in Power gets into more of the nuts and bolts of the role of racism in American politics throughout history and how the distant past connects to what is happening today. This was in many ways even more eye-opening than Between the World and Me because there is so much dark history in the recent past that established policies that continue to oppress black Americans. The way that Coates explains how it is possible for America to go from an Obama presidency to a Trump presidency is eye-opening and unnerving. It reveals frightening truths that Americans must face head on if we want this to be the country of our founding ideals instead of one of ignorant, hypocritical exceptionalism.
We Were Eight Years in Power includes an essay from each year that President Obama was in office. Each essay gets an introduction that is often memoir-like, adding Coates's personal experiences from the time that he wrote each piece. The research of the essays is the top-notch stuff you would expect from articles that were published in The Atlantic, and the additional writing ties them together into a narrative that is both saddening and maddening. The epilogue adds further cohesiveness and raw emotion to the anthology. The writing throughout every piece in the book has all the eloquence one would expect from Coates. It is beautiful and engaging.
I truly believe that Coates will go down in history as one of the greatest African American writers, orators, and activists. I would not hesitate to throw his name in with Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King, and others of that caliber. His writing has the rhythm and soul of that tradition as well as the quality and originality that lets it stand on its own as great literature. This and his other titles I mention in this review are absolutely essential reading for every American. Put down whatever you are reading right now and pick up a Ta-Nehisi Coates book.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Given this was published in 2017, only a year into Trump’s first term, I’d love to read a revision that covers the years since then… the remainder of Trump’s first term, Biden, Harris, and Trump’s second term.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective