Reviews with content warning for Racism - Call Us What We Carry

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

41 reviews

rosalind's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

1.5

I saw a review on Goodreads where someone called this collection ‘unbearably didactic,’ and that about sums it up for me. I can always respect someone who loves language and likes to play with words, but these linguistic games don’t always bequeath some revelatory truth. Sometimes it’s just a spoonerism, babes.

Also, for the love of Lady Gaga’s dove brooch, Amanda, please put yourself on an alliteration ban. Sometimes stylistic selections succeed, but soon a surplus can sully the savour and royally f*** off your reader. Sorry.

There are some really lovely moments in this collection, but ultimately comes across as a monopolisation on a moment, which is fine, get that dollar. I wish AG so well, and I hope her craft flourishes. But for my taste, a lot of ‘Call Us What We Carry’ should have stayed in drafts. Like, a lot.

Content Warnings

maple_dove's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

4.0

The "Spanish" influenza did not originate in Spain. In fact, the first recorded case was in the United States--in Kansas on March 9, 1918 (bewareth March). But because Spain was neutral in World War I, it did not censor reports of the disease to the public. (pg. 81)

To tell the truth, then, is to risk being remembered by its fiction. Countless countries laid blame to one another. What the US called the Spanish influenza, Spain called the French flu, or Naples Soldier. What Germans dubbed the Russian Pest, the Russians called the Chinese flu. (pg. 81-82)

It's said that ignorance is bliss.
Ignorance is this: a vine hat sneaks up a tree, killing not by poison, but by blocking out its light. (pg. 82)

The Tribune reporter Henry M. Hyde wrote that Black people "are compelled to live crowded in dark and unsanitary room; they are surrounded by constant temptations in the way of widespread saloons and other worse resorts." (pg. 83-84)

The oppressor will always say the oppressed want their overcrowded cage, cozy & comforting as it is; the master will claim that the slaves' chains were understood, good, all right, okay--that is to say, not chains at all. (pg. 84)

We politely asked the white lady behind us
If she could please take the next lift
To continue social distancing.
Her face flared up like a cross in the night.
Are you kidding me? she yelled,
Like we'd just declared
Elevators for us only
Or Yous must enter from the back
Or We have the right to refuse
Humanity to anyone.
Suddenly it struck us:

Why it's so pertubing for privileged groups to follow restrictions of place & personhood.
Doing so means for once wearing the chains their power has shackled on the rest of us.

It is to surrender the one difference that kept them separate & thus superior. (Pg. 143-144)

Some were asked to walk a fraction / of our exclusion for a year & it almost destroyed all they thought they were. Yet here we are. Still walking, still kept.

To be kept to the edges of existence is the Inheritance of the marginalized. (Pg. 145)

For what does the Karen carry but her dwindling power, dying and desperate? Dangerous & dangling like a gun hung from a tongue? (Pg. 145)

There is more than one hue of haunting.
We want to believe that
What we care for can keep.
We want to believe.
The truth is, we are one nation, under ghosts.
The truth is, we are one nation, under fraud.
Tell us, honestly:
Will we ever be who we say. (pg. 166-167)

Content Warnings

lexa's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

3.75

Beautifully narrated by the author. The parts in the middle (historical) dragged a bit and we’re hard to piece together, but I enjoyed many of the other poems. I went into this book without knowing much about it and wasn’t quite prepared for all the pandemic content. But it was overall good.

Content Warnings

thebakerbookworm's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I read these poems slowly, just a few every day, and I highly recommend. I feel like usually I’m rushing through books, trying to read as much as possible; it was so nice to just take it slow with this one and really absorb the poems.

Touching on ideas of grief, memory, and identity, these poems also dig in to collective trauma, and what it’s like to experience tragedy together. She uses letters from history to reflect on present-day events, and even the formatting of her words have meaning (for example, the words of one poem form an image of a whale).

Honestly, my words can’t do these poems justice, so I’m just gonna say—even if you don’t usually read poetry, there’s something here for you. I recommend for anyone who needs some reflection on the past two years.

Content Warnings

anniereads221's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

aqtbenz's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.25

Content Warnings

bookwormenthusiast's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I've never been a big fan of poetry. I've always found it difficult and had horrible teachers who would not encourage my interpretation or writing of it. However, "Call Us What We Carry" has been the first poetry book that has made me fall in love with poems. I went through so many emotions while reading these poems, but above all, this book made me reflect a lot about society and history and was one of the few books that made me cry. Perhaps it's because I'm the same age as the author or because I experienced much of the same things she did (as we all did), but I found myself relating a lot to the poems, in terms of how I've been feeling throughout the entirety of this pandemic and just through life in general. It was amazing to see my emotions reflected on these pages, to finally have the words that expressed my feelings. Another reason I liked these poems was that they were also able to teach me something. To incorporate writing from history into poetry was something I have seen little of, but it offered me a new perspective of these situations. The way Amanda Gorman writes is not only thought-provoking but allows readers to express themselves through their experiences.

Content Warnings

nickiholmes's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

In the future, when someone asks me to give a sense of what 2020 and 2021 were like, I'll recommend that they read this.

Content Warnings

kelseyleigh_h's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

ajf1774's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

I am admittedly dense about poetry but man, I loved this. My guess is that it will be studied in schools in years to come. It so perfectly encapsulates these past few years of pandemic and revolution.

Content Warnings

More...