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A review by booksarebrainfood
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
5.0
The Underground Railroad is careful with its optimism, there is a line that says “Cora didn’t know what optimistic meant”.
This book was written in 2016, a particularly important year in modern America concerning the Black Lives Matter movement and when the conversation about continuing institutional injustice was growing roots in our understanding of America’s history. Cora’s life sees some glimmers of hope and freedom, but the overall understanding of this is that a black person in America has to keep running from persecution, there can be no complacency because this can mean death. Having that retrospective look at history gives this book a particular weight, as we know that slavery would soon morph into the Jim Crow laws, the prison-labour complex, discriminative police violence, and disproportional representation of black people in positions of power.
In this way, the ups and downs of Cora’s freedom represent the ups and downs of black history in America, with brief interludes of hope in instances such as the Civil Rights movement, the election of a black president, and growing liberal sentiments, however, it’s important that the momentum symbolised by the railroad keeps going so that America outgrows its violent conception.
This book was written in 2016, a particularly important year in modern America concerning the Black Lives Matter movement and when the conversation about continuing institutional injustice was growing roots in our understanding of America’s history. Cora’s life sees some glimmers of hope and freedom, but the overall understanding of this is that a black person in America has to keep running from persecution, there can be no complacency because this can mean death. Having that retrospective look at history gives this book a particular weight, as we know that slavery would soon morph into the Jim Crow laws, the prison-labour complex, discriminative police violence, and disproportional representation of black people in positions of power.
In this way, the ups and downs of Cora’s freedom represent the ups and downs of black history in America, with brief interludes of hope in instances such as the Civil Rights movement, the election of a black president, and growing liberal sentiments, however, it’s important that the momentum symbolised by the railroad keeps going so that America outgrows its violent conception.