Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by julies_reading
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Years ago, Coates wrote an essay in The Atlantic about potential reparations for the descendants of enslaved people in America, and used Israel as an example of reparations done right - being mostly unaware of what the Israeli government has been doing to the Palestinian people. Years later, he was invited to a Palestinian book conference discussing his book, Between the World and Me. We see as Coates realizes how similar the treatment of Palestinians is to Jim Crow.
Every upvoted 1 star review I have seen on the front page of reviews for this book is from a no-picture user with less than 5 reviews posted on Goodreads. Just screams volumes that these people have not read the book and made the account solely to leave a bad review on a book they won't read. Try harder, we see through you and your hate.
This book is in no way a comprehensive history of Israel and Palestine - it is a personal narrative of realization and understanding. Much of this book doesn't even seem to do anything with it, until we reach the point where he visits and we see how all that's been said before is building the experiences Coates had that informed how he reacted to how the Palestinians are being treated. He talks about his time in the American education system and his time as a writer before he gets close to there. Then when he gets there, he is shown around by soldiers and he sees how he is given rights that those who live there are not. He sees them connect to his book because they and Black Americans share many of the same ways they have been oppressed. He sees how war crimes have been explained away by, "Well, we've always hurt people like this, so it can't be that bad." (Note: not a direct quote.) I think this awakening Coates has is something that a lot of people, particularly Americans, can relate to in recent years. We have been subtly told over the years by our government that Israel is right, and Palestinians are terrorists, when in reality, this is ethnic cleansing at its finest. All the while, Coates is telling this in his signature beautiful writing style that brings so much emotion to the content of the text. I also listened to the audiobook, which he does a great job narrating.
I don't really know what to rate this book, especially because for my PERSONAL taste, I'd have loved this to be longer, cover more or deeper ground. I sometimes thought I had skipped sections of the audiobook because it was so short. So like with most nonfiction I read, I'm going to be leaving this as no rating.
Overall, I think that this book is going to do so much good work to bring those raised with the same American upbringing of vaguely being on Israel's side of the "war" to see what's really going on (g3nocide and ap4rteid) in an easy-to-absorb way.
Every upvoted 1 star review I have seen on the front page of reviews for this book is from a no-picture user with less than 5 reviews posted on Goodreads. Just screams volumes that these people have not read the book and made the account solely to leave a bad review on a book they won't read. Try harder, we see through you and your hate.
This book is in no way a comprehensive history of Israel and Palestine - it is a personal narrative of realization and understanding. Much of this book doesn't even seem to do anything with it, until we reach the point where he visits and we see how all that's been said before is building the experiences Coates had that informed how he reacted to how the Palestinians are being treated. He talks about his time in the American education system and his time as a writer before he gets close to there. Then when he gets there, he is shown around by soldiers and he sees how he is given rights that those who live there are not. He sees them connect to his book because they and Black Americans share many of the same ways they have been oppressed. He sees how war crimes have been explained away by, "Well, we've always hurt people like this, so it can't be that bad." (Note: not a direct quote.) I think this awakening Coates has is something that a lot of people, particularly Americans, can relate to in recent years. We have been subtly told over the years by our government that Israel is right, and Palestinians are terrorists, when in reality, this is ethnic cleansing at its finest. All the while, Coates is telling this in his signature beautiful writing style that brings so much emotion to the content of the text. I also listened to the audiobook, which he does a great job narrating.
I don't really know what to rate this book, especially because for my PERSONAL taste, I'd have loved this to be longer, cover more or deeper ground. I sometimes thought I had skipped sections of the audiobook because it was so short. So like with most nonfiction I read, I'm going to be leaving this as no rating.
Overall, I think that this book is going to do so much good work to bring those raised with the same American upbringing of vaguely being on Israel's side of the "war" to see what's really going on (g3nocide and ap4rteid) in an easy-to-absorb way.