A review by haloform
Tales of Two Americas: Stories of Inequality in a Divided Nation by John Freeman

informative reflective sad slow-paced

2.25

Any anthology will have variation in quality across the pieces in it, but the variation in this particular book is stunning.  The stories range from beautifully written and emotional stoties (dosas, fault lines, some houses, la ciudad mágica, enough to lose) to informative and emotional writing (blood brother, american arithmetic) to absolutely apalling and seemingly counter to all the book has to say.  some of the latter are death by gentrification (usage of police brutality for shock value), american work (pitying trump supporters and claiming they voted for him because he promised jobs), white debt (a white woman trying to distance herself from her white guilt, featuring her saying the n word), and invisible wounds (pitying veterans from the war in the middle east).  These stories all embody what this anthology should be fighting against; they ignore race issues or take advantage of the suffering of minorities or pity people responsible for carrying american imperialism to the middle east.  some of the writing in this is incredible, but the rest is apallingly liberal and ignorant.