Scan barcode
A review by books_coffees_wines
I've Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter by David Chariandy
4.0
“You did not create the inequalities and injustices of this world, daughter. You are neither solely nor uniquely responsible to fix them. If there is anything to learn from the story of our ancestry, it is that you should respect and protect yourself; that you should demand not only justice but joy; that you should see, truly see, the vulnerability and the creativity and the enduring beauty of others.”
Chariandy writes an intimate letter to his teenage daughter, offering his hopes for her future and sharing his personal history – on race and identity. He discusses the racism he experiences and the effects of this “But they take a toll. These indications in both life and culture, that you don’t belong here, not really, that you are distasteful and immediately suspect, that speech and thought are not expected of you.”
Very poignant book and I had tears in my eyes at multiple times while reading. What a powerful book for such a short one. This was beautiful – and a book you could read in one sitting as it is only 88 pages.
“The future I yearn for is not one in which we will all be clothed in sameness, but one in which we will finally learn to both read and respectfully discuss our differences.”
Chariandy writes an intimate letter to his teenage daughter, offering his hopes for her future and sharing his personal history – on race and identity. He discusses the racism he experiences and the effects of this “But they take a toll. These indications in both life and culture, that you don’t belong here, not really, that you are distasteful and immediately suspect, that speech and thought are not expected of you.”
Very poignant book and I had tears in my eyes at multiple times while reading. What a powerful book for such a short one. This was beautiful – and a book you could read in one sitting as it is only 88 pages.
“The future I yearn for is not one in which we will all be clothed in sameness, but one in which we will finally learn to both read and respectfully discuss our differences.”