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drbooknerd 's review for:
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A thorough dissection of where we find ourselves today - and what happened during and of course, after the Obama years.
The take home conclusion that I took away from Coates' words?
Despite electing a black president by it's populace - America the system, was not only not ready, but actively rejected it's first black president. Coates' reveals, that both by it's past and present - Obama was set up to fail. He was either too black (the Henry Gates example) or not American (birtherism, secret Muslim etc). It was a lose-lose situation - surely a great tragedy for this country, founded on the backs of slaves and since those ugly times, a system that worked against African Americans, who when they could finally see themselves in their leader, was not allowed to fulfill his potential.
Politics aside (i didn't vote for Obama the second time) - it almost feels surreal that I lived through these 8 years and even moreso, now, living under Trump, the endorsement of (even if he does't realize it) of white supremacists and it's agenda. As we know and Coates acknowledges - this had been boiling under the surface the minute Obama took office (i myself recall hearing about white supremacist groups building up in the Northeast of the country) - not to mention the pervasive feeling my home state of Oregon, which was a white-only state upon admittance into the Union.
I had only read the closing essay "My President Was Black" among the previously published pieces that were included in this volume - the one addressing reparations was especially eye-opening and is even more significant now that many of the Democratic candidates have this in their policies that reparations should be a serious consideration in some form.
This is a dense read, but a must in the times we live in. It sadly makes sense in the times we find ourselves in at the present time and the uncertain future we face. I have no doubt I will refer to this book again in the near future regardless of how the coming two years and the next 4 years after the 2020 election.
The take home conclusion that I took away from Coates' words?
Despite electing a black president by it's populace - America the system, was not only not ready, but actively rejected it's first black president. Coates' reveals, that both by it's past and present - Obama was set up to fail. He was either too black (the Henry Gates example) or not American (birtherism, secret Muslim etc). It was a lose-lose situation - surely a great tragedy for this country, founded on the backs of slaves and since those ugly times, a system that worked against African Americans, who when they could finally see themselves in their leader, was not allowed to fulfill his potential.
Politics aside (i didn't vote for Obama the second time) - it almost feels surreal that I lived through these 8 years and even moreso, now, living under Trump, the endorsement of (even if he does't realize it) of white supremacists and it's agenda. As we know and Coates acknowledges - this had been boiling under the surface the minute Obama took office (i myself recall hearing about white supremacist groups building up in the Northeast of the country) - not to mention the pervasive feeling my home state of Oregon, which was a white-only state upon admittance into the Union.
I had only read the closing essay "My President Was Black" among the previously published pieces that were included in this volume - the one addressing reparations was especially eye-opening and is even more significant now that many of the Democratic candidates have this in their policies that reparations should be a serious consideration in some form.
This is a dense read, but a must in the times we live in. It sadly makes sense in the times we find ourselves in at the present time and the uncertain future we face. I have no doubt I will refer to this book again in the near future regardless of how the coming two years and the next 4 years after the 2020 election.