sr_yancey 's review for:

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

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Jews after the Holocaust: Hey so we need a place where we’re respected and safe so we can collectively heal

America: Yeah we don’t really do that. But we’re like REALLY good at colonizing and ethnic cleansing if it’ll make you go somewhere else! :)

That doesn’t make sense. It’s kind of the opposite of what we need

Don’t worry! We’re like really good at tying a narrative with people’s sense of self so they won’t even realize the plot holes without having a crisis. Makes resistance more personal and anyone you want inhuman!

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I’ve always been fascinated by stories and this book goes into social justice and injustice through the stories that shape us. How we can be convinced of another person’s inhumanity to justify generations of systemic oppression. How America was one of the main inspirations for Nazism, South African apartheid, and the Zionist occupation. The same tactics used here are imitated and adapted there only to be brought back and used here. But we still defend it or else question our place entirely. And I do believe a lot of people will and do refuse to dehumanize one another and instead recognize the patterns that harm us. But that also means the ones who double down against empathy harm not only others but themselves while believing they’re right. That kind of power in a narrative would be impressive if it wasn’t so deeply unsettling and infuriating

I do love this author and his writing never fails to haunt me