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cicelyvford 's review for:
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
TRIGGER WARNING - MENTION OF SE**AL AS***LT IN THIS REVIEW
I had been pondering where to even begin with this review. This book is so dense and completely immersive. I am always impressed at the unmitigated brilliance of Coates and the sheer amount of research he does, both physical research and emotional as well.
THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING ACROSS THE BOARD Coates weaves a comprehensive tapestry of the history of slavery, the mass incarceration of Black men, how and why America labors under white supremacy and how the principles of it are maintained from the moderate nuances to the more unconcealed. Coates deconstructs these entities across historical, political and socioeconomic landscapes.
What I appreciate about Coates' examination is his unbiased approach. He is a Black man in America obviously and so naturally some of his personal views reflect his experiences & truths that might appear biased to non Black readers. However, he adhered to the facts and the profundity of his research is palpable.
I also respect Coates' candid approach to unpacking the complexities of being Black in a country that has twisted every aspect of Blackness. He highlights these contradictions in notable Black figures like Bill Cosby. Cosby implemented almost every feature of Black culture into The Cosby Show from history to art to music, but would often blame the Black community for its own shortcomings and socioeconomic failures without addressing institutional and systemic racism. He was also accused of sexual assault back then, but it never really saw the light of day. My first thought was his heinous behavior towards women was probably swept under the rug because of the power he held back then and the fact that he catered to white America's sensibilities when it came to telling his own community to "do better".
Anyone that knows the true legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. knows that towards the end of his life he began to reevaluate his own methodology towards fighting the deep seeded hatred among white Americans. He was coming into the realization that just taking the "peaceful" approach may not be enough to enact true change. He began to lean towards the doctrine of more radical language, protests and demonstrations long held by Malcolm X. Coates also examined how towards the end of Malcolm's life, he began to shift away from his strict personal choices and was beginning to ease away from his Black "militance". Where he would never, in his earlier years in the spotlight, talk about his partiality to white women, he did so publicly accompanied with other sentiments that didn't align with his previous teachings and opinions. All of this is just in the introduction and the very beginning of the book.
As I was reading, I felt as if identifying these seemingly internal struggles of prominent Black icons was important in understanding a critical theme in Obama's presidency. Many Americans considered the election of Obama to be "symbolic". He represented the impossible, unrealized dreams, the pinnacle of progression for a Black man in America. He was charismatic, even-key, reveled in hip hop culture, but was careful when addressing issues facing the Black community directly and as Coates noted he often was shrouded in respectability politics and "color blind" rhetoric. Trump's presidency could be seen as symbolic for white supremacy, but I believe his presidency IS the face of white supremacy directly. There are so many factual points in this book that would back my opinion.
p.443, " Whiteness in America is a different symbol - a badge of advantage. In a country of professed meritocratic competition, this badge has long ensured an unerring privilege, represented in a 220 year monopoly on the highest office in the land.”
Coates also tackles mass incarceration. This one section could be separated and published into a short form work. The way he conducted his research made it easily digestible to understand. I've tabbed and underlined almost every page in this book and below are a few powerful passages that stood out.
-----
pg.92, "For now the country holds to the common theory that emancipation and civil rights were redemptive, a fraught and still-incomplete resolution of the accidental hypocrisy of a nation founded by slaveholders extolling a gospel of freedom. This common theory dominates much of American discourse, from left to right. Conveniently, it holds the possibility of ultimate resolution, for if right-thinking individuals can dedicate themselves to finishing the work of ensuring freedom for all, then perhaps the ghosts of history can be escaped. It was the common theory-through its promise of a progressive American history, where the country improves itself inexorably and necessarily -that allowed for Obama's rise. And it was that rise that offered me that chance to see that theory for the illusion that it was."
My thoughts: When I read this passage it reminded me of the hypocrisy of the idea of freedom in that if a Black person reaches a certain level of success that they've somehow broken through the proverbial chains. From birtherism from his critics and onward, Obama's "symbolism" could have been considered an illusion.
------
p.123 First conjure the crime-the generational destruction of human bodies-and all of its related offenses-domestic terrorism, poll taxes, mass incarceration. But then try to imagine being an individual born among the remnants of the crime, among the wronged, among the plundered, and feeling the gravity of that crime all around and seeing it in the sideways glances of the perpetrators of that crime and overhearing it in their whispers and watching these people, at best, denying their power to address the crime and, at worst, denying that any crime had occurred at all, even as their entire lives revolve around the fact of a robbery so large that it is written in our very names. This is not a thought experiment. America is literally unimaginable without plundered labor shackled to plundered land, without the organizing principle of whiteness as citizenship , without the culture crafted by the plundered, and without that culture itself being plundered.
p.453 Obama was born into a country where laws barring his very conception-let alone his ascendancy to the presidency-had long stood in force. A Black president would always be a contradiction for a government that, throughout most of its history, had oppressed Black people. The attempt to resolve this contradiction through Obama-a Black man with deep roots in the white world was remarkable. The price it exacted, incredible. The world it gave way to, unthinkable.
p.514 To Trump whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies. The repercussions are striking: Trump is the first president to served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch. Perhaps more important, Trump is the first president to have publicly affirmed that his daughter is a "piece of a**"
Please read this book. Read it slowly. I learned such invaluable lessons as I often do when reading anything from Coates.
I had been pondering where to even begin with this review. This book is so dense and completely immersive. I am always impressed at the unmitigated brilliance of Coates and the sheer amount of research he does, both physical research and emotional as well.
THIS BOOK SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING ACROSS THE BOARD Coates weaves a comprehensive tapestry of the history of slavery, the mass incarceration of Black men, how and why America labors under white supremacy and how the principles of it are maintained from the moderate nuances to the more unconcealed. Coates deconstructs these entities across historical, political and socioeconomic landscapes.
What I appreciate about Coates' examination is his unbiased approach. He is a Black man in America obviously and so naturally some of his personal views reflect his experiences & truths that might appear biased to non Black readers. However, he adhered to the facts and the profundity of his research is palpable.
I also respect Coates' candid approach to unpacking the complexities of being Black in a country that has twisted every aspect of Blackness. He highlights these contradictions in notable Black figures like Bill Cosby. Cosby implemented almost every feature of Black culture into The Cosby Show from history to art to music, but would often blame the Black community for its own shortcomings and socioeconomic failures without addressing institutional and systemic racism. He was also accused of sexual assault back then, but it never really saw the light of day. My first thought was his heinous behavior towards women was probably swept under the rug because of the power he held back then and the fact that he catered to white America's sensibilities when it came to telling his own community to "do better".
Anyone that knows the true legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. knows that towards the end of his life he began to reevaluate his own methodology towards fighting the deep seeded hatred among white Americans. He was coming into the realization that just taking the "peaceful" approach may not be enough to enact true change. He began to lean towards the doctrine of more radical language, protests and demonstrations long held by Malcolm X. Coates also examined how towards the end of Malcolm's life, he began to shift away from his strict personal choices and was beginning to ease away from his Black "militance". Where he would never, in his earlier years in the spotlight, talk about his partiality to white women, he did so publicly accompanied with other sentiments that didn't align with his previous teachings and opinions. All of this is just in the introduction and the very beginning of the book.
As I was reading, I felt as if identifying these seemingly internal struggles of prominent Black icons was important in understanding a critical theme in Obama's presidency. Many Americans considered the election of Obama to be "symbolic". He represented the impossible, unrealized dreams, the pinnacle of progression for a Black man in America. He was charismatic, even-key, reveled in hip hop culture, but was careful when addressing issues facing the Black community directly and as Coates noted he often was shrouded in respectability politics and "color blind" rhetoric. Trump's presidency could be seen as symbolic for white supremacy, but I believe his presidency IS the face of white supremacy directly. There are so many factual points in this book that would back my opinion.
p.443, " Whiteness in America is a different symbol - a badge of advantage. In a country of professed meritocratic competition, this badge has long ensured an unerring privilege, represented in a 220 year monopoly on the highest office in the land.”
Coates also tackles mass incarceration. This one section could be separated and published into a short form work. The way he conducted his research made it easily digestible to understand. I've tabbed and underlined almost every page in this book and below are a few powerful passages that stood out.
-----
pg.92, "For now the country holds to the common theory that emancipation and civil rights were redemptive, a fraught and still-incomplete resolution of the accidental hypocrisy of a nation founded by slaveholders extolling a gospel of freedom. This common theory dominates much of American discourse, from left to right. Conveniently, it holds the possibility of ultimate resolution, for if right-thinking individuals can dedicate themselves to finishing the work of ensuring freedom for all, then perhaps the ghosts of history can be escaped. It was the common theory-through its promise of a progressive American history, where the country improves itself inexorably and necessarily -that allowed for Obama's rise. And it was that rise that offered me that chance to see that theory for the illusion that it was."
My thoughts: When I read this passage it reminded me of the hypocrisy of the idea of freedom in that if a Black person reaches a certain level of success that they've somehow broken through the proverbial chains. From birtherism from his critics and onward, Obama's "symbolism" could have been considered an illusion.
------
p.123 First conjure the crime-the generational destruction of human bodies-and all of its related offenses-domestic terrorism, poll taxes, mass incarceration. But then try to imagine being an individual born among the remnants of the crime, among the wronged, among the plundered, and feeling the gravity of that crime all around and seeing it in the sideways glances of the perpetrators of that crime and overhearing it in their whispers and watching these people, at best, denying their power to address the crime and, at worst, denying that any crime had occurred at all, even as their entire lives revolve around the fact of a robbery so large that it is written in our very names. This is not a thought experiment. America is literally unimaginable without plundered labor shackled to plundered land, without the organizing principle of whiteness as citizenship , without the culture crafted by the plundered, and without that culture itself being plundered.
p.453 Obama was born into a country where laws barring his very conception-let alone his ascendancy to the presidency-had long stood in force. A Black president would always be a contradiction for a government that, throughout most of its history, had oppressed Black people. The attempt to resolve this contradiction through Obama-a Black man with deep roots in the white world was remarkable. The price it exacted, incredible. The world it gave way to, unthinkable.
p.514 To Trump whiteness is neither notional nor symbolic but is the very core of his power. In this, Trump is not singular. But whereas his forebears carried whiteness like an ancestral talisman, Trump cracked the glowing amulet open, releasing its eldritch energies. The repercussions are striking: Trump is the first president to served in no public capacity before ascending to his perch. Perhaps more important, Trump is the first president to have publicly affirmed that his daughter is a "piece of a**"
Please read this book. Read it slowly. I learned such invaluable lessons as I often do when reading anything from Coates.