A review by mattyvreads
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

challenging dark informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Coates is a literary genius. This book was so well-written, so compelling, and informative. In format and theme, it pays homage to Baldwin's The Fire Next Time. This is like if that book had a part two.

Although it is hard to pick just a few, some of my favorite quotes include the following:
1)
“I was out of sync with the city. I kept thinking about how southern Manhattan had always been Ground Zero for us. They auctioned our bodies down there. In the same devastated and rightly named Financial District… I did know that Osama Bin Laden was not the first man to bring terror to that section of the city. I never forgot that. Neither should you.”
 

2)
“A mountain is not a mountain without something below. You and I, my son, are that below. That was true in 1776. It is true today. There is no them without you, and without the right to break you, they must necessarily fall from the mountain, lose their divinity, and tumble out of the dream.“
 

3)
“I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unended, free.”


4)
“The people who believe themselves to be white are obsessed with the politics of personal exoneration, and the word ‘racist’ to them conjures if not a tobacco-spitting oaf, then something just as fantastic: an orc, troll, or gorgon.”


I am eager to read this book again in the future.
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