Reviews
lucid & frightening & delivered in the most rhythmic prose I have read in a while
Thank goodness this exists.
One of the best ever
Unless you've been living under a literary rock, you've heard of or better still even read the works of Ta-Nehisi Coates. A journalist/writer for The Atlantic, his longform essays on race relations in today's turbulent times are the perfect recipe for those trying to sift through the jingoism. His profound understanding of African-American history is a revelation for someone who didn't grow up here. Heck, I'm sure people who were even born here are aware of much of the sordid history of race and how it permeates American society to this day. This book is a long open letter to his teenage son who reads and sees the troubling news today and gets distressed. Coates doesn't sugarcoat his words on how 'his body' i.e. that of an African-American is not really in his control and is subject to abuse not by a racist cop but rather by institutions that've thrived on subjugation of minorities and adds that history has been replete with such injustices. Perhaps we hear about them more often now than before thanks to the tech social networks. He doesn't proffer violence as the solution but his tone is of resigned anger that has festered over years thanks to countless incidences of being unfairly profiled. Coates talks about the other side of white privilege which any non-white person doesn't need any explaining. The norms that have been set that we constantly try to fight against are dictated by what is expected of you. I cannot imagine what it is to be a black man or a Muslim in America as much as a white person can't imagine what's it be to a brown person trying to board an airplane just to get home. Be warned that parts of the book will make you angry. Very angry. But it also instills you in a finer understanding of the world around you and all you can hope is to make it a slightly better place. As Obama often says, we strive to make it a more perfect union. But I don't think we're there yet. Far from it, in fact. But someday.
five stars
A short, but powerful book. It's so sad to see the realities the author has to explain to his son. It's so raw, and thought-provoking. Definitely a must-read book.
Incredible and powerful words that helps us shape a generation of the evolution on what it means to hate and what does it look like from the eyes of those who are hated upon. Ta-Nehisi Coates personifies the struggle and beauty of African American oppression in a letter style prose that reminds one of spoken word or slam poetry and personally takes me back to when I used to read Walter Dean Myers and recognize this letter is telling the story of a people who were left with no choice but to be brave and go into this night. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME.
10000% recommend.
4.25 stars // more to come
Gorgeous prose on a subject of paramount importance. The audiobook by the author was astonishingly beautiful. Thought provoking and hauntingly beautiful.
Loved the content and topics of this book but the letter writing/ stream of consciousness format made it a little tough to follow in spots and sometimes felt haphazard and jumped around between ideas/stories a lot
If you are seeing this message, read the book.
Sad, but beautiful
I don't have much to add that hasn't already been said here. It's a fantastic book, written by a fantastic man, about circumstances that shouldn't exist. I'm not the key demographic this book is aimed at, but I still walked away with something, even if that something is a vague sadness at how we ended up here at this point.
Not only is this book beautifully written, it eloquently depicts both the current and historical narrative of America. It reveals the American Dream for what it is: a justification of oppression. The writing is deeply personal, and Coates’s vulnerability shows a level of authenticity that truly makes a difference. Should be required reading
Beautifully written. Powerful stuff.
An illuminating read that evokes a deeper understanding of what it means to be Black in America. Coates guides the reader to question the narratives of countries and cultures through autobiographical prose in an open letter to his son. Because of this framework, the books has a uniquely intimate tone which invites the reader into a new realm of understanding.
This is one of those books that I believe everyone benefits from reading. Between the World and Me serves as a reminder that there is a vision of the future worth fighting for, though it may not seem visible now. Ta-Nehisi Coates wields language so powerfully and effortlessly; all in his effort to prepare his son for the horrors of reality for those who have been labeled with and negatively affected by the illusion of race.
“But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy. Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible—this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.”
The book starts of interesting but it is rather repetitive with the main ideas and concepts.
This book is a chronicle of the mental and emotional changes of a sensitive man living in a black body in America. It's at times poetic and honest about deep emotion, and though most of the time he's addressing his son, the author speaks to the silent observer who takes their white body for granted in the luxury of ignorance. He never uses the term "white privilege," and he's less accusing than James Baldwin, but he welcomes the reader into his head and to see with his eyes. "I wanted you to see different people living by different rules." Coates has a complicated relationship with the place that he grew up. He complains that he was in a fight for survival, keeping his body safe, and putting him at the very bottom rung of Maslowe's hierarchy of needs. However, he justifies the very system of violence that he abhors, he casts it as an act of defiant identity creation and protection for the people living in his community from outsiders. It's very complicated for him as he talks to his son. He wants the best for his son, and he doesn't want him "blinded by fear" when dealing with the rest of the world, but he still wants him to remember where he came from and the struggle of his people, who are they his people? Are they really a race? Race is a concept created by the oppressor, so it can't be that. The conflict of wanting to pass on your child a Heritage, but not the negative aspects of that heritage hold universal appeal. His experience of feeling free from all of the racial baggage that he experienced every day in New York City is not uncommon among American people in Paris. The idea that learning French in school seems pointless because you don't know any French people to talk to transforms into realizing subjects like French are Bridges to other universes with a different culture, with an entirely different way of thinking, and an entirely different way of perceiving beauty.
Between the World and Me was searing and painful. In essays written to his son, Te-Nehisi Coates examines what it means to be Black and shows how slavery and racism still have an impact on society today in the United States. He describes his experiences as a child growing up in Baltimore in blunt, cynical, and devastating prose. As a white girl, to see the world and experiences from the perspective of a person of color was very invaluable to me. I read it one sitting as the writing was very continuous, and I found it impossible to put down. The author's honesty and vulnerability was so poignant- this is definitely a book that will stick with me for a long time.
An absolute must read. Take a day and read it straight through.
Like Toni Morrison very rightly said, this should be a MUST READ for every school. One of the most real accounts of how life is so different for white and black teenagers growing up. The stark contrast between their upbringing, their notion of a "good" childhood/teenage and their parent's beliefs is something I don't think we ever notice/think about otherwise. But race is the child of racism, not the father. And the process of naming “the people” has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy. Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible—this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white. This book sheds light to some very harsh truths about racism and people's mindset. You need to read this to get an idea about how privileged you are. And try doing better. Not being violent enough could cost me my body. Being too violent could cost me my body. We could not get out. This book is not gonna be an easy read, you as a person of privilege will feel questioned. You will feel uncomfortable and that is exactly the point. To ask uneasy questions to talk about things people have been taken for granted and breaking the racial stereotypes. This is a book that will make you question your every move, belief, ideology. And make you think and rethink them for good. The problem with the police is not that they are fascist pigs but that our country is ruled by majoritarian pigs. Each and every line from this book is quotable, is so damn intriguing. Definitely gonna read everything else written by this author. MUST MUST MUST READ. ONE OF THE BEST NON-FICTION BOOKS I've read in forever.
Amazing, inspiring, raw, visceral, sad, beautiful. Couldn’t stop reading it.
Highlights
And still I urge you to struggle. Struggle for the mnemory of your ancestors.
I do not believe that we can stop them, Samori, because they must ultimately stop themselves.
It was the cotton that passed through our chained hands that inaugurated this age.
The Earth is not our creation. It has no respect for us. It has no use for us.
They made us into a race. We made ourselves into a people.
I assumed that this would have been bard on her, but she was insulted by the assumption.
And have brought humanity to the edge of oblivion: because they think they are white.
Black life is cheap, but in America black bodies are a natural resource of incomparable value.
if there is any comfort in this, it is not the kind that I would encourage you to indulge.
. We will always be black, you and I, even if it means different things in differ- ent places.
And I am now ashamed of the thought, ashamed of my fear, of the generational chains I tried to clasp onto your wrists.
. I think of your grandmother calling me and noting how you were growing tall and would one day try to "test me" And I said to her that I would regard that day, should it come, as the total failure of fatherhood be- cause if all I had over you were my hands, then I really had nothing at all.
I am wounded. I am marked by old codes, which shielded me in one world and then chained me in the next.
, and if I have not said it with the same direction and clarity, I confess that is because I am afraid. And I have no God to hold me up.
"You exist. You matter. You have value. You have every right to wear your hoodie, to play your music as loud as you want. You have every right to be you. And no one should deter you from being you. You have to be you. And you can never be afraid to be you."
I did not want to raise you in fear or false memnory. I did not want you forced to mask your joys and bind your eyes. What I wanted for you was to grow into consciousness. I resolved to hide nothing from you.
I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world.
The people who must believe they are white can never be your measuring stick.
" And there it is- the right to break the black body as the meaning of their sacred equality. And that right has always given them meaning, has always meant that there was someone down in the valley because a mountain is not a mountain if there is nothing 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.
The soul was the body that fed the tobacco, and the spirit was the blood that watered the cotton, and these created the first fruits of the American garden.
I am ashamed that I made an error, knowing that our errors always cost us more.
I think we would like to kill you ourselves before seeing you killed by the streets that America made.
September I picked up The Washington Post and saw that the PG County police had killed again. I could not help but think that this could have been me, and holding you- a month old by then- knew that such loss would not be mine alone.
Our world is full of sound Our world is more lovely than anyone's tho we suffer, and kill each other and sometimes fail to walk the air We are beautiful people with african imaginations full of masks and dances and swelling chants with african eyes, and noses, and arms, though we sprawl in grey chains in a place full of wvinters, when what we want is sun. AMIRI BARAKA