Play Book Tag discussion

A highly personal and emotional statement by a noted black journalist to his son, there is much of importance and power here, and speaks very much to the issue of racism in the USA in the 21st Century. However, I also found large sections of it inaccessible. Not surprising that would be as I'm a white woman of a certain age, who grew up on a farm in a primarily white community, attended an ivy league college, and basically live the life he describes as the Dream. Too often I was not at all familiar with the authors he was referencing, and to some degree this too created a barrier to being fully brought into the heart of what he is saying here.

Yet...

I do think that reading it now, in August 2019, rather than in 2015 when it was first published, has made it far more accessible and even readable for someone like me. Why? Because we have a white supremacist in the White House, and a government that has essentially created detention camps for immigrants and allows children of immigrants to be torn from their families and kept in cages. Because of #MeToo. Because the very weekend I decided to read this book, 2 more mass shootings, hate driven, occurred in El Paso and Dayton. Because I have done a lot of different reading in the last 3 years and because I have heard Coates speak on various issues. All that exposure has opened my mind and understanding in a way that brings me closer to Coates and his message.

What did speak to me in particular from what Coates expresses is just how easily his theory, that blacks have been denied control over their lives and bodies by those perceived as white to a degree that dictates their own behavior within their families and communities, fits women, or even other minorities. In fact he makes analogies to Jews and Irish as having also been denied their bodies at some time in the past before inclusion as 'white'. He also hints a few times at women being trapped in a similar fashion. In fact, it was being able to identify much of what he said to my own experiences as a woman that opened this book's message for me.

The message he's giving his son is far broader than it initially seems. This is a book that may need to be read again at different times in order to assimilate its message fully.

Theresa, I also felt that this is a book that needs to be read more than once. At different times it is likely to resonate in different ways. And to think he wrote this in 2015.... it is so important to think about racism today.

I love this, amazing that the book could be at turns inaccessible and accessible. This is why I love reading!

Were you intrigued to seek out any of the authors work referenced?

Curious about the references as I will read this soon (it's on my trim, so if not this year definitely next).

Sounds so very powerful-Not in the head space right now to read it, but adding to pile of TBR-I have a bunch of Book Sales coming up in the area so I am going to keep my eye open for it. Wonderful review Theresa!

Meli wrote: "I love this, amazing that the book could be at turns inaccessible and accessible. This is why I love reading!

Were you intrigued to seek out any of the authors work referenced?

Curious about th..."

I did google some of them..one for example is a professor of African American History with published books. I did not actively add any to my TBR but since I own my copy of Between the World and Me, it will serve as a reference and guide for future reading.

Of course Baldwin and Wright and others whom I have read were mentioned as well.

On further thought...I think you need to find your own way into the book. For me it was seeing how the same concept applies to me as a woman.

I'm looking forward to it :)

I'm more interested in this book now for some of the same reasons you mentioned before. We can no longer say "that's not my problem."

I read this and was quite taken with the whole thing. It is so memorable and a huge step outside my own experiences. We need to do that, everyone needs to do that, with an open mind. I had a similar experience when I read The Hate U Give this month. It is what I love about reading - step outside of yourself and experiencing empathy.