Steven's Notebook

Look Ma - No Hands!

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

quoting another reviewer:Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me is written as a letter/essay from Coates to his fifteen-year-old son, trying to come to terms with what it means to grow up as an African American male in 2015. …no sugar-coating, no careful racial diplomacy, no worry about mediating opinions to cater to what white people might be able to hear. it’s a heartfelt, raw, painful and honest letter from a father to a son, laying plain Coates’ worry, anger, frustration, and fear for his son’s future in light of Coates’ own past and the world his son will grow up in.

I don’t know that, if everyone in the U.S. read this book, anything would change with regard to “race relations,” or “civil rights.” I do believe that at least some percentage of people would begin to think about- and perhaps try to understand though likely fail more often than they think – the way others feel about the way they are treated.

In that hope, I will recommend reading Between The World And Me, especially when you find it difficult to do so.

[aside: The first rule of Privilege Club: you don’t know you’re a member of Privilege Club. The second rule of Privilege Club: when told you’re a member of Privilege Club, you don’t believe it.]

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