The Opposition…

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Discussion: 2015-Jul-Aug-Sep

Why we're reading this: July 23, 2015; author guest and book mentioned 10/12/15
[close] July 23, 2015; author guest and book mentioned 10/12/15

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2015-Jul-Aug-Sep

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* September 2015
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 14 views

last updated Oct 01, 2015 01:15AM

* July 2015
By Tiffany , WristStrong · 1 post · 18 views

last updated Aug 04, 2015 11:47AM

What Members Thought

Jul 14, 2016 Marieke rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, united-states, memoir, race-in-america, e-book, kindle, 2016

I connected to this book right from the outset. I'm the same age as the author. I grew up right outside DC and then lived in DC right after college. The City Paper of the 1990s--that was my paper. My dad gave me copies and then I started getting them myself from the newspaper boxes around town. I'm sure I read his stuff even if I'm terrible at remembering bylines. I felt this weird nostalgia for the DC area of the 90s while read...and I thought back a lot to the 1980s and wondered about my black I connected to this book right from the outset. I'm the same age as the author. I grew up right outside DC and then lived in DC right after college. The City Paper of the 1990s--that was my paper. My dad gave me copies and then I started getting them myself from the newspaper boxes around town. I'm sure I read his stuff even if I'm terrible at remembering bylines. I felt this weird nostalgia for the DC area of the 90s while read...and I thought back a lot to the 1980s and wondered about my black schoolmates, friends and neighbors. I have what seems to be a unique experience in America having grown up as a "minority" white person. My city was late to integrate and many white families sent their kids to private schools. I went to public school. But I'm white--I can't really know what it was like for them or what they experienced as youngsters. Was it anything like what Coates described? I assume yes, in many instances.

When this book first came out I heard an interviewer ask him why so many white people were reading and responding to his book. His response was that the interviewer needed to ask white people that question. He didn't write the book for white people and he wasn't going to try to answer that question for them. And furthermore, black people really need to stop writing for white people. So that conversation was at the back of my mind while I read it: why are white people so excited about this book? And are black people reading it with a similar frenzy as white people? How are they responding to it? Do they like it? Does it strike a nerve with them? Will the fact that so many white people are reading it help the current racial situation? I actually have no answers to those questions.

I might be able to tell you why this white person liked it. Just not today.

I scribbled in a journal while I read, but my notes are not very coherent. Also I read this as an e-book I borrowed from the library. This is a book that can and should be read multiple times and discussed with others. I can't write a proper review or truly reflect on it after just one reading with scribbled notes. I need to get my own copy and mark it up, really wrestle with it.

Instead of attempting such a review, I think I'll read through lots of reviews to see if I can answer any of my questions above.

We do not live in a post-racial society and this is such an important book. I'll just leave it at that for now.

...more

16 likes · Like · see review

May 13, 2015 Phyllis | Mocha Drop rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Touching!

8 likes · Like · see review

Oct 13, 2015 Linda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: chcpl, 2015, hardback

I borrowed this book from the library but I need to own a copy. I've already told my son he should read it and as I was leaving the library today saw one of the Sociology professors from the university where I work. Evidently I did such a good job, he rushed to the counter to see if he could check it out.
Because of the the wording of this book, I kept wondering about the old rule that one drop of negro blood made someone a negro. How white are the rest of us? What is in our background that we do ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Oct 11, 2017 Letitia rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-to-read

It's just so damn beautiful.

I was going to choose sections to quote. I started highlighting almost from the first paragraph. But then I would have continued highlighting the whole book and posted it here. So just read it. The entire thing deserves to be absorbed in its full context.

This is that magical piece of literature that the discriminating reader searches for. The writing is beautiful and skillfully lyrical without being pretentious. The content is targeted, sharp, a dagger to the heart of It's just so damn beautiful.

I was going to choose sections to quote. I started highlighting almost from the first paragraph. But then I would have continued highlighting the whole book and posted it here. So just read it. The entire thing deserves to be absorbed in its full context.

This is that magical piece of literature that the discriminating reader searches for. The writing is beautiful and skillfully lyrical without being pretentious. The content is targeted, sharp, a dagger to the heart of society. You leave it having learned, having changed, and having enjoyed the experience. The incisiveness and depth of understanding, coupled with the deeply personal nature of the narrative, is what makes this so impactful a read.

Coates does have moments where he might wax too eloquent. He lost me a bit in his reverence and devotion to Howard, being completely incapable of reciting anything other than glowing praise for an institution that he unironically refers to as The Mecca. I think it is healthy to be critical of those places, people, and institutions that we adore, but he does not seem capable of admitting any flaw in Howard. That, however, is truly the one weakness I find with this gem of a book.

I have seen some criticism on reviews that Coates doesn't present solutions to the societal injustice he expounds on, but I don't think this is his purpose. This book is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. It's a letter to his son to articulate the Black male experience, where it comes from, and why anger over it is justified. It does not seek to right wrongs so much as identify the truth of being Black in an America that has, from its inception, sought to dehumanize the Other, and in fact based its entire political and economic structure on that concept. If there is a step by step solution to this, step 1 is certainly admitting it. Exploitation of race, any non-white race (and even that definition, as Coates accurately points out, has changed according to the whims of the powerful in America) is our (my) legacy. ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Apr 26, 2017 Ezra rated it it was amazing

Shelves: racism-slavery, own, author-male, read-in-2017

This book is a couple hundred pounds of chains bearing down on the reader. A father who writes about the race in America in the time just before #BlackLivesMatter attempts to put into words what it means. This stands out as a better expression of the weight of it all than anything else I have seen.

3 likes · Like · see review

Jul 03, 2016 Pang rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, nonfiction, memoir-biography, 2016

I am not a cynic. I love you, and I love the world, and I love it more with every new inch I discover. But you are a black boy, and you must be responsible for your body in a way that other boys cannot know. Indeed, you must be responsible for the worst actions of other black bodies, which, somehow, will always be assigned to you. And you must be responsible for the bodies of the powerful—the policeman who cracks you with a nightstick will quickly find his excuse in your furtive movements. And

...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 18, 2015 Natalie rated it it was amazing

Honest, brave, optimistic, critical, and open to change. Coates is human. Reading and trying to process this book were/are challenging and amazing for me.

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 26, 2016 Jack rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nonfiction

This was a powerful book. It's the kind of book that should be read by people who think differently, but it won't be read by them. If I wanted to critique the book, it could be noted that I can't possibly get it, because I have such a different experience based on a few demographic factors I was born with. Perhaps that is true. It is impossible for me to prove otherwise. Sadly, there is no fix to what Coates discusses. We can't get past this stuff. Maybe at some point, different folks can at lea ...more

1 like · Like · see review