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

Find A Copy At

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 3 topics — 10 comments total

2015-Jul-Aug-Sep

This topic has been closed to new comments.

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

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

Apr 15, 2019 Andy rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Coates has rage and fear. These powerful emotions keep his discourse listenable.

Beyond that, his book is full of contradictions. He acknowledges many of these, and that's fine, but I was waiting for some wise and logical reconciliation of conflicting concepts. Anger is an energy, but not a great compass.

For readers looking for a book about discussing racism with one's child, I would recommend what I think is a more mature and meaningful work:
Racism Explained to My Daughter

Le racisme expliqué à ma fille by Tahar Ben Jelloun

...more

9 likes · Like · see review

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

Shelves: memoir-biography, nonfiction, history, 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

Feb 08, 2016 judy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

I won't even attempt a review since Iris Pereya did such a magnificent job. I'll only add some of my thoughts as someone born into the Dream and still living it after many decades. Coates warns his son not to pin his hopes on awareness and change coming to the Dreamers. I can understand his pessimism. Who among us can't name at least five black men who have recently been killed by the police? Still, examining my memories of the 60s and everything up until now, I think we have reached the tipping ...more

Like · see review