Book Review: Letter to My Daughter

 

Letter to My Daughter

Maya Angelou

4/5

More non-fiction, I've read like four this year but that's four more than I usually read without academic provocation. Maya Angelou is a phenomenal writer because of how profound yet understandable her writing is. It's not written in a way that is separated from the reader, it feels like she's actually speaking to the individuals rather than the masses. Letter to My Daughter is a collection of short essays about her life that represent her lessons to the younger generation. 

I really liked most of the individual stories. Like I said, they were profound but I also didn't feel like I was reading some hyped up events that were largely embellished. I can believe that Angelou lived through these events and I can't believe she could put all these seemingly random events into a comprehensive narrative. 

I didn't feel the impact of the larger message as much as I would like to in a book that I was expecting to have such weight. The individual essays were weighted, comical at times, and significant in their own ways. I just couldn't feel the underlying message of it all at the end despite the significance of each story. I liked them all for their own value but I don't know if it's a singular letter or more of a compilation of life lessons. Still would recommend it though if you're feeling the need for worldly wisdom or funny life stories from someone who was so experienced and thoughtful.  

Book Review: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

The New Jim Crow

Michelle Alexander

5/5

I think that I speak for many Americans when I say that it's been difficult to find any "national pride" within the last few months. The pandemic has really displayed how inadequate our health services are, the information being pushed to the forefront with the BLM Movement has displayed how utterly we have failed our Black community. This book was written over ten years ago, I'm too young to have comprehended it then, but the information was obviously out there and should have been dealt with far before the nation was pushed to revolt during a global pandemic.

This book brings up valuable facts that I feel like a lot of people have been hearing throughout the last couple of months, or the people who are listening at least. With such direct links between the current system of mass incarceration and the previous system of Jim Crow, how can anyone question why people have reached the end of their tolerance? There are no excuses for the way the American government continues to fail these communities, but there's an obvious need for them to address it and work towards moving forward in a positive direction.

I learned a lot from this book and I believe that everyone could learn a lot from this book. I'm the kind of person who wants to learn though, so I don't know how to emphasize this sort of education for the people who are refusing to see a problem. The burden shouldn't fall upon individuals to learn about the horrible realities of the American system, bigger characters need to get involved. I don't know what the solution is, but it's good to have better facts to arm yourself with when you get into debates with your older relatives.

Book Review: White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

Robin DiAngelo

5/5

In an effort to re-educate myself on racial issues during this period of unrest, I've been trying to read some books about racism and systemic oppression. White Fragility forced me to think about how I interact with everyone, and my own intrinsic behaviors. The overarching message is that everyone is racist, that by turning the word racist into something that people only associate with lynchings and horrible acts of violence, we've only further internalized the problems that are truly oppressing POC in America.

This book is only around 170 pages, but it's still hard to get through. Not because it's boring, but with every highlight I made I had to think back to my own life. This book was written by a white woman, but she fully acknowledges her inability to fully understand how people of other races feel. It's a book by a white person attempting to communicate problems to white people that they are creating.

I'm a strong believer in the sentiment that everyone should do their best to self-educate themselves and try to stop themselves from offending anyone else. Race is a super tricky issue, but if everyone put the time in to try to read books like this and stopped to think about what they were saying, we might have a more inclusive society. I would recommend this to anyone feeling hopeless right now, there's always some way that you can try to make a difference.

Book Review: Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates

5/5

I've recently realized a need to educate myself more thoroughly on the nature of race in America. This book was recommended to me by a friend on Instagram as a way to do so and I completely understand why. Told as a letter from himself to his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates narrates his perspective on the oppression which Black Americans feel every day. I think that this is a pretty essential read, especially given the confusion which some people are experiencing as they consider the nature of the current protests. 

I've read a lot of books, but I don't read a lot of non-fiction. When I do read non-fiction and they center upon tragedies, they make me feel more helpless than anything else. If a character dies in a fictional book, I get upset and maybe I cry about it and think about it randomly for years to come. But when an individual needlessly dies in a book and I know that nothing I can do or imagine could bring that individual back to life, I never forget those books. This is the constant fear of Black America, the fear of a random and meaningless death. A society which Coates suggests is built upon violence towards black people which is beyond heartbreaking.

If you don't understand what would cause a group of people to riot and protest during a global pandemic then you really need to read this one. I completely understand the need for everything happening right now and yet this book still taught me so much and gave me so much perspective. It's tragic and it's sad and it needs to be stopped. I hope that through books like this, people will be able to educate themselves and see beyond their personal interests for the more pressing need for change.