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ulvir posted:It feels like I was kind of in an advantage, because though not being black, I read it from a point of view so far removed from America that I didn't need to get incredibly offended at the thought that someone either insulted The American Dream or The Founding Fathers or whatever. And because of that I didn't have to be so completely blinded that I missed the actual message instead of these trivial hang-ups that this Brooks and other people like him got. I was about to say it seems like a common discourse on race relations in the US, but to be honest it's exactly like that over here as well. For every minority speaking up about their experiences, there's three people from the majority ready to defend the sacred honour of the local parallel to "The White Man". Don't worry, civilized (i.e. potty-trained) white Americans are capable of not getting offended by someone who faces us with our own history. I've been listening to Coates' reading of the book during my commute, and so far it is beautiful, stark, and heavy. Since I first heard the phrase 'black bodies,' I found it terribly confusing and it felt counterproductive. This book made me understand what it's supposed to mean. The mind is contained within the body, the body is its interface to the world, and the state of that body (and throughout our history, its color) directly shapes how the world interacts with the body. I would like to re-iterate what was said about Jews not being considered 'white,' until it was politically convenient. I remember from my high school textbook, there was a poster comparing stylized images of the "Negro" and the "Irishman" to show they were on a spectrum leading to monkeys (I don't know how Scopes felt about that), far from "white" people. I couldn't find that one, but this print of an Irishman in a political cartoon has the same effect.  Indeed, these prints' creators believed themselves to be white. I have believed myself to be white since I was in kindergarten, and that fact is now terribly unsettling to me. It is rare these days that I come across an idea that truly challenges how I see things, and that I ultimately internalize. This is the talent of Ta-Nehisi Coates. In the intro (which is also found pretty much verbatim in one of his Atlanic articles), Coates describes an indistinct sadness that he feels when asked an oblivious question by a journalist. You can hear it subtly in his voice. I think that there is a lot to be gained by listening to him speak his own words, but there are so many things that I want to quote or review later, I'm glad I bought the e-book as well. I'm about a quarter of the way through, and I'm looking forward to the Civil War part, judging by what I've seen here. Oh and I'm stoked to have a reason to use this just after my first week as a member. quote:And also lol at the idea in general, following that logic, we shouldn't say that what Hitler, Stalin, Mao or Pol Pot etc. was doing wasn't objectively terrible 
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Aug 23, 2015 11:51
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Bhaal posted:My bad, it was this one from the first page: Exactly, when a pathological liar gets to murder a man whose shape fits an opposite description of his purported target, without showing his badge, while wearing plain clothes, outside of his jurisdiction, standing on the excuse that an ambitious college student about to visit his fiancee would try to run him over on a lark, gets off scot-free and put back on the streets almost immediately, that's not a "legal nicety" being disregarded. And where were that cop's parents?
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Aug 25, 2015 03:51
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