L.A.

Wow! Necessary reading!

Revisado: 01-09-23

A few years ago I realized that I had learned hardly anything about the history of Africa despite having graduate level education in the humanities. Having encountered a few people referencing this book, I got a copy. So glad I did because it has enhanced my understanding and helped be make sense of things. The text is clear and information-packed. Rodney's writing style is also instructive for those looking for support in addressing imperialist apologism. Definitely a must read and a must read again.
Narration is clear as well. I set the speed a little slower (90%) because there is so much informtation in this book. Often I paused and reflected on passages for a while. Excellent book!

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Life-changing

Revisado: 10-11-22

Howard Zinn puts forth an important fuller study of U.S. history. As the struggles of disenfranchised people are routinely erased from normative history, this book is a crucial intervention.
For historians it is also a primer in how to do history. Necessary reading for everyone.

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Necessary, eye-opening journey

Revisado: 05-29-22

Truly a tour de force. Every student of the humanities must read this book. It's intense, but not in that academic theory heavy kind of language. Said’s historical backed up decolonial yet super associative approach is stunning at times. In addition to soaking up the conceptual force sometimes I stopped just to repeat phrases out loud. Said is a gifted writer as well.
Often I had to stop listening to let my brain process all this experience.
The narrator did a great job handling the various languages in this book.

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Brilliant and life-changing!

Revisado: 02-22-22

Derrick Bell has given us a brilliant, innovative lens to the role of race in the United States. His expert use of story form to impart historical information connects with other registers than purely nonfiction models. This is a profound resource.

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A Generous Journey

Revisado: 01-25-22

Saidiya Hartman unravels complex histories, challenging memories, and desires for freedom, for another social order. Her account is relatable, onerous, vulnerable, and generous as it takes the reader to many places and time periods. Beautiful written, this amazing blend of poignant memoir and informative historical text is a must read/listen to for everyone, who studies slavery, racism, colonialism, and memory.
Regarding the performance- Great narrator as well. I especially appreciated the altered voices to designate speakers.

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An important resource

Revisado: 07-03-21

Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law offers a thorough, well researched history of how the U.S. goverment instituted segregation. While I knew some of this history, I found myself repeatedly stunned by the breadth and pervasive forms of this exclusionary action. Rothstein's analysis of Supreme Court rulings and convincing arguments on the faulty reasoning the justices have put forward as they supported segregation policies are particularly noteworthy contribuions.
Throughout the book I worried about Rothstein's regular claim that "we" had obstructed Black people’s rights, as Black people shouldn't be assigned that wrongdoing. His overall argument that intergration is the primary solution to improving outcomes for Black Americans troubled me. Toward the end of the book, the alarms blared when I came across this pasage in the chapter Considering Fixes, "youth growing up in predominantly African American communities, even middle-class ones, will gain no experience mastering a predominantly white professional culture in which they, as adults, will want to succeed." His idea of a better world emphasizes Black people being folded into white culture, instead of an un-making of white supremacist culture. That passage brought to mind Malcolm X's sage reflections on segregation.
"A segregated district or community is a community in which people live, but outsiders control the politics and the economy of that community. They never refer to the white section as a segregated community."- Malcolm X, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, The Ballot or the Bullet, 1964

While Rothstein convincingly states from the beginning his reasoning for focusing on African American residential disenfranchisement, the lack of acknowledgment regarding the colonialist project of the U.S. is unfortunate. I understand he cannot address everything. But a nod to the layers of extremely fraught conditions of place and ownership of lands and people would have raised the bar. Such a lens may have directed the author to engage more throughly with, to borrow Dr. Saidiya Hartman’s expression, the "brutal asymmetry of power. He might have suggested significant pathways for a reworking of society. But he didn't do that. Instead, he presents a well-researched account that operates as a substantial call for reform aligned with prior Affirmative Action measures.
Nevertheless, I did find the book illuminating for the detailed histories of segregation, court analysis, and the question and answer resource in the epilogue, where he addresses many of the common defenses I've heard people give to protect segregation/the status quo. It is a useful tool even with it's limitations. Other scholars can build from what Rothstein has put forward.

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Mind-opening and heartwarming!

Revisado: 01-25-21

A joyful read on finding and developing engaged pedagogy. Applicable outside of education too. I will return to this book again and again.

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Informative, Eye-opening, Hopeful

Revisado: 11-04-20

I wish I had encountered this book when it was first published. I would have been a stronger person because this book is a luscious spiritual guide. Robin D.G Kelly provides not only a detailed, yet succinct, review of Black liberation struggles. He reveals to readers a portal to the spiritual realm by highlighting the various imaginative paths freedom fighters have forged. After reading this might text, I feel changed for the better.

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Important labor, organizing, & Detroit history

Revisado: 08-12-20

Many men in my family worked in the car factories. But I didn't grow up knowing anything about the revolutionary organizing that happened in those spaces. Thankfully I came across this book. The organizing efforts of Detroit's Black autoworkers to create more just workplaces and societies should be known by everyone. Lots of useful information here for those today fighting for deep structural change.

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Essential!

Revisado: 01-12-20

hooks offers an expansive overview of the women's movement in the U.S. She exposes the racist and sexist behavior and rationale of various leaders who betrayed the movement to support their individual goals. Glad I finally read this book.

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