Thursday, July 28, 2016

"This is required reading." - Toni Morrison

rob's recent hotel anecdote and several comments thereto reminded me of a post I wanted to write but never did. If you're unfamiliar with Ta-Nehisi Coates's writing, which often touches on race, I suggest you delve into his uniformly superb work. In particular, you should read Between the World and Me. Don't take my word for it. According to Toni Morrison, "This is required reading."

Coates wrote this as a letter to his son Samori in response to Samori's frustration after the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and other African-American men at the hands of white police officers. I won't try to distill the book down to a one sentence thesis because I'm not a good enough writer and because it wouldn't do the book justice. It's meant to be read and digested, then read again and again. You have the time to read it at least once--it's only 152 pages--and it will help you work through some of the points raised in rob's post and the comments. That said, the book makes clear that these types of deaths have been going on for generations. They're rising to prominence in white America's consciousness primarily because everyone over the age of 10 always carries a digital video camera with built-in live streaming capabilities. Everyone is suddenly a reporter.

I don't know how Coates packed so much into so few pages. I can't relate to everything for obvious reasons. But two things jumped out at me. First was his story about a college acquaintance named Prince Jones, which reminded me of my story about a high school acquaintance named Phil. Second was his discovery of the joys of travel and his simultaneous regret that he made this revelation well into adulthood, which reminded me of my own adult travel experiences. Reading both passages felt like I was having a conversation with the author, like he knew exactly how I felt and was writing sentences in response to my reactions to the preceding one. I was so moved that I considered writing him but didn't. What would I say? Or rather, how would I say it in the context of this incredibly personal, emotional and intimate piece of writing?

Like Coates I've tried to travel with my kids as much as possible, or at least more than my parents did with me. I like to listen to public/college radio when my kids are in the car. While driving from NJ to MA for last week's vacation, a Nina Simone song came on the radio and it blew me away. It's a cover of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" crossed with a mashup/poetry slam reading of David Nelson's "Today is a Killer." I was stunned that I never heard it before--I started listening to George Harrison in utero and I started listening to Nina Simone after hearing her music in a jazz class I took with rootsminer. What started out as a way to get three Area I credits out of the way turned into a lifelong love of a particular artist. Liberal arts education! Anyway, Coates wrote about Simone a couple times so in an effort to bring things full circle, I'm posting a video of Simone's extraordinary and deeply pessimistic song after encouraging you to read Coates's extraordinary and deeply pessimistic book.



I'll try to be lighter tomorrow.

20 comments:

Danimal said...

so i took the ancestry.com dna test. good news is i'm not adopted. bad news is i've been incorrectly stating that i've "gotta little indian in me" (insert jokes here).
0 native american indian. 88% irish; 8% gbr; and some traces of asia and western asia which may explain my eyes. i've been asked more than once if i'm part asian throughout my years. and the likes of buckles and winc crowd used to call me "chinese trainer". so now ya know.

zman said...

This article kinda sorta almost ties in with tomorrow's post.

https://theringer.com/an-ode-to-the-ipod-classic-629e89681c6e#.8onj7czif

It can be hard to find new music nowadays. And we should start manufacturing GTB 160GB MP3 players.

Mark said...

I've bought both of Coates' books but have not yet started either. I'm planning on starting once I finish the Pimp C biography (I HIGHLY recommend). I'd also encourage everyone to read Coates' article in The Atlantic "The Case for Reparations". It's thoroughly researched and intelligently stated, and will make you smarter if not more than a little bummed about the levels of institutional racism throughout America.

Squeaky said...

That performance is epic. I'm always a sucker for live music. I'd pretty much go see any show.

I'm spending the day listening to OMD. Which is kind of funny as the email from Pledge Music about their latest live album hit my inbox right after reading the story about classic ipods. Haven't listen to them in years.

Gotta download the two Coates books.

Clarence said...

Love the article on the iPod Classic. Mine fell into a cup of beer two years ago, and I have missed it ever since. I even priced some 240GB home-built ones on eBay. Too expensive.

rob said...

thanks for this, z. this feels like an impossible subject to discuss right now. case in point: my wife posted something on facebook yesterday celebrating how historically amazing it is that the president is a black man and the democratic nominee a woman. a friend of mine from college replied by using an mlk quote about wishing for a day when the color of person's skin doesn't matter - only he used the quote to wonder why my wife was making a big deal of obama and clinton, and asking her whether she thought skin color/gender was more important than qualification. that's an insidious fucking question, and it implies that people who are celebrating a really important milestone on the long goddamn path to equality don't care about the qualifications of a candidate. of course the dude is a 'conservative', and of course that's thinly veiled racism, but try making that argument.

nothing's really going to get better until our great grandkids wait us all out.

TR said...

I'm reading an oral biography of Warren Zevon. Lacks the profundity of this topic, but has way better booze and drug stories about Zevon, Jackson Browne and the Everly Brothers, and I'm not even on pg 100 yet.

When Warren was dying, he asked his son to clear out his porn stash after he passed, so that his daughter or wide wouldn't have to. When he finally did pass, the son took the stash and found out it was all homemade porn Warren made himself. That's a baller move. Something you guys should think about.

rob said...

y'all already know how i feel about t-nc. he's indispensable, moreso for those of us that don't have a first-hand perspective on the daily pressure minorities in this country face. hard to read sometimes, too, not because his prose lacks clarity, but for the truth it contains.

Danimal said...

Battlebots! A bot w a rake just took out a fire shooting drone! And the talent in the crowd is eye opening. Who know Battlebot engineers had groupies?
One of these statements is false.
Can we keep a list of top book recs in the margin of this here blog? You on that Rob?

Shlara said...

I endorse reading "Between the World and Me" and the case for reparations in the Atlantic.
Then watch all 6 parts of OJ Made in America
Then watch Straight Outta Compton
Then wander over to the Undefeated and read anything by my friend Domonique--especially that piece about black babies and alligators. Well, you can read basically anything non-sports on the site by other writers too.

Then listen to the conversations in this country about lives and guns and jobs and access and education.

Then think about what you can do in your little slice of the world, with the people you know, to make things a little bit better for everyone. Then go do that. And when that commitment to make a difference starts wavering--go back and watch or read some of these things again.

It's all about everyday people being decent to everyday people--every day.

TR said...

William Barber II is getting his God on something fierce.

TR said...

Kareem following Barber is the equivalent of a stand-up having to go on after Sam Kinison.

Shlara said...

And if you're not watching Mr. Kahn's DNC speech now, get it on YouTube and add it into the rotation with the other items.

rob said...

mr khan was unbelievable. the bit with the constitution might've been the signature moment of the entire convention.

TR said...

Gen. Allen is good, but he has forgotten that there are microphones in front of him. He's yelling to be heard in the room, and forgetting the important audience is the one watching the telly.

The Khan segment was powerful indeed. May have gotten a bit dusty in my house...

Danimal said...

We might need a Like button here too.

Shlara said...

If that Kahn speech didn't get you...you're not human.

Shlara said...

After Katy Perry, I'm expecting a Ronald Reagan hologram
"HRC-Kenobi, you're our only hope"

TR said...

But let's be real here - Chelsea is still about as unlikable as it gets. She's like an amalgam of every annoying girl you shared a class with at W&M.

zman said...

She makes odd billygoat noises.