Between the World and Me

This feels like an important book. It's very honest, insightful, personal and a much-needed perspective. I am glad it exists, glad I read it, and I think most people could benefit from reading it and really thinking about it.

That being said, I feel like I'm not exactly its intended audience, as a white person who does try to unpack my own biases. I feel cynical about whether the message will reach the so-called Dreamers, the people who are perpetuating the harmful narratives in the first place. After all, not being willing to listen to black voices and do honest self-examination is sort of their defining characteristic.

Of course this is probably also an important read for the folks to whom it's ostensibly addressed, the ones who are on the receiving end of the violence perpetrated on them by ongoing American racism and injustice and who have to figure out how to exist – let alone thrive, raise families, etc. – within that power structure. But I can't and won't try to speak for them as to whether or not Coates' story resonates.