Listen free for 30 days
-
Between the World and Me
- Narrated by: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: History, Americas
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Listen with a free trial
Buy Now for £22.89
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
We Were Eight Years in Power
- An American Tragedy
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Beresford Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race and equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President. In this essential new book, peerless journalist and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era.
-
-
An honest look at the Obama years
- By Sue on 16-11-17
-
The Beautiful Struggle
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Hayden McLean
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in the tumultuous 1980s in Baltimore, known back then as the murder capital of the United States. With seven siblings, four mothers, and one highly unconventional father: Paul Coates, a larger-than-life Vietnam vet and Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi's coming-of-age story is gripping and lays bare the troubled, often violent life of the inner city, and the author's experience as a young Black person in it.
-
-
Beautifully written with stellar narration.
- By Renx on 23-09-21
-
Black Skin, White Masks
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Frantz Fanon, Richard Philcox
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frantz Fanon's urgent, dynamic critique of the effects of racism on the psyche is a landmark study of the Black experience in a white world. Drawing on his own life and his work as a psychoanalyst to explore how colonialism's subjects internalize its prejudices, eventually emulating the 'white masks' of their oppressors, it established Fanon as a revolutionary anti-colonialist thinker.
-
-
If I had to listen to one audiobook on loop for the rest of my days, this would be it.
- By Anon. on 23-11-21
-
The Water Dancer
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brought to you by Penguin. Every slave plantation is a house of spies and intrigue. No slave walks a straight line or has a single story - deep within their hearts is betrayal and insurrection. But against whom? Hiram Walker is a man with a gift and a curse. He was born between worlds: his father a white plantation master, his mother a black slave. And, unbeknown even to himself, he was born with a special power. When he is sold to a new mistress as punishment for attempting escape, Hiram discovers her home is a secret hub of the underground railroad: a training ground for its agents.
-
-
Deliciously good
- By Miss J. Stafford on 08-10-20
-
Assata
- By: Assata Shakur, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Sirena Riley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white State Trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign.
-
-
A must read for every black person!
- By Tae Keisha on 16-04-20
-
The 1619 Project
- A New American Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, full cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
-
-
Very informative
- By Miss on 19-12-21
-
We Were Eight Years in Power
- An American Tragedy
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Beresford Bennett
- Length: 13 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. Obama's presidency reshaped America and transformed the international conversation around politics, race and equality. But it attracted criticism and bred discontent as much as it inspired hope - so much so that the world now faces an uncertain future under a very different kind of US President. In this essential new book, peerless journalist and thinker Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of the Obama era.
-
-
An honest look at the Obama years
- By Sue on 16-11-17
-
The Beautiful Struggle
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Hayden McLean
- Length: 3 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ta-Nehisi Coates grew up in the tumultuous 1980s in Baltimore, known back then as the murder capital of the United States. With seven siblings, four mothers, and one highly unconventional father: Paul Coates, a larger-than-life Vietnam vet and Black Panther, Ta-Nehisi's coming-of-age story is gripping and lays bare the troubled, often violent life of the inner city, and the author's experience as a young Black person in it.
-
-
Beautifully written with stellar narration.
- By Renx on 23-09-21
-
Black Skin, White Masks
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Frantz Fanon, Richard Philcox
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Frantz Fanon's urgent, dynamic critique of the effects of racism on the psyche is a landmark study of the Black experience in a white world. Drawing on his own life and his work as a psychoanalyst to explore how colonialism's subjects internalize its prejudices, eventually emulating the 'white masks' of their oppressors, it established Fanon as a revolutionary anti-colonialist thinker.
-
-
If I had to listen to one audiobook on loop for the rest of my days, this would be it.
- By Anon. on 23-11-21
-
The Water Dancer
- By: Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Narrated by: Joe Morton
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Brought to you by Penguin. Every slave plantation is a house of spies and intrigue. No slave walks a straight line or has a single story - deep within their hearts is betrayal and insurrection. But against whom? Hiram Walker is a man with a gift and a curse. He was born between worlds: his father a white plantation master, his mother a black slave. And, unbeknown even to himself, he was born with a special power. When he is sold to a new mistress as punishment for attempting escape, Hiram discovers her home is a secret hub of the underground railroad: a training ground for its agents.
-
-
Deliciously good
- By Miss J. Stafford on 08-10-20
-
Assata
- By: Assata Shakur, Angela Davis - foreword
- Narrated by: Sirena Riley
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2013 Assata Shakur, founding member of the Black Liberation Army, former Black Panther and godmother of Tupac Shakur, became the first ever woman to make the FBI's most wanted list. Assata Shakur's trial and conviction for the murder of a white State Trooper in the spring of 1973 divided America. Her case quickly became emblematic of race relations and police brutality in the USA. While Assata's detractors continue to label her a ruthless killer, her defenders cite her as the victim of a systematic, racist campaign.
-
-
A must read for every black person!
- By Tae Keisha on 16-04-20
-
The 1619 Project
- A New American Origin Story
- By: Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine
- Narrated by: Nikole Hannah-Jones, full cast
- Length: 18 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of 20 to 30 enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States.
-
-
Very informative
- By Miss on 19-12-21
-
Caste
- The Lies That Divide Us
- By: Isabel Wilkerson
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Beyond race or class, our lives are defined by a powerful, unspoken system of divisions. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson gives an astounding portrait of this hidden phenomenon. Linking America, India and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson reveals how our world has been shaped by caste - and how its rigid, arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today. With clear-sighted rigour, Wilkerson unearths the eight pillars that connect caste systems across civilisations and demonstrates how our own era of intensifying conflict and upheaval has arisen as a consequence of caste.
-
-
Brilliant book that should be required reading
- By Amazon Customer on 27-08-20
-
White Fragility
- Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
- By: Robin DiAngelo
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
These are the ways in which ordinary white people react when it is pointed out to them that they have done or said something that has - unintentionally - caused racial offence or hurt. After, all, a racist is the worst thing a person can be, right? But these reactions only serve to silence people of colour, who cannot give honest feedback to 'liberal' white people lest they provoke a dangerous emotional reaction. Robin DiAngelo coined the term 'White Fragility' in 2011 to describe this process and is here to show us how it serves to uphold the system of white supremacy.
-
-
Very repetitive, very preachy, poorly evidenced
- By Michael on 03-06-20
-
The New Jim Crow
- Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colourblindness
- By: Michelle Alexander
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once in a great while a book comes along that radically changes our understanding of a crucial political issue and helps to fuel a social movement. The New Jim Crow is such a book. Lawyer and activist Michelle Alexander offers a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status, denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights movement.
-
-
One of the most important books I have ever read
- By ICB on 09-07-20
-
Born a Crime
- Stories from a South African Childhood
- By: Trevor Noah
- Narrated by: Trevor Noah
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The compelling, inspiring (often comic) coming-of-age story of Trevor Noah, set during the twilight of apartheid and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed. One of the comedy world's brightest new voices, Trevor Noah is a light-footed but sharp-minded observer of the absurdities of politics, race and identity, sharing jokes and insights drawn from the wealth of experience acquired in his relatively young life.
-
-
Excellently read
- By OldskoolHrdcore on 25-08-17
-
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
- As Told to Alex Haley
- By: Malcolm X, Alex Haley
- Narrated by: Laurence Fishburne
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Experience a bold take on this classic autobiography as it’s performed by Oscar-nominated Laurence Fishburne. In this searing classic autobiography, originally published in 1965, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and Black empowerment activist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Human Rights movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American dream and the inherent racism in a society that denies its non-White citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time.
-
-
Phenomenal and absolutely essential!
- By Maik B on 25-02-21
-
Women, Race & Class
- Penguin Modern Classics
- By: Angela Y. Davis
- Narrated by: Angela Y. Davis, Natalie Simpson
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ranging from the age of slavery to contemporary injustices, this groundbreaking history of race, gender and class inequality by the radical political activist Angela Davis offers an alternative view of female struggles for liberation. Tracing the intertwined histories of the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements, Davis examines the racism and class prejudice inherent in so much of white feminism, and in doing so brings to light new pioneering heroines, from field slaves to mill workers, who fought back and refused to accept the lives into which they were born.
-
-
Powerful, Articulate and Relevant
- By LadyV on 21-06-21
-
Educated
- By: Tara Westover
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tara Westover and her family grew up preparing for the End of Days but, according to the government, she didn’t exist. She hadn’t been registered for a birth certificate. She had no school records because she’d never set foot in a classroom, and no medical records because her father didn’t believe in hospitals. As she grew older, her father became more radical and her brother more violent. At 16, Tara knew she had to leave home. In doing so she discovered both the transformative power of education, and the price she had to pay for it.
-
-
Wonderful, inspiring book on the value of education
- By David Bowden on 03-03-18
-
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
- Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement
- By: Angela Y. Davis
- Narrated by: Angela Davis, Coleen Marlo
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance of Black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation struggles - from the Black freedom movement to the South African antiapartheid movement.
-
-
A pioneer still ahead of the times
- By Cynthia Rodríguez on 02-04-19
-
Citizen
- An American Lyric
- By: Claudia Rankine
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 1 hr and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Claudia Rankine's bold new audiobook recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in 21st-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV - everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive.
-
-
Citizen - very thoughtful
- By Truespeaking89 on 06-03-21
-
White Rage
- The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide
- By: Carol Anderson
- Narrated by: Pamela Gibson
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014 and media commentators across the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as 'Black rage', historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the Washington Post showing that this was, instead, 'white rage at work. With so much attention on the flames,' she wrote, 'everyone had ignored the kindling.'
-
-
Sad story but so needs to be told
- By J. E. Johnson on 16-11-16
-
Stamped from the Beginning
- The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
- By: Ibram X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Christopher Dontrell Piper
- Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some Americans cling desperately to the myth that we are living in a post-racial society, that the election of the first Black president spelled the doom of racism. In fact, racist thought is alive and well in America - more sophisticated and more insidious than ever. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we must first understand how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
-
-
An ocean of knowledge regarding the history of rac
- By Thorkell Agust Ottarsson on 20-02-18
-
How to Be an Antiracist
- By: Ibram X. X. Kendi
- Narrated by: Ibram X. Kendi
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this rousing and deeply empathetic book, Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the Antiracism Research and Policy Center, shows that when it comes to racism, neutrality is not an option: until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem. Using his extraordinary gifts as a teacher and storyteller, Kendi helps us recognise that everyone is, at times, complicit in racism whether they realise it or not, and by describing with moving humility his own journey from racism to antiracism, he shows us how instead to be a force for good.
-
-
Depressingly racist Dogma
- By none on 19-06-20
Summary
Number-one New York Times best seller
National Book Award winner
Named one of Time’s Ten Best Nonfiction Books of the Decade
Pulitzer Prize finalist
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
Hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading”, a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history by “the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race” (Rolling Stone).
Named one of the Most Influential Books of the Decade by CNN
Named one of Paste’s Best Memoirs of the Decade
Named one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review • O: The Oprah Magazine • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Vogue • Los Angeles Times • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • New York • Newsday • Library Journal • Publishers Weekly
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation’s history and current crisis.
Americans have built an empire on the idea of “race”, a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men - bodies exploited through slavery and segregation and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?
Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates’ attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son - and listeners - the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children’s lives were taken as American plunder.
Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
Critic reviews
"Ta-Nehisi Coates's delivery of his own book is so memorable because the material is charged with emotion and a tone of self-disclosure. There's also a highly personal sense of connection between himself and his audience because of his frequent use of 'you.'" (AudioFile)
"The language of Between the World and Me, like Coates's journey, is visceral, eloquent, and beautifully redemptive.... This is required reading." (Toni Morrison)
More from the same
What listeners say about Between the World and Me
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Martin Robson
- 19-08-15
Everyone should read this book
Listened to this on audiobook and heard the voice of true understanding. I have little in common with Ta-Nehisi Coates in background. Everything in common in humanity.
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Darren Wallace
- 05-11-17
Insightful reflection
As a father I found this Ta-Nehisi's writing an insightful reflection of similar issues that I am considering as a "black" father in the UK. Make no mistake this book is refreshing text for everyone interested in welfare of society.
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jim
- 11-10-17
The Core Darkness of an Era
I'm amazed this story got told and thankful to the author for having gone through with the herculean task of writing this.
This book takes a deep hard look into the abyss of our perception of ourselves, our worth and our capacity to empathize.
I'm now scared to imagine a world where this book never got published. Luckily we are not in that world.
Go read it. Go listen to it. Survive, and if you can, love.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- NNNNana
- 17-08-15
Poignant, Arresting, Tour de Force
i could go on and on about this. But I will not. it's a must-read. Period. Everyone should read and argue about this.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Paul
- 14-06-20
Required reading
Intensely sad and moving - what else could it possibly be? Read with the same power and sincerity with which he wrote it.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
- Ej N.
- 28-12-17
Great read and highly recommended.
It was fantastic, a great read and highly recommended in my opinion. He is a great writer.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- kamara b barnett
- 20-09-17
Real!
Ta-nehisi Coates provides a raw vision of America that will leave the uninformed mind shell shocked, taking you on a roller-coaster of emotions, rage, pity, hope and sadness all while being performed and read in such a way it immerses you in this story summing up the epitome of American history, past, present and sadly if it keeps going this way future. Beautiful and raw.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bhulesh Singh
- 21-07-17
Jarring but important
This book is jarring and disturbing but necessarily so. It's too easy to walk the earth without really understanding the perspective of others and the privilege one has. This book exposes the contrast.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- S McMullen
- 28-06-17
Perfect
Incredibly moving to hear Ta-Nehisi Coates read out his own letter to his son. One of the few audiobooks that surpasses the read by a mile.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jack
- 04-01-17
is very good.
Smart author, well read. Easy to listen to. Good for expanding perspectives. Definitely recommend reading.
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- T Spencer
- 30-07-15
A Heartfelt Self-aware Literary Masterpiece
This book manages to do something that is rarely accomplished with such a serious subject. It's well thought out and methodical but simultaneous emotional and sincerely heartfelt. Written as a letter to his son Coates explains how to exist in modern day America as a black man. He gets very introspective and deeply personal when sharing annidotes about his life and each story lead to a deeper understanding for him. If I were to write a handbook on how to raise a black male who's conscious of his circumstances but not resigned to other people's ideas of who he is, and taking those lessons to transcend what America thinks he's capable of, this would be that handbook.
After listening to this book, I ordered 10 hardback copies and gave one to each of my nephews and my uncles. I find myself quoting Ta-Nehisi now like some pretentious fanboy posting Bieber lyrics on twitter. But that's how much this literary masterpiece touched me and continues to resonate after reading it 3 times (with more to come).
Suffice to say, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys discovering new literary geniuses in the making. He's an enjoyable narrator with a soothing baritone voice. I love when authors narrate their own books. The pacing and his vocal inflection was pitch perfect throughout. 5 stars all around.
286 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Shana
- 11-08-15
Beautifully expressed
As the mother of a white son, I know that I can never understand the fear of any person of any color trying to raise a son into adulthood. This book comes very close to helping me see through this fathers eyes. Thank you.
127 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- audrey
- 09-06-19
Not at all what I had hoped to read
I could not finish this book. I purchased it b/c my son had read it for a class. I was not at all intrigued and it became laborious to continue to listen to it.
11 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Altruistic One
- 01-07-16
Shocking. Illuminating. Deep. Depressing.
if and when you read this, be prepared for an Illuminating story. And though much of my own life can be measured in many of the same challenges, it is the shockingly depressing manner in which the story is told that I take issue. in my opinion, this chapter could have been read in a far better delivery, notwithstanding the author's own voice.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Kezia
- 30-07-15
Absolutely. Everything.
I felt like a fly on the wall as I listened to Coates counsel his son. The words are so powerful on their own and become electrified by the author's voice - a deep, Baltimore, accent that paints a vivid picture. I'd recommend this book for every American who gives a damn about the nation's future and knows an ounce about its past. Great read.
78 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- George Dorsey
- 08-08-15
A definite must.
This is the first bit literature that I've come across that gives my and my friends experiences a voice. I could never put into words what I and my family went through in the Cabrini Green projects of chicago, but this book does just that and with reflection of how people like myself view America in its current state.
I wish I could thank the author in person.
73 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Sutapa Chattopadhyay
- 02-03-18
An eye opener of a book!
Something I am learning gradually. The murders of Trevon Martin, Michael Brown, especially Eric Garner, the injustice of it was apparent. But I learned a lot about how African Americans feel about this and how fragile they feel their lives are.
It does seem as if the "American Dream" is built on the backs of African Americans and American Indians.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Scott Andrew Williams
- 07-12-15
Wake up!
I used to think these kind of books were justifications. But now I see that this is an explanation by an individual to an individual. I cannot apply this perspective to all; I can only mourn the fact the perspective is a reality in someone's life; therefore, it is a reality.
There is work to be done. On myself. On my mind. But first, I must wake up from this dream.
Thank you, Mr. Coates.
64 people found this helpful
-
Overall

- Tracy Greene
- 17-02-21
I was hoping for an emotional shift.
I struggled listening to this book but forced myself to continue to listen hoping that the author would come to a place of healing and a shift in his identity. The author is deeply suffering due to the identity given to him and he passes this identity to his son. I found this book lacking deep reflection. I was hoping the author would shift his view on his experiences but instead heard a victim who does not take ownership of his own destiny. Very depressing and hopeless book.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- David F. Anderson
- 21-01-21
Past focus and not enlightening for present or future.
Not a how to overcome challenges but a whiny epistle on why the author, you and I are flawed and handicapped. I see very flawed logic and failure to thrive plaguing black men today. Do modern immigrants suffer like our African American citizens? No, they thrive. The value of education as a launch pad to equality and success needs more attention.
5 people found this helpful