We Were Eight Years in Power: Everything was bright. Everything was rising. Everything was a dream

This book.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. And I picked up this book with certain expectations, coming from Coates earlier work Between the World and Me. Expectations were exceeded with We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. 

The book is a collection of essays Coates wrote for The Atlantic. Each piece is preceded by its own introductory essay, an explanation of where Coates is now and his current thoughts on the piece. These introductions were themselves basically their own essays (in case you're worried it's not worth it to pick up a collection of essays published elsewhere). Coates has become the go-to writer when it comes to discuss race in America.

These can be difficult essays to read. Not difficult to understand but to take in, intellectually, emotionally. There were a lot of emotions as I was reading these: anger, embarrassment, disgust. Not at what he's saying but the truths he's calling out, things that I from y position of privilege I haven't really had to think about. Things I should think about. Things that I was nodding vigorously to. I did have to take a break in the middle of reading this. Pick up something light because there is a lot here and burnout is real.

The essays include:
"This Is How We Lost to the White Man"
American Girl
Why Do So Few Blacks Study the Civil War?
The Legacy of Malcom X
Fear of a Black President
The Case for Reparations
The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration
My President Was Black

I feel like I'm the wrong person to review this. There's nothing I can add. I can just say that this should be reading for everyone.

I see the fight against sexism, racism, poverty, and so on finding their union not in synonymity but in their ultimate goal - a world more humane.

Gif rating:

Title quote location 683

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. One World, 2017. NetGalley