I do not think I could easily describe exactly what this book is. It’s everything! This is a book black people need to read. This is a book white people need to read. It’s a book that tells Ta Nehisi’s story via a letter to his son of how he achieved his social consciousness and the impact that had on how he views this world. Deeply poetic, well articulated and really challenges your thinking.

I thought the way Coates laid out that race was a social construct was one of the best explanations I’ve read of why humans are divided. People who believe they are white divided people into different races because they wanted and needed to have power over other groups of people and skin color was the easiest way to make that division.
This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip on white people, but an insight into the black experience. I think every race needs to read this!

This is hands down the best book on race relations I have read! I definitely need to read it again. It’s only 150 pages but packs a punch with its lyrical and poetic style of writing.

One thing I will take with me is that throughout the book Coates encourages his son to do what we all should be doing: to question what we see. And then to question what we see after that. "…because the questions matter as much, perhaps more than, the answers," as he wrote.