IN BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME (2015) & WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER (2017) | Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Both books by Ta-Nehisi Coates were highly recommended. Both books have earned their author tremendous acclaim. Sadly, in my estimation, without merit.
In short, they are the works of moral perversion. What else can you call celebrating the death of 9/11 firefighters or cherry-picking correlations (not causations) to create a fraudulent argument for reparations?
Coates is a very talented writer. His autobiographical work In Between the World and Me is far more impressive than his collection of semi-incoherent sociological essays reprinted from The Atlantic in We Were Eight Years in Power.
While his conclusions are often perverse, In Between the World and Me, he portrays a convicting sense of a very different life he experienced than those of the "stereotypical." Yet, this only admits every person's journey is unique and different, to put it charitably.
American history is more complex than the fabled version many hold. Nonetheless, a reactionary retort is merely reactionary. Most telling is the utter cowardice exhibited by the Academy's failed critical review of his drivel. We should not celebrate or exalt falsehoods by Presidents or so-called public intellectuals.
Sadly, Mr. Coates has chosen to see his experience through a lens of race, judging everyone by their skin pigment. Race, after all, is not a biological fact. Additionally, he has shackled himself to a victimhood identity, a self-defeating malady that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy addresses as a "cognitive distortion."
Save time and ignore the utter unserious of Ta-Nehisi Coates. Check out John McWhorter's The Elect for a more substantive approach to these topics.