Bookworms: January Reads

Angel Duckworth writes an inspiring piece where she injects the reader with constant motivation and adrenaline with what it means to be successful as well as what it takes. She brings in techniques and quotes from individuals such as Warren Buffet , Will Smith and more on what drives them to be successful. She speaks on the pertinence of Grit and why talent is not always simultaneous with achievement . Emphasizing the need for hard work even in those who are coined as naturally gifted. Duckworth created a formula that still sticks with me after reading.(see formula below) This is a must read for anyone no matter the field they choose to pursue.

As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is “as good as anyone.” Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides “physical, intellectual and moral training” so the delinquent boys in their charge can become “honorable and honest men“.

I felt a personal connection reading this memoir. I remember the first time I encountered a situation where I realized the world was not utopic. Coates is telling this story to his son, but while reading I hear the words in my fathers voice after the first time questioned in the eight grade, while walking around my own neighborhood. Coates brings up topics that are uncomfortable to talk about, but are necessary. Between the World and Me, is a story and conversation every man of color should have with his son. Coates has the conversation with his son after the ruling of the Michael Brown case and seeing the distraught demeanor his son carried after he realized the hearing of the case.

We often speak on White guilt/shame due to slavery and imperialism. White rage speaks on the systematic injustices and framework of the government and its set up since the Emancipation Proclamation. It speaks on the racial divide and what systematic structures led to the election of 2016 divide between a nation which many had thought was beginning to come together after one of the worst economic crisis in the countries history. Carol Anderson that the United States must confront its past in order to move forward. How does the United States confront its past is the only question I have after reading this. It contain some gruesome stories of how people of color were tortured and treated post emancipation proclamation. Detailing the extent of Black Code Law, Jim Crow and the rise of the Klan.

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