the myth of a united south is possibly the single most destructive myth about the civil war; a considerable number of southerners (possibly a majority in every state except south carolina) opposed secession and hundreds of thousands of southerners went north to fight for the union.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 28 June 2015 21:46 (eight years ago) link
hundreds of thousands of southerners went north to fight for the union.
According to Wikipedia, 2,213,363 men served in the Union Army during the Civil War, so this 'number' seems well within possibility.
― Aimless, Monday, 29 June 2015 04:49 (eight years ago) link
Dear Ta-Nehisi Coates,
The last year has been an education for white people. There has been a depth, power and richness to the African-American conversation about Ferguson, Baltimore, Charleston and the other killings that has been humbling and instructive.
Your new book, “Between the World and Me,” is a great and searing contribution to this public education. It is a mind-altering account of the black male experience. Every conscientious American should read it.
There is a pervasive physicality to your memoir — the elemental vulnerability of living in a black body in America. Outside African-American nightclubs, you write, “black people controlled nothing, least of all the fate of their bodies, which could be commandeered by the police; which could be erased by the guns, which were so profligate; which could be raped, beaten, jailed.”
Written as a letter to your son, you talk about the effects of pervasive fear. “When I was your age the only people I knew were black and all of them were powerfully, adamantly, dangerously afraid.”
But the disturbing challenge of your book is your rejection of the American dream. My ancestors chose to come here. For them, America was the antidote to the crushing restrictiveness of European life, to the pogroms. For them, the American dream was an uplifting spiritual creed that offered dignity, the chance to rise.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 17 July 2015 13:42 (eight years ago) link
ok is that real
― call all destroyer, Friday, 17 July 2015 13:44 (eight years ago) link
"excessive realism"
― jmm, Friday, 17 July 2015 13:54 (eight years ago) link
That's a lot of words that could have been boiled down to "nanny nanny boo boo"
― I Am Curious (Dolezal) (DJP), Friday, 17 July 2015 14:02 (eight years ago) link
Dear Black Person, now that I have gotten the niceties out of the way, allow me to lecture you in the traditional fashion.
― five six and (man alive), Friday, 17 July 2015 14:10 (eight years ago) link
i like the feint in this, "hey i wonder if maybe white people should just listen quietly for a second HA HA NO WAIT OF COURSE NOT"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 17 July 2015 15:13 (eight years ago) link
"I TOTALLY HAD YOU, YOU THOUGHT I WAS SERIOUS ABOUT LISTENING QUIETLY, THAT WAS HILARIOUS"
http://jezebel.com/listening-to-ta-nehisi-coates-whilst-snuggled-deep-with-1718506352
'within my butthole', is how it ends
― j., Friday, 17 July 2015 15:22 (eight years ago) link
In any case, you’ve filled my ears unforgettably.
― Neil S, Friday, 17 July 2015 15:23 (eight years ago) link
^^^ absolutely the best part
― Joan Crawford Loves Chachi, Friday, 17 July 2015 15:28 (eight years ago) link
"By dissolving the dream under the acid of an excessive realism, you trap generations in the past and destroy the guiding star that points to a better future"
uh no
― the late great, Friday, 17 July 2015 22:39 (eight years ago) link
My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.My ancestors chose to come here.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 July 2015 22:45 (eight years ago) link
the ways that piece fiercely believes it deserves to feel are in such dissonance with what it's forced to acknowledge graf-by-graf it really doesn't have anyplace to end up <i>except</i> as a condemnation of "excessive realism". we are close to the center here.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 July 2015 22:57 (eight years ago) link
[]
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 July 2015 22:58 (eight years ago) link
reading that piece makes me so mad i can't even begin to articulate why it makes me mad. even under the best of conditions i am not such an articulate person, but this is just ... how did this idiot end up with a NYT column again?
― the late great, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:09 (eight years ago) link
oh my god
― horseshoe, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:11 (eight years ago) link
i suppose there's a more patronizing set of adjectives than "depth, power and richness" with which to praise the sounds a population makes when sustained in a state of terrified rage but if i could think of them i'd have a better gig
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:18 (eight years ago) link
he sounds like he's handwaving about coltrane
those are all nouns, of course.
― difficult listening hour, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:19 (eight years ago) link
how about calling it "searing" without seeming to understand that "My ancestors chose to come here" is the whole goddamn point. i'll sear you, david brooks!
― horseshoe, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:19 (eight years ago) link
is there any evidence through the years that david brooks can read? serious question.
can we just make this thread about the coates book? i haven't read it but i heard him read a paragraph from it aloud on the radio the other day and cried. it is just insanely beautiful. the section he read was about how black parents love their children with an almost insane love that makes them want to kill their kids rather than allow someone else (America) to do it. made me think about that lady who hit her son on camera and became a media sensation during the Baltimore uprising. made me think about Sethe in Beloved.
― horseshoe, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:22 (eight years ago) link
new thread title xp
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Friday, 17 July 2015 23:23 (eight years ago) link
i mean, i have plenty of stupid friends / relatives / acquaintances who are always saying things along the lines of "well if nonwhites would stop obsessing about racism then they'd really get ahead in life" ... i just don't expect to see their views show up on the NYT editorial page
― the late great, Friday, 17 July 2015 23:27 (eight years ago) link
i haven't read it either hs but his previous and thus softcover book just came in the mail; looking forward.
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 18 July 2015 00:05 (eight years ago) link
How do you come up with a phrase like "excessive realism" and not see the deep absurdity?
― jmm, Saturday, 18 July 2015 00:18 (eight years ago) link
https://www.change.org/p/legally-change-david-brooks-name-to-this-fuckn-guy
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Saturday, June 27, 2015
― resulting post (rogermexico.), Saturday, 18 July 2015 00:58 (eight years ago) link
lol!
― the late great, Saturday, 18 July 2015 00:59 (eight years ago) link
reading the Coates book right now...it is so good.
― horseshoe, Saturday, 18 July 2015 01:02 (eight years ago) link
horseshoe, it is good to see your posts itt
― not a garbageman, i am garbage, man (m bison), Saturday, 18 July 2015 02:51 (eight years ago) link
<3 m bise
― horseshoe, Saturday, 18 July 2015 02:57 (eight years ago) link
Man "excessive realism" ought to be the title of Coates' next book!
― tylerw, Saturday, 18 July 2015 03:40 (eight years ago) link
otm, essay comp imo
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 18 July 2015 04:01 (eight years ago) link
omg the beautiful struggle has a pulp-fantasy-style map of baltimore in the front
― difficult listening hour, Saturday, 18 July 2015 05:01 (eight years ago) link
wasn't he going to write a book about the civil war too? almost can't imagine how awesome that would be.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 18 July 2015 05:03 (eight years ago) link
As a family man, he was surprisingly relaxed and affectionate. We think of him as a man of marble, but he loved having his kids jump into bed with him and tickle his feet. With his wife’s loving cooperation, he could write witty and even saucy letters to other women. He was devout in his faith, a gifted watercolorist, a lover of animals and a charming conversationalist.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 July 2015 05:06 (eight years ago) link
alas poor robert
― mookieproof, Saturday, 18 July 2015 05:15 (eight years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTt7cUgXIAAeJ5M.png
― mookieproof, Friday, 13 November 2015 20:15 (eight years ago) link
I endured shambolic security lines, inexplicable delays and a four-hour layover sitting on the floor of the Casablanca airport, thinking it was nothing like the movie.
which movie? the one about people delayed in their departure from casablanca?
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, 13 November 2015 20:37 (eight years ago) link
Most straightforward and honest David Brooks writing ever. Maybe he just had an enema.
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 13 November 2015 21:26 (eight years ago) link
the little cubes of Turkish Delight that tasted as good as the kind gobbled by Edmund in the C.S. Lewis classic.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 November 2015 21:36 (eight years ago) link
david brooks has forgotten that book, tho he rereads the screwtape letters every christmas.
― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Friday, 13 November 2015 21:57 (eight years ago) link
he screws himself every xmas
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 13 November 2015 22:03 (eight years ago) link
and tapes it
― Capitalism Is A Death Cult And Science Is A Whore (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Saturday, 14 November 2015 00:33 (eight years ago) link
https://i.gyazo.com/946ac29c4ef5b5307d936ab1f7d052cc.png
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Friday, 4 December 2015 15:10 (eight years ago) link
His instinct pointed him to pink but he was able to correct himself and choose blue.
― on entre O.K. on sort K.O. (man alive), Friday, 4 December 2015 15:21 (eight years ago) link
i don't get the point DB is making there and i don't get what sonny bunch means re: trump either
― goole, Friday, 4 December 2015 17:10 (eight years ago) link
And I don't know what to do /Now that pink has turned to blue
― Professor Goodfeels (kingfish), Friday, 4 December 2015 17:13 (eight years ago) link