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A review by karinapplesauce
The Blood of Emmett Till by Timothy B. Tyson
"Ask yourself whether America's predicament is really so different now."
I'll be honest--this book has been on my to do list for a while, but I kept going past it with a certain feeling of dread. Even with my basic understanding of events I knew that it would be a heavy read. However, I was due for another audiobook so I told myself I would listen to the first non-fiction book that was available that had been on my list for the longest. And this won.
It was about as intense as I thought, but in an eye-opening, heart-pounding, get-yourself-out-of-complicity sort of way. As much as I had been avoiding it, this was very very good. Also, I think the first time I had heard about Emmett Till was either in passing or during an internet search probably in my late teens/early twenties. (It's possible it was in school, but I'm feeling doubtful about this.) It's very easy to judge in your teens about how "long ago" the 50's and 60's were and how we've come so far since then. But...now that I'm older (30's) and time passes so much more quickly for me, I am very keenly aware about how very CLOSE and recent history this is. This is a (sheltered) white woman talking, of course, so that may seem obvious to others. Remember when 10 years was long? And now it seems like just a couple of years ago? This is super recent.
But one of my takeaways from this book was the author pointing out that this lynching wasn't really all that special, but they made it special. The mother, Mamie, pushed to make it all happen (along with others). I didn't really think much about her role in the past, but reading this was very aware about how instrumental she was to MAKE PEOPLE SEE.
Of course, we are all still blind.
I'll be honest--this book has been on my to do list for a while, but I kept going past it with a certain feeling of dread. Even with my basic understanding of events I knew that it would be a heavy read. However, I was due for another audiobook so I told myself I would listen to the first non-fiction book that was available that had been on my list for the longest. And this won.
It was about as intense as I thought, but in an eye-opening, heart-pounding, get-yourself-out-of-complicity sort of way. As much as I had been avoiding it, this was very very good. Also, I think the first time I had heard about Emmett Till was either in passing or during an internet search probably in my late teens/early twenties. (It's possible it was in school, but I'm feeling doubtful about this.) It's very easy to judge in your teens about how "long ago" the 50's and 60's were and how we've come so far since then. But...now that I'm older (30's) and time passes so much more quickly for me, I am very keenly aware about how very CLOSE and recent history this is. This is a (sheltered) white woman talking, of course, so that may seem obvious to others. Remember when 10 years was long? And now it seems like just a couple of years ago? This is super recent.
But one of my takeaways from this book was the author pointing out that this lynching wasn't really all that special, but they made it special. The mother, Mamie, pushed to make it all happen (along with others). I didn't really think much about her role in the past, but reading this was very aware about how instrumental she was to MAKE PEOPLE SEE.
Of course, we are all still blind.