carlosmcknight's reviews
20 reviews

I was very disappointed with this read. When I first heard of the book I was very excited to explore the theory of Africans visiting the Americas before Columbus. However, after a few chapters in, the book became heavily confusing with a lot of linguistic jargon and a lot of back and forth between evidence that made no sense. One big issue I had with the book was its structure. It seemed as if Van Sertima was dropping a lot of information and I felt that I didn't have enough time to understand his evidence.

Overall I was super unhappy while reading and felt his argument was very weak. Partially because he based a large portion of his finding on featurism and the Darwinist categorization of features such as skeletal remains. What I was hoping was substantial evidence that Africans could have visited America, I got a book that seemed to have been motivated to disprove racist assertions by white people who discredited African contributions. While I understand that Africa and its contribution to the world are greatly underappreciated and undermined, I believe Van Sertima's book just wasn't strong enough to present evidence on African arrival in the Americas. Though I wasn't too pleased with his findings, I am still open to the thought that Africans did travel to the Americas but this book doesn't seem to convince me that it actually happened.

The New Jim Crow is an intense dive into the American Criminal Justice System that has opened my eyes to a much deeper structure within mass incarceration that goes beyond the notion of it targeting African Americans disproportionately. Going into detail about how Slavery and Jim Crow transformed into this new caste system was beautifully explained by Alexander and she drew many great parallels between Jim Crow and mass incarceration.

I really enjoyed her deep analysis of the construction of mass incarceration within chapter 2. This was probably the most intense chapter of the book and I had found myself having to pause and return to the book because of how much information laid out by Alexander overwhelmed me.

On the other hand, while the book was condensed with facts, it seemed repetitive and was very annoying at times because it felt like I was in a loop of rediscovering information she already discussed in previous chapters or even a few pages before. This though was just a small problem I had with her writing style. However, it doesn't take away from how amazing the book was.

Overall, I wish Alexander provided an updated edition of the book being 10 years old and seeing much of the points she rose (like her suggestion of a mass movement to end mass incarceration) have already emerged post-publication of this book. I would love to know her thoughts are on the current rise in the Black Lives Matter Movement and especially a bit more commentary on Joe Biden now that he is the President. Though this is a hope, the information is timeless and still brings forward much of the issues of the current mass incarceration problem.

First, let me start off by sharing that this is one of my favorite revolutionary literature books to date. Assata is an amazing look into the life of Assata Shakur and the writing style and honesty make you feel like you as the reader are sitting in a room with her listening to her give a recount of her life story. The flashbacks in every other chapter are amazing and it really gives the reader insight into how she became a black revolutionary from her life and the personal process of decolonizing her thinking. Which many stories about leaders overlook.

The story brought a more personal connection to her struggle for black liberation and also took many of the leaders and organizations that we see as revolutionary off their high horse and fairly criticized those that we see as perfect. I really enjoyed her analysis of the Black Panther Party, where she laid out valid criticism of the party.

Overall this book deconstructed revolutionary cosplay and without even mentioning it, established the true meaning of black liberation. Her story sent a message that the performative aspects of liberation won't set black people free and people must not only admire those who came before us but also know who or what they stood for. This book made me find a new appreciation for digging deeper into the ideology of black liberation and has made me more aware of being less reactionary to much of what I have seen in society today.

If you are looking for a detailed book about Marx's view on communism this is not the book to be reading. This manifesto is more of an outline of the times for communism across the globe and it should not be looked at as a source of ideas of how to actually run a communist or even socialist government. I made this mistake while reading it and was left disappointed. However, while I will say it is a good start for anyone who is looking to get into leftist theory, looking at Marx's other work like Das Capital might be a better place for those who want to dig into his theory. Nonetheless, this manifesto is still a good source to look at from time to time to understand Marx's intentions after you dive into his theories or other socialist or communist theorists.

Also, I must note that not all communists agree with Marx. So if you are new to leftist theory please understand that Marx isn't the end all be all for socialism and communism.