Kimberly Dunbar

I am never one to get political; in fact, I loathe politics. I come from the school of “Why can’t we all just get along?” Our country’s history is steeped in racial issues, and it seems like these issues are only worsening. I have stepped out of my comfort zone this month, shelving the chick lit, historical fiction and cookbooks in order to highlight two recent releases that might bring a little understanding and “food for thought” to those who read them. Perhaps we would all “get along” if we spent some time with other points of view and in other people’s shoes.

Nothing is ever black and white, other than our skin tones, which has gotten this country in many unfortunate, unpleasant and unbelievable situations. One of those was the murder of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who died after a police officer put him in what has been described as an illegal “chokehold” in July 2014. In his latest book, I Can’t Breathe: A Killing on Bay Street (Spiegel & Grau), Rolling Stone journalist and best-selling author Matt Taibbi paints an in-depth narrative of who Garner was and the political climate both before and after his death. As Taibbi writes, Garner was no saint; he spent years in and out of prison for various (and sometimes questionable) charges stemming from his time as a drug dealer and, at the time of his death, a seller of “loosies” (single cigarettes). However, on that particular July afternoon, Garner was a victim. Taibbi does an excellent job of providing context in the time leading up to, and the aftermath of, the Garner incident, as well as stepping away to analyze the complex relationship between law, order and humanity that has always existed in this country, proving that Garner’s death wasn’t an isolated incident.

Even more political is Ta-Nehisi Coates’s latest book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy (One World), a reflection of race, politics and history during Barack Obama’s presidency. Through his writing, Coates shows that having the country’s first black president ? though seemingly progressive and a sign of change in American race relations ? ended up only reinforcing the fact that nothing has changed. We Were Eight Years in Power is a collection of Coates’s essays, both new and previously published in The Atlantic. In each essay, Coates skillfully blends extensive research and interviews with his own personal experiences to demonstrate how Obama’s presidency went from being a beacon of hope to “an American tragedy.” What started as proof that black children could truly grow up to do anything quickly faded, as the Obama administration shied away from a “fight with any kind of racial subtext.” Coates’s essays are eye-opening and educational, giving you a chance to read between the lines of the country’s forgotten history.