The Message - Ta-Nehisi Coates
Rating = ****

The novella-length nonfiction book contains Coates thoughts after taking 
three trips: a visit to Senegal, the departure point for countless 
enslaved people on their trip to America; SC, where a teacher is under 
attack for using one of his books in her class; and Israel and the West 
Bank, where he spends 10 days and writes, "I dont think I ever, in my 
life, felt the glare of racism burn stranger and more intense than in 
Israel.

The most impactful of the three parts is the Israel trip, where he draws 
very pointed comparisons between the Israelis as the white slaveholders of 
our history and the Palestinians as the enslaved. It's a compelling 
comparison. And much like slave trading 400 years ago, we don't seem too 
interested in doing anything about it. He also delves into Israel's 
support of apartheid in South Africa, a turn in history that was new to 
me.