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What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man's Blues
An African-American writer's concise, heartfelt take on the state of his nation, exploring the war between the values he has always held and the reality with which he is confronted in twenty-first-century America.
In the tradition of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me comes Clifford Thompson's What It Is . Thompson was raised to believe in treating every person of every color as an individual, and he decided as a young man that America, despite its history of racial oppression, was his home as much as anyone else's. As a middle-aged, happily married father of biracial children, Thompson finds himself questioning his most deeply held convictions when the race-baiting Donald Trump ascends to the presidency—elected by whites, whom Thompson had refused to judge as a group, and who make up the majority in this country Thompson had called his own.
In the grip of contradictory emotions, Thompson turns for guidance to the wisdom of writers he admires while knowing that the answers to his questions about America ultimately lie in America itself. Through interviews with a small but varied group of Americans he hears sharply divergent opinions about what is happening in the country while trying to find his own answers—conclusions based not on conventional wisdom or on what he would like to believe, but on what he sees.
In the tradition of James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time and Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me comes Clifford Thompson's What It Is . Thompson was raised to believe in treating every person of every color as an individual, and he decided as a young man that America, despite its history of racial oppression, was his home as much as anyone else's. As a middle-aged, happily married father of biracial children, Thompson finds himself questioning his most deeply held convictions when the race-baiting Donald Trump ascends to the presidency—elected by whites, whom Thompson had refused to judge as a group, and who make up the majority in this country Thompson had called his own.
In the grip of contradictory emotions, Thompson turns for guidance to the wisdom of writers he admires while knowing that the answers to his questions about America ultimately lie in America itself. Through interviews with a small but varied group of Americans he hears sharply divergent opinions about what is happening in the country while trying to find his own answers—conclusions based not on conventional wisdom or on what he would like to believe, but on what he sees.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published November 12, 2019
13 people are currently reading
327 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 17, 2020
I thought I was reading my own thoughts in print. The author, Clifford Thompson, addresses the confusion and anxiety connected to being a thoughtful African American male in the era of Trump. The search for answers as to how people you know could have voted for someone who is seemly against your existence is brought to light by Thompson. The confusion is tangible, I mean you can feel it on each page and with each word.
The book is well written and easy to read. It gives insights into the thoughts of both the writer and the people he interviewed, mostly White Trump supports. Thompson does an excellent job humanizing the people that he is trying to understand and sharing of himself.
Because he takes care as to not demonize the people he knows have a different point of view then his own Thompson gains credibility. The credibility he earns allows you the reader to trust him on his journey and to know that he is sincere and not just complaining about the world in which we live.
It is Thompson's sharing that makes the book worthwhile. The struggles that Thompson has, in general, are the same struggles that I have and I dare say these struggles are shared by many.
I recommend this book and hope you enjoy it, I did.
The book is well written and easy to read. It gives insights into the thoughts of both the writer and the people he interviewed, mostly White Trump supports. Thompson does an excellent job humanizing the people that he is trying to understand and sharing of himself.
Because he takes care as to not demonize the people he knows have a different point of view then his own Thompson gains credibility. The credibility he earns allows you the reader to trust him on his journey and to know that he is sincere and not just complaining about the world in which we live.
It is Thompson's sharing that makes the book worthwhile. The struggles that Thompson has, in general, are the same struggles that I have and I dare say these struggles are shared by many.
I recommend this book and hope you enjoy it, I did.
November 21, 2019
This is a beautifully-written book about an ugly subject: racism in America before and during the Trump presidency. In his own self-defined improvisational style, Thompson writes with a clear eye and cool voice (though not one devoid of anger, warmth, and perhaps most surprisingly, humor) about the state of our nation. Highly recommended for everyone.
December 2, 2019
Four stars for an intriguing read on an important subject.
Author Clifford Thompson has always thought of himself as an American, through and through. Yet, with the increasing rancor and divisiveness that characterizes public discourse at the highest levels, Mr. Thompson's begins to question this assumption. His central question - what does it mean to be a minority in 2019 in America?
In a direct attempt to address this, he makes contact with a number of individuals who support the current political status quo, and asks them about their feelings on this. Point blank.
Mr. Thompson introduces us to a number of critical concepts. The first that caught my eye was the concept of Rootedness. Rootedness is essentially where one comes from in a metaphysical sense: one's values, sense of self, sense of place, sense of meaning and purpose. Another theme he emphasizes is Indifference. Mr. Thompson discovered that many of his fellow Americans were not hostile, but really indifferent to issues that were central to his own life. For example, he was surprised to learn that to many, overt racism was an acceptable imperfection, much less critical than other concerns. And, related to this, the concept of Normal. Mr. Thompson notes that many individuals comfortably within the American majority see themselves as normal and others - anyone not within the majority - as not normal. The impact of this bias can be seen on a daily basis.
Looking forward to reading more of Mr. Thompson's work.
Author Clifford Thompson has always thought of himself as an American, through and through. Yet, with the increasing rancor and divisiveness that characterizes public discourse at the highest levels, Mr. Thompson's begins to question this assumption. His central question - what does it mean to be a minority in 2019 in America?
In a direct attempt to address this, he makes contact with a number of individuals who support the current political status quo, and asks them about their feelings on this. Point blank.
Mr. Thompson introduces us to a number of critical concepts. The first that caught my eye was the concept of Rootedness. Rootedness is essentially where one comes from in a metaphysical sense: one's values, sense of self, sense of place, sense of meaning and purpose. Another theme he emphasizes is Indifference. Mr. Thompson discovered that many of his fellow Americans were not hostile, but really indifferent to issues that were central to his own life. For example, he was surprised to learn that to many, overt racism was an acceptable imperfection, much less critical than other concerns. And, related to this, the concept of Normal. Mr. Thompson notes that many individuals comfortably within the American majority see themselves as normal and others - anyone not within the majority - as not normal. The impact of this bias can be seen on a daily basis.
Looking forward to reading more of Mr. Thompson's work.
November 19, 2020
This is a book that stayed in my mind for months after reading it. It is a thoughtful and careful inquiry into race in America without being off-puttingly angry and cliched. I love how much the author loves his family, how honest he is about his own short comings, and how curious he is to really understand what really is going on with people who vote for Trump but don't call themselves racist. I can actually handle a lot more anger on the subject of race now than I could a few months ago as we become more sensitive to the systemic racism we live with, but here is a book that gently and straight forwardly examines our situation.
I also love that the author painted the enchanting cover himself.
I also love that the author painted the enchanting cover himself.
Want to read
November 29, 2019Added after listening to this interview on Morning Edition.
September 20, 2019
I highly enjoyed this book. It was well constructed, well researched, well thought out & well written by a fine essayist. He asked all of the right questions at the right time in America to tackle the topics mentioned on the cover of race, family, and one thinking black man’s blues. This book taught me a lot and answers many questions that I had on the state of the country now as a whole. It also provides a multitude of perspectives from a wide variety of Americans interviewed from different backgrounds.
December 9, 2019
After hearing the author's interview on NPR, I really wanted to read this book. The cover is cool, too:-) But it was hearing the author's clear-eyed view of the world that I found so intriguing. So I bought the book and read it in a couple of days--quick, easy read, with solid logic to take to the bank. In an image, here is my take: Picture an umbrella called "selfishness." The telescoping handle has three equal components: ignorance, indifference, and denial. The parrot end (think Mary Poppins) might have a caricature of Trump on it.
The premise of the nonfiction narrative is that we all know "good people" who voted for Trump and remain supportive. Thompson, like me, wanted to answer the question, "How on earth can they manage to do that?" Regardless of "fiscally conservative" or "socially conservative" views, how do you not see Trump's hypocrisy, mean spirit, bullying, lying, and xenophobia as problems?
So Thompson (who lives in Brooklyn) interviewed several non-stereotypical Trump supporters. All were white men, over 50, living in southern California; none were the rube from the sticks generally associated with Trump's "base." From the interviews, Thompson could see the overarching theme of selfishness (a completely non-partisan trait) supported by the triumvirate of ignorance, indifference, and denial.
There are a lot of folks who don't need to read this book; they already understand how it all works. I suppose we could say they're more "woke" than I am, or less naive. But I needed to see, laid out in prose aimed at my intellect, the workings of these people who have managed to hoodwink themselves into believing it's okay for a president to act like Trump. In the end, Thompson laid bare their all too human failure to see past their interests and experiences. That is a lesson for all.
My own analysis:
Selfishness doesn't know party, of course. However, in the current state of partisan politics fed by disinformation through social media and cable "news", ignorance and indifference are much easier to retain if your views lean right. Bias is equally distributed, in terms of story choice, headlines, and focus. But in left-leaning sources, even those on the far left, the facts are more often accurate than in the counterparts on the right.
My takeaway, bias intact and admitted, is that these men Thompson interviewed are not so different from the stereotypical Trump voter. They're more articulate, more successful financially and socially, but just as careful not to mess with their preconceived notions. The lesson I see for them all, and maybe for all who insist on ignoring Trump's clear failures, is that if you choose only news you agree with, and don't check sources, you will not get a full picture. Do as your English teachers always told you: Check your sources and use only those that are credible, checkable, and reliable!
The premise of the nonfiction narrative is that we all know "good people" who voted for Trump and remain supportive. Thompson, like me, wanted to answer the question, "How on earth can they manage to do that?" Regardless of "fiscally conservative" or "socially conservative" views, how do you not see Trump's hypocrisy, mean spirit, bullying, lying, and xenophobia as problems?
So Thompson (who lives in Brooklyn) interviewed several non-stereotypical Trump supporters. All were white men, over 50, living in southern California; none were the rube from the sticks generally associated with Trump's "base." From the interviews, Thompson could see the overarching theme of selfishness (a completely non-partisan trait) supported by the triumvirate of ignorance, indifference, and denial.
There are a lot of folks who don't need to read this book; they already understand how it all works. I suppose we could say they're more "woke" than I am, or less naive. But I needed to see, laid out in prose aimed at my intellect, the workings of these people who have managed to hoodwink themselves into believing it's okay for a president to act like Trump. In the end, Thompson laid bare their all too human failure to see past their interests and experiences. That is a lesson for all.
My own analysis:
Selfishness doesn't know party, of course. However, in the current state of partisan politics fed by disinformation through social media and cable "news", ignorance and indifference are much easier to retain if your views lean right. Bias is equally distributed, in terms of story choice, headlines, and focus. But in left-leaning sources, even those on the far left, the facts are more often accurate than in the counterparts on the right.
My takeaway, bias intact and admitted, is that these men Thompson interviewed are not so different from the stereotypical Trump voter. They're more articulate, more successful financially and socially, but just as careful not to mess with their preconceived notions. The lesson I see for them all, and maybe for all who insist on ignoring Trump's clear failures, is that if you choose only news you agree with, and don't check sources, you will not get a full picture. Do as your English teachers always told you: Check your sources and use only those that are credible, checkable, and reliable!
December 14, 2019
I found this book cathartic.
It discusses being black in America, particularly after Trump's election. The prose echoed many of the things I've felt since that night, including my questioning of my nationality and what it means to be American. His perspective as a black American is important to hear. It has also made me question my attitudes towards people of other races and to consider the extent to which I enjoy white privilege.
I particularly appreciated a section of the book where Thompson summarizes what he views as the core beliefs of many Trump supporters and the fault line that divides much of America (paraphrased below):
- Americans for the most part *believe* they are free, and therefore view any measures aimed at securing the rights for a subset of Americans as giving such people an advantage (This clashes with the reality of continued discrimination of certain minorities).
- This leads to two different ways of thinking: (1) those who believe that this reality must be changed at an institutional level (Progressives) and (2) those who fervently believe that such attempts at change are contrary to the concept of freedom itself (Conservatives). "To be free," say the people in the 2nd camp, "is to be without a jailer but also without a caregiver. If you have a problem, whatever that problem is, the responsibility of dealing with it is yours." Those in the 1st camp equally fervently believe that government has a basic duty to ensure its citizens' well-being, or at least provide an opportunity to do so.
- This view of "Personal Responsibility" is what drives many Trump supporters. They view the Progressive movement as "spoon feeding" people with benefits, programs, handouts, etc. which were originally intended only for those who could not provide for themselves. They believe the Left supports this reality because it buys them votes.
- Thompson believes that this disconnect, compared to ignorance or indifference, may be the hardest to bridge, because it reflect differences in morality, not education or understanding.
It discusses being black in America, particularly after Trump's election. The prose echoed many of the things I've felt since that night, including my questioning of my nationality and what it means to be American. His perspective as a black American is important to hear. It has also made me question my attitudes towards people of other races and to consider the extent to which I enjoy white privilege.
I particularly appreciated a section of the book where Thompson summarizes what he views as the core beliefs of many Trump supporters and the fault line that divides much of America (paraphrased below):
- Americans for the most part *believe* they are free, and therefore view any measures aimed at securing the rights for a subset of Americans as giving such people an advantage (This clashes with the reality of continued discrimination of certain minorities).
- This leads to two different ways of thinking: (1) those who believe that this reality must be changed at an institutional level (Progressives) and (2) those who fervently believe that such attempts at change are contrary to the concept of freedom itself (Conservatives). "To be free," say the people in the 2nd camp, "is to be without a jailer but also without a caregiver. If you have a problem, whatever that problem is, the responsibility of dealing with it is yours." Those in the 1st camp equally fervently believe that government has a basic duty to ensure its citizens' well-being, or at least provide an opportunity to do so.
- This view of "Personal Responsibility" is what drives many Trump supporters. They view the Progressive movement as "spoon feeding" people with benefits, programs, handouts, etc. which were originally intended only for those who could not provide for themselves. They believe the Left supports this reality because it buys them votes.
- Thompson believes that this disconnect, compared to ignorance or indifference, may be the hardest to bridge, because it reflect differences in morality, not education or understanding.
June 2, 2021
Review: What It Is - Clifford Thompson
Clifford wrote this nonfiction book as a kind of personal tribute to writer Joan Didion. Joan has a talent for looking at things as they are, instead of repeating things she’s heard and read or looking for evidence of what she already thinks. I think he more that succeeded here. I loved every page and chapter four had a lot of great lessons and beautiful quotes about life. I highlighted the shit out of this book haha.
“Our good intentions do not always translate into effective action, when they translate into action at all”.
Clifford struggles as most of us do with wanting to spend their whole life bettering oneself and helping out others without thought of reward or recognition. To be a person who doesn’t realize how selfless they are. He also struggles with what does it mean to be a minority in America in 2019.
What struck me most about this book as how raw Clifford was, yet at the same time optimistic. He writes with clear eyes and a cool voice and really stuck with me after finishing the book.
“Don’t worry about what people think of you. You worry about what you think of yourself and that will take care of everything else”.
An easy 5 stars for me. Highly recommend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Clifford wrote this nonfiction book as a kind of personal tribute to writer Joan Didion. Joan has a talent for looking at things as they are, instead of repeating things she’s heard and read or looking for evidence of what she already thinks. I think he more that succeeded here. I loved every page and chapter four had a lot of great lessons and beautiful quotes about life. I highlighted the shit out of this book haha.
“Our good intentions do not always translate into effective action, when they translate into action at all”.
Clifford struggles as most of us do with wanting to spend their whole life bettering oneself and helping out others without thought of reward or recognition. To be a person who doesn’t realize how selfless they are. He also struggles with what does it mean to be a minority in America in 2019.
What struck me most about this book as how raw Clifford was, yet at the same time optimistic. He writes with clear eyes and a cool voice and really stuck with me after finishing the book.
“Don’t worry about what people think of you. You worry about what you think of yourself and that will take care of everything else”.
An easy 5 stars for me. Highly recommend.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
July 3, 2020
What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man's Blues is a look into the state of race relations from author Clifford Thompson's personal experiences and from his hunger to know what those different from him believe about race in the USA. Beginning with a few autobiographical facts, he states that growing up he was taught to see people as individuals and not as different because of appearances, including skin color. He shares that he is a father raising biracial daughters and has dealt with assumptions about his marriage and family. The state of the country since the election of Donald Trump sends him on an odyssey wherein he looks for those willing to interviewed about their understanding of the growing divisions and widening wealth gap in the country. What he learns is disquieting and not what it seems that he expected. Eye opening, and in part heart rendering, it is a revealing look through the lenses of logic and pitilessness as evidenced by the interviewees. A painful and unvarnished look at the divisions between people of different races that are deeper and more entrenched than imagined.
January 11, 2020
This book was all over the place, but eventually returned to the main theme mentioned in the title every time. Thompson dug into race, family, and what it means to be a black person in post-2016 America (and before). His quest was to talk to others to understand himself and I appreciate how upsetting some of the interviews contained in this book must have been to conduct. Thompson, through friends, was able to interview Trump supporters in a very straightforward, objective way about what their views were about America today. The results were pretty stunning in their candidness. I appreciated how Thompson mused on their answers and, instead of going on an endless political rant, internalized the responses and used them as a vehicle for self-reflection. Really, this book was about that: trying to make sense, on a personal level, what it means to be black in America today, rationalizing the world after seeing others' view of it, and coming to terms with mortality and what the unknown holds for all of us.
May 28, 2020
"Leaving aside, for a moment, the music of Baldwin's sentences, the grandness of his vision, the wisdom and lyricism he brings to expressing the anger and ache of being black in America, he was the first model I found of one who brought everything he had to bear on opposing racism without being racist himself."
"For a black man who has based his life on a belief in treating everyone as an individual and on an identification with America, what is the right response to a successful presidential campaign that brought out xenophobia like lava from a volcano? How di I respond to the fact that the majority of white voters, whom I have refused to hate as a group, supported this man? Should I hold on even tighter to the notion of being an American and fight to protect myself and my country from this menace? Or should I distance myself from a country where so many people seem to have demonstrated that they care nothing about me? Is it time to resign my post as the only nonracist black person in America? Or is now-when my principles are sorely tested-the most crucial time to hold on to them?"
"[T]he past isn't past. The good memories of childhood (just like the bad ones) are with you always. NOTHING is FUTILE, in life or art."
"Is it worse, as twilight approaches, to be a fool or to turn my back on what makes me who I am?
"Rootedness gives us a feeling of belonging, of being part of something greater than ourselves. It often provides the lens throough which we view the world, sometimes making us unable to see what is in front of our eyes."
"I never doubted my chances for success. The world was not perfect, but I meant to live in it, treating others with openness and respect until they gave me a reason not to."
"So I find committed atheists a bit arrogant, though not as arrogant as those who cite their knowledge of God's will in saying that you and your sex partner should not have matching genitalia."
"I felt an invisible barier between me and others, one I had only dimly perceived, melt away; and I relaxed in a way I never had as an adult."
"Trouble often arises from contradicition. There are those contradictions you can live with, and those you can't."
"Maybe in life we seek out the people who supply what we are missing."
"Life is complex, andresults often have more than one cause."
"In my ears, the question "But don't you feel like things are better than they were?"-always, always posed by a white person-went from seeming merely innocuous and unimaginative to being downright maddening. In some ways, no, became my answer, but the deeper answer was itself a question: what are you actually saying? That as long as you can point to some measure of progress, however bad other things may be, we should all be satisfied? That the natural condition of black people is oppression, and for any alleviation of that oppression, we should be grateful?"
"Black Americans are, in sum, and simply, a people to whom different rules often apply. But if we have an attitude because of that, then we're not being...reasonable. And while I continued to feel personally that blacks should take the high road with regard to all this-that we should not be anti-white, that we should judge others as individuals-it began to anger me that we were expected to take it."
"Knowing nothing, though, has this advantage: everything you see, you see clearly, not through the lens of what you think you know."
"My struggle would be to make sense of what I encountered; the risk would be concluding that the beliefs that had sustained me my whole life were, incontrovertibly, based on nothing."
"The thing about color-blindness? It is, as its name suggests, a form of blindness. To refuse to see a person's color is to refuse to see what she may be experiencing because of it. I hasten to point out that judging a person as an indivodual is not synonymous with being colorblind. To see a person as an individual is to take into account everything about that person. Color-blindness, on the other hand, is the equivalent of not seeing that a person standing up on the subway is pregnant-and, therefore, not even considering offering your seat."
"To be ignorant of the effects of such racism is to view people of color as victims of their own backwardness. Together, indifference and ignorance erect a virtual wall between the concerns of white Americans and those of their black and brown counterparts."
"To be ignorant of the continued force of racism in American life is to have tunnel vision, seeing a thing but missing what is going on around it."
"All of us are a product of our life experiences culturally, economically, and it comes fused in their person called a human being here in America."
"Since Trump's election, I have been in somewhat the same position as the priest who has lost his faith. I don't know if I feel bereft of that faith-my belief in my Americanness, in judging others individually-because I have walked away from it, or because it has betrayed me, or if either of those things have actually happened; I don't know if we've undergone something like a trial separation. Maybe, come to think of it, marriage is a better metaphor: I feel something akin to what longtime spouses feel after they fight-anger but also a sense of aloneness, of things being wrong, regardless of who is right."
"Indifference is not always as cold a concept as it sounds, which is part of its deviousness. It does not have to be the stone-faced absence of caring; sometimes it takes the form of the hallowness at the core of our noblest intentions."
"Don't worry about what people think of you. You worry about what you think of yourself and that will take care of everything else. If Trump's election makes me change who I am, then who was I, really?"
"Some things do not change, though, even as we age, even as generations come and go, and one thing that does not change is the human need to believe in something, to feel rooted."
"For a black man who has based his life on a belief in treating everyone as an individual and on an identification with America, what is the right response to a successful presidential campaign that brought out xenophobia like lava from a volcano? How di I respond to the fact that the majority of white voters, whom I have refused to hate as a group, supported this man? Should I hold on even tighter to the notion of being an American and fight to protect myself and my country from this menace? Or should I distance myself from a country where so many people seem to have demonstrated that they care nothing about me? Is it time to resign my post as the only nonracist black person in America? Or is now-when my principles are sorely tested-the most crucial time to hold on to them?"
"[T]he past isn't past. The good memories of childhood (just like the bad ones) are with you always. NOTHING is FUTILE, in life or art."
"Is it worse, as twilight approaches, to be a fool or to turn my back on what makes me who I am?
"Rootedness gives us a feeling of belonging, of being part of something greater than ourselves. It often provides the lens throough which we view the world, sometimes making us unable to see what is in front of our eyes."
"I never doubted my chances for success. The world was not perfect, but I meant to live in it, treating others with openness and respect until they gave me a reason not to."
"So I find committed atheists a bit arrogant, though not as arrogant as those who cite their knowledge of God's will in saying that you and your sex partner should not have matching genitalia."
"I felt an invisible barier between me and others, one I had only dimly perceived, melt away; and I relaxed in a way I never had as an adult."
"Trouble often arises from contradicition. There are those contradictions you can live with, and those you can't."
"Maybe in life we seek out the people who supply what we are missing."
"Life is complex, andresults often have more than one cause."
"In my ears, the question "But don't you feel like things are better than they were?"-always, always posed by a white person-went from seeming merely innocuous and unimaginative to being downright maddening. In some ways, no, became my answer, but the deeper answer was itself a question: what are you actually saying? That as long as you can point to some measure of progress, however bad other things may be, we should all be satisfied? That the natural condition of black people is oppression, and for any alleviation of that oppression, we should be grateful?"
"Black Americans are, in sum, and simply, a people to whom different rules often apply. But if we have an attitude because of that, then we're not being...reasonable. And while I continued to feel personally that blacks should take the high road with regard to all this-that we should not be anti-white, that we should judge others as individuals-it began to anger me that we were expected to take it."
"Knowing nothing, though, has this advantage: everything you see, you see clearly, not through the lens of what you think you know."
"My struggle would be to make sense of what I encountered; the risk would be concluding that the beliefs that had sustained me my whole life were, incontrovertibly, based on nothing."
"The thing about color-blindness? It is, as its name suggests, a form of blindness. To refuse to see a person's color is to refuse to see what she may be experiencing because of it. I hasten to point out that judging a person as an indivodual is not synonymous with being colorblind. To see a person as an individual is to take into account everything about that person. Color-blindness, on the other hand, is the equivalent of not seeing that a person standing up on the subway is pregnant-and, therefore, not even considering offering your seat."
"To be ignorant of the effects of such racism is to view people of color as victims of their own backwardness. Together, indifference and ignorance erect a virtual wall between the concerns of white Americans and those of their black and brown counterparts."
"To be ignorant of the continued force of racism in American life is to have tunnel vision, seeing a thing but missing what is going on around it."
"All of us are a product of our life experiences culturally, economically, and it comes fused in their person called a human being here in America."
"Since Trump's election, I have been in somewhat the same position as the priest who has lost his faith. I don't know if I feel bereft of that faith-my belief in my Americanness, in judging others individually-because I have walked away from it, or because it has betrayed me, or if either of those things have actually happened; I don't know if we've undergone something like a trial separation. Maybe, come to think of it, marriage is a better metaphor: I feel something akin to what longtime spouses feel after they fight-anger but also a sense of aloneness, of things being wrong, regardless of who is right."
"Indifference is not always as cold a concept as it sounds, which is part of its deviousness. It does not have to be the stone-faced absence of caring; sometimes it takes the form of the hallowness at the core of our noblest intentions."
"Don't worry about what people think of you. You worry about what you think of yourself and that will take care of everything else. If Trump's election makes me change who I am, then who was I, really?"
"Some things do not change, though, even as we age, even as generations come and go, and one thing that does not change is the human need to believe in something, to feel rooted."
December 24, 2019
Clifford Thompson's exploration of his own black identity is vulnerable and honest. He acknowledges nuance, lessons learned, even his own shortcomings past and present, thoughtfully and bravely. Looking to Joan Didion as a model, he approaches the men he interviews (from a white highway patrolman who voted for Trump to the founder of an African American gun association) with curiosity, not judgment. He is clear-eyed and open to being changed, yet also firmly rooted in his values. He complicates this notion of "rootedness" in a way that led me to question my own foundational beliefs, assumptions, anchors. I am grateful to the author for sharing these personal, musical, smooth words, and empathic, unflinching insights.
October 18, 2020
Normally I'm not too into books I find in the 800s at work (poetry, essays, etc), which is where my library had this book. Thankfully I picked it up, because the author's comments and writing style were quite good. Not every part of course. It actually didn't grab me right at the beginning, but Thompson's interviews with Trump voters and his discussions on indifference as a main driver behind decisions that hurt minority groups in the US are well thought out and thought provoking. Also his sections dealing with public services and investment in inner city kids. Everything came together really well and made this short little book one to not miss.
August 28, 2020
“Our good intentions do not always translate into effective action, when they translate into action at all. To do even that, they must first get past the villain of this book, that inescapable fact – that dragon – of the human condition: indifference.” (150)
“Indifference, however, is at the cold heart of the trouble, this American racial trouble of ours; and the question becomes whether this widespread indifference of so many people to the fates of so many others is seen as antithetical to, or intrinsically bound up with, America and one’s identification as an American.” (153)
“Indifference, however, is at the cold heart of the trouble, this American racial trouble of ours; and the question becomes whether this widespread indifference of so many people to the fates of so many others is seen as antithetical to, or intrinsically bound up with, America and one’s identification as an American.” (153)
August 31, 2020
What It Is: Race, Family, and One Thinking Black Man’s Blues by Clifford Thompson is the story of Thompson’s journey forward after Thump’s election. This book is personal; it is focused. Thompson wants to understand himself better and he has a desire to understand the “other” - the Trump voter. The best part for me was his recounting of his separate interviews/conversations with two Trump voters.
I liked the book. It is written well and reveals Thompson’s thinking as well as the thinking of the two Trump voters.
January 2, 2020
This little thought-provoking book is really well written. I am grateful to Clifford Thompson for sharing his personal thought journey with the rest of us to get us thinking, learning and opening up. And I am grateful to him for doing the hard work of reaching out to talk to people whose beliefs and experiences are different than his own. This is scary, important work and we and our children are better for his example.
March 2, 2023
I think that while some of the ideas presented here are very worthy, I found the "interviews" Thompson conducted to be a little fraudulent. He spoke with three white, Trump voters over the age of 70 and, unsurprisingly, they said mildly racist things. Even if these interviews weren't obviously a setup, the information gleaned from them would still mostly be anecdotal, rather than necessarily proving anything.
April 9, 2020
What It Is reads like the best kind of conversation; Thompson asks questions as often as he shares personal experiences and insights about race, family, politics, belonging and Americanness. His sincere desire to see and understand both himself and other Americans makes me want to read more of his work and also more of Didion’s (which inspired his approach to this book).
June 5, 2021
Clifford Thompson se cuestiona si es compatible ser estadounidense y afrodescendiente, qué implica pertenecer a un grupo minorizado, que fue esclavizado, en un país como Estados Unidos. Para responder esa interrogante entrevista a algunos de los votantes de Trump. Ofrece así un camino para afrontar la división que oprime a grupos enteros, el entendimiento. La necesidad de entender al otro.
December 31, 2019
Reading What It Is is a beautifully constructed walk through Clifford Thompson's mind as he looks internally and externally at what we (I think the collective WE makes sense here, this collective is what Thompson is unpacking) think of as America.
September 22, 2020
Everyone should read this book. Thompson is a wonderful writer and a thinking man's philosopher to boot. An enjoyable read that you have to slow yourself down to absorb all his thoughtful prose. He is the kind of writer I would love to meet with hopes that we would become friends.
January 6, 2021
I think I'd hoped for insight into Trump supporters. I didn't get insight, but better articulation of what makes them tick (or not). Thompson offers one black man's attempt at seeing people as people regardless of race. It's an attempt - worth reading to see if you think he succeeds.
January 2, 2020
A thought provoking read to start the year. Examining my own views as a result.
January 5, 2020
I really, really wanted to like this book. If you get through the fist fifty pages, then it's fine. But man, those first fifty pages are tough.
January 17, 2020
Rating of 4.75
March 24, 2020
I really enjoyed learning about the author's perspective. And I enjoyed his style. My complaint is that the book is a little disjointed, the essays don't always flow into one another.
May 2, 2020
Still processing, still digesting...will need to read again.
November 19, 2020
An unforgettable book from an exceptionally thought-provoking writer. Highly, highly recommend to anyone seeking a new lens on parenthood, race, art...and life in general.
February 23, 2021
3 stars for the white wife, otherwise a decent body of work.
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