The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Rating: ★★★★★
A brief preface: I am a privileged white woman, but I seek to empathize with and understand those who aren't born with the unfair advantage of white privilege. This book has helped me gain perspective, and I hope everyone out there opens this book with humility and closes it burning with the flame of justice.
Colson Whitehead has delivered an inventive reimagining of the network that delivered hundreds of African Americans from slavery: the underground railroad. Whitehead has used his masterful command of language to paint a shocking, disturbing, beautiful, crushing, relevant, hopeful story.
Cora is a slave on a plantation in Georgia. The plantation life is so horrific it made my stomach turn. It became clear that if you treat someone as less than human they will begin to play the part. When Cora is "sixteen or seventeen" she takes the brave steps off the plantation and into a new life, a life of freedom, but it doesn't take long before she discovers that slavery is not the only form of racism, and it's not even the worst form. Every new place Cora goes she experiences a different kind of racism. Each is horrific in its own way.
In South Carolina people treat her with some semblance of respect, but they are manipulating her. Her doctor advises her to have her fallopian tubes tied, because it would be easier on her to not have to deal with children. The doctor is limiting her reproductive rights, coercing her into permanent birth control. The doctor performs abortions on African American women to eliminate the growth of their race. On the outside there may be a facade of acceptance, but the hidden agenda still carries a violent racism.
Here, Cora gets a job acting in a museum as a slave in the "African American heritage" exhibits, although, of course, it is depicted inaccurately because the white man cannot face his own mistakes. Do we not allow the same atrocities in modern entertainment? We make African American and Hispanic women play maids on television all the time! This is not an accurate representation of who they are! These women are stronger, smarter, and better leaders than many white women. Let's give them the roles they deserve in Hollywood!
In North Carolina Cora lives in an attic. These living accommodations draw strong parallels to Anne Frank's stay in the annex during the holocaust and Immaculee Ilibagiza's stay in the bathroom during the Rwandan genocide. We condemn these countries for their extreme prejudice, but we excuse our own actions, blaming it on our ancestors. We are not so different ourselves.
I really appreciate that Whitehead addresses the fact that retaliating with violence, while it may be justified, does nothing to solve the problem. It's only pouring gas on the fire. This point is so important in our current political climate. Protesting against Trump is wonderful as long as it stays peaceful, as soon as we use violence we lose all credibility. This is also relevant to police brutality. While you may be justified in fighting back, it will only make the situation worse. Whitehead deliberately draws attention to police brutality when he describes the white vigilante groups that patrolled for miscreant blacks. "The patroller required no reason to stop a person apart from color" (162). Sound familiar?
It's time to wake up and realize that, as a country, we haven't come that far. Of course, we have made progress, but we still have a long way to go. We cannot "make America great again" because America was never great. We were a nation of thieves, murderers, rapists, and liars. We have to continue to change for the better, and that change begins with you.
Favorite Quotes:
Warning! This book uses offensive language to accurately portray the disgusting state of our nation in the time period. Some of these words may appear in the quotes below.
"In America the quirk was that people were things" (6).
"What did you get for that, for knowing the day you were born into the white man's world? It didn't seem like the thing to remember. More like to forget" (26).
"It grabbed hold of her and before the slave part of her caught up with the human part of her, she was bent over the boy's body as a shield" (34).
"Two white men in two days had their hands around her. Was this a condition of her freedom?" (66).
"If you want to see what this nation is all about, I always say, you have to ride the rails. Look outside as you speed through, and you'll find the true face of America" (69).
"Following Lumbly's final instructions, Cora looked through the slats. There was only darkness, mile after mile" (70).
"The other patrollers were boys and men of bad character; the work attracted a type. In another country they would have been criminals, but this was America" (76).
"They'd leave their mark on this new land, as surely as those famous souls at Jamestown, making it theirs through unstoppable racial logic. If niggers were supposed to have their freedom, they wouldn't be in chains. if the red man was supposed to keep hold of his land, it'd still be his. If the white man wasn't destine to take this new world, he wouldn't own it now. Here was the true Great Spirit, the divine thread connecting all human endeavor-- if you can keep it, it is yours. Your property, slave or contingent. The American imperative" (80).
"One might think one's misfortunes distinct, but the true horror lay in their universality" (102).
"'We're optimistic.' Cora didn't know what optimistic meant. She asked the other girls that night if they were familiar with the word. None of them had heard it before. She decided that it meant trying" (108).
"Nobody wanted to speak on the true disposition of the world. And no one wanted to hear it" (116).
"Taken individually the link was not much. But in concert with its fellows, a mighty iron that subjugated millions despite its weakness. The people she chose, young and old, from the rich part of town or the more modest streets, did not individually persecute Cora. As a community, they were shackles. If she kept at it, chipping away at weak links wherever she found them, it might add up to something" (126).
"In death the negro became a human being. Only then was he the white man's equal" (139). *in reference to use a medical cadavers*
"Cora figured that a new wave of immigrants would replace the Irish, fleeing a different but no less abject country, the process starting anew. The engine huffed and groaned and kept running. They had merely switched the fuel that moved the pistons" (171).
"Slavery is a sin when whites were put to the yoke, but not the African. All men are created equal, unless we decide you are not a man" (182).
"White man's treaties were entirely worthless" (204).
"the ears made it look like the dirt was listening" (225).
"Cora kicked Ridgeway in the face three times with her new wooden shoes. She thought, if the world will not stir itself to punish the wicked. No one stopped her. Later she said it was three kicks for three murders, and told of Lovey, Caesar, and Jasper to let them live briefly again in her words. But that was not the truth of it. It was all for her" (228).
"He was jailed for inciting riots that weren't riots but peaceful gatherings" (254). - sound familiar America?
"As the years pass racial violence only becomes more vicious in its expression. It will not abate or disappear, not anytime soon" (264).
"White man ain't going to do it. We have to do it ourselves" (278).
"That is how the European tribes operate, she said. if they can't control it, they destroy it" (280).
"We can't save everyone. But that doesn't mean we can't try. Sometimes a useful delusion is better than useless truth" (285).
"The word we. We are not one people but many different people. How can one person speak for this great beautiful race-- which is not one race but many, with a million desires and hopes and wishes for ourselves and our children" (286).
"We may not know the way through the forest, but we can pick each other up when we fall, and we will arrive together" (286).
