For me, it was a book called ‘The Outsiders’ by S.E Hinton. It is known as a literary classic these days, but it was quite hard hitting when it was released back in the 1960s.
In a nut shell; It is about a group of semi-impoverished greaser friends growing up in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma, and all the life challenges they face, and how they react to prejudice against them whilst coping with family issues.
It was the first book that made me realise that some people in society don’t get it easy growing up, and I discovered what it meant to live on the ‘wrong side of town’ and what societal prejudice was. The outsiders was the first novel I read that brought up hard subjects like; domestic violence, alcoholism, street gang violence etc.
It was the first book to shatter my naive way of thinking about the world, at 13 years old! It is still one of my favourite stories to this day, and for all its slightly dark themes, I love the compassionate friendship and brotherhood that is displayed in this book!
The Autobiography of Malcom X is the book that most readily comes to mind.
It really made me look at race relationship in America differently to read X’s perspective in such detail. Granted, things have changed quite a bit since the 60s when he wrote the book. But I feel a lot more enlightened.
Things have indeed changed. Thanks to Biden’s crime bill, even more Black people are in prison than when Malcolm X’s biography was published.
Your posting history speaks volumes.
Smells like quite the Russian supporter.
The bill was a massive mistake, but acting like it was Biden’s alone is silly. It was largely supported by leaders in the black community (including the congressional Black caucus) because they saw crime as something that needed an aggressive response to curtail. In the 90s most people didn’t have any concept of crime as a mental health or poverty issue. They grasped for an easy answer and found one with terrible ramifications.
What have Biden or other liberal heroes done since then to rectify this mistake? All they seem to know how to do is send tens of billions of dollars to the Nazis in the police, in Ukraine, and in “Israel,” despite the fact that the public is overwhelmingly against this.
I mean, police funding is done on a local level. If you’re asking why most cities have continued to fund their police departments despite rampant corruption and abuse of power, that’s a pretty complex issue. You’ll probably want to start by looking into the power police unions have, that’s a major issue for anyone trying to get police reform and accountability.
Hello. This is a book forum, not a political platform. Discussing political books is allowed, but discussions unrelated to books (this entire chain was unrelated to the parent comment about The Autobiography of Malcolm X) need to be kept to a political subreddit. Thank you.
Hello. Per rule 1.2, posts and comments cannot be inherently political. Discussing political books is allowed; derailing this into an unrelated political discussion is not. This is a book forum, not a political platform. Thank you.
Touché
Me too. Read it as a teenager in the 1980s. That’s when I realized my society was lying about race and history. Changed me.
Ha guess there are a few of us. I read it when I was like 13 and that basically started me down the road of hard core leftism and militant politics. Malcolm X is the flippin’ man.
abso-frelling-lutely. And what a powerfully told book. Taking us through his moral and intellectual evolution was so powerful.
Outstanding book!