Smith explores these themes with the precision of a neurosurgeon, cutting through America’s cancer of white supremacy ... Smith recognizes that this struggle to be free must also include an effort to rid the black community of sexism, misogyny and homophobia; otherwise blacks are no better than the very people who oppress us ... Smith adroitly wrestles with the persistent question of what it means to be a black male in a society that denies him his humanity ... This is a must-read book.

With raw urgency, intelligence and blistering candor, it tells the story of a young man’s political education ... f Smith were merely telling that story, his book would make an interesting contribution to contemporary political commentary. But it is his pointed self-examination that makes it rarer and altogether more valuable, a book that gives us stories about how we learn to change, and not just arguments about why we should.

Blending memoir and cultural criticism, the book’s form allows Smith to narrate his coming-of-age while interrogating it at the same time. He wants to offer answers 'for the martyrs and tokens, for the Trayvons that could have been and are still waiting' ... he reserves his most acidic critiques for Hampton administrators, Obama and Smith’s own father. All three, Smith argues throughout, attempt 'to muzzle the radical voices of young black people.' They enforce the kind of paternalistic respectability politics that manages to pander to white supremacy while further demoralizing young black men with unattainable and useless standards ... Throughout, Smith attempts to speak through hip-hop’s urgent lyricism, draw analytical force from black satire and comedy, improvise on the black literary canon’s rhetorical practices, and emulate the treatises of black feminism and black power ... Given the pressure he wants us to apply to eliminating these negative systems, readers deserve critical ­practices for accomplishing this, rather than platitudes. I say this more by way of emphasizing the importance of Smith’s project — which demands to be taken seriously — than to detract from it.

'How did you learn to be a black man?' In Mychal Denzel Smith's memoir Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching, he seeks to answer this question. It's an ambitious goal, and Smith largely succeeds ... In his critical engagement of the structures, norms and narratives of black manhood, Smith discovers this myth imparts much of the patriarchal messaging he has worked to overcome ... So the fact that he tackles the misogyny and homophobia of his 'heroes' in lightweight form, ostensibly failing to nail them to the wall, feels disingenuous ... his most insightful and personal work is a deep discussion at the end of the book regarding mental health in the black community ... this memoir is both groundbreaking and saddening. It might be the first of its kind: a book that offers a comprehensive look into the genesis of black millennial lives through the eyes of a young black man.

Ultimately, Invisible Man is a philosophical work. Smith supports James Baldwin’s idea that blacks in America can either be conscious and angry or blissfully ignorant. As a black man reviewing the book, I was frustrated by suggestions that a limited set of emotional reactions are available to me. I also grew impatient with Smith’s tendency to imply a dominant or mandatory black experience ... The chapters devoted to Smith’s personal life resonate the most. He writes with courage and candor about learning to live with mental illness. He shares a different relationship with his father. A passage devoted to how he was affected when a beloved cousin was murdered is heart-wrenching and memorable ... His straightforward explanation of his experience growing up as a black man in America is worth our urgent attention. It allows for understanding and encourages empathy at a time when we need both.

...when Smith takes members of the black community to task for certain prejudices and shortcomings, he begins, honestly and poignantly, with himself ... This engaging, very readable book isn't perfect. At moments Smith's rhetoric soars so high that it loses contact with ground control ... at the sentence level, the book has moments of plain old sloppiness ... Mainly, though, Smith's book inspires admiration.