Scan barcode
dashadashahi's review
4.0
I appreciated the variety of topics that these authors chose to cover. I think this book makes accessible many points on white women's roles in uplifting and upholding settler colonial standards in Canada. My one hesitation in that some articles written by settler scholars use positionality in a self-defeating way. Indeed, the one article on whiteness in nursing, while possessing an overall good analysis of the issue, also frequently centres her disgust with her discovery of her whiteness in the mirror thus centring white women's guilt and emotions which just read as taking away from the book's message. Nonetheless, the rest of the articles are steller especially Timothy Stanley's and Jas M. Morgan's.
faiktra's review
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.75
I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did.
It wasn't that I was disagreeing with anything being said, but it seemed like some of the essays assumed I knew way more about a topic then I actually did.
The beginning and end chapters were really poignant, thought-provoking, and impactful, but many of the middling chapters (especially the ones written by White authours) felt lacking.
Many times I found the essay's too short and wanted more expansion and unpacking of the difficult content being discussed. Aggravating this was the feeling that some of the middle chapters were repetitive, particularly the chapters "Toxic Encounters", "Policing Indigenous Students", and "Am I a Settler?". Did we really need 3 chapters written by 3 White people about the implied but never fully discussed racism of White teachers? "Permission to Escape" covered the topic much more elegantly, powerfully, and with more depth.
Additionally, the intersectionality between Black and Indigenous people was almost nonexistent. The continued use of 'IBPOC' was problematic for me on multiple counts...Why reorder it from the original 'BIPOC'? To give more importance to Indigenous peoples over Black people? That seems like a curious choice to make, especially considering that I don't think there's any Black contributors (I could be wrong). It seems to diminish the complicated history that Indigeous, Black (and other racialized) peoples share, as well as the existence of mixed Black and Indigenous people.
*I am not Black or Indigenous, I have just read criticisms of the term 'BIPOC' and 'IBPOC' from Black and Indigenous people. It might not be my place to make this critique, but I found it disconcerting while reading the text and I thought the area needed more nuance/acknowledgement*
Besides any format/writing critcisms, there were many brilliant, key take-aways that I will be doing my best to incorporate into my life, as a White person in a helping profession with many Indigenous patrons and I am very thankful for that.
It wasn't that I was disagreeing with anything being said, but it seemed like some of the essays assumed I knew way more about a topic then I actually did.
The beginning and end chapters were really poignant, thought-provoking, and impactful, but many of the middling chapters (especially the ones written by White authours) felt lacking.
Many times I found the essay's too short and wanted more expansion and unpacking of the difficult content being discussed. Aggravating this was the feeling that some of the middle chapters were repetitive, particularly the chapters "Toxic Encounters", "Policing Indigenous Students", and "Am I a Settler?". Did we really need 3 chapters written by 3 White people about the implied but never fully discussed racism of White teachers? "Permission to Escape" covered the topic much more elegantly, powerfully, and with more depth.
Additionally, the intersectionality between Black and Indigenous people was almost nonexistent. The continued use of 'IBPOC' was problematic for me on multiple counts...Why reorder it from the original 'BIPOC'? To give more importance to Indigenous peoples over Black people? That seems like a curious choice to make, especially considering that I don't think there's any Black contributors (I could be wrong). It seems to diminish the complicated history that Indigeous, Black (and other racialized) peoples share, as well as the existence of mixed Black and Indigenous people.
*I am not Black or Indigenous, I have just read criticisms of the term 'BIPOC' and 'IBPOC' from Black and Indigenous people. It might not be my place to make this critique, but I found it disconcerting while reading the text and I thought the area needed more nuance/acknowledgement*
Besides any format/writing critcisms, there were many brilliant, key take-aways that I will be doing my best to incorporate into my life, as a White person in a helping profession with many Indigenous patrons and I am very thankful for that.