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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
Borrowing parts of the title from Black Like Me, Wise here dishes out a slew of anecdotes from his personal life, the experiences that awakened him to his white privilege, spurred him to become an anti-racist activist, and give him particular insight into the struggle for racial equality in the U.S.
Mostly, I enjoyed reading it — the stories are entertaining — but I couldn’t help but wonder who is the intended audience? I’m already convinced of what he attempts to convince the reader, and I’m fairly certain that if I wasn’t already convinced, then these anecdotes wouldn’t convince me. (“[Story of a white guy who got away with something, but] imagine if it had been a black guy? That’s white privilege!”)
One personal note: So many writings on the topic of racism ignore the many mixed families in the country; I often feel adrift during the discussions of all-white families versus families who are entirely people of color.
(I have written a longer review on my website.)
It could have been condensed, it is hard to rate as it is a memoir, but the life of the author is not what I am really interested in, I was expecting something different. I wanted a work with discussion on struggles by marginalized groups, social commentary, a well-researched topic being explained or discussed.
Mr. Wise cannot base a whole idea on his own experiences alone, I read around 70% of the book and had to give up. I might pick it up at a later time but not sure.
Recognizing privilege is the first step to changing how society is a whole, this book is not what I would recommend on the topic though.
I see a lot of people found this way more helpful so maybe it was a "me thing", so take my opinion lightly, the subject is important but that does not mean all the books written about it are going to be to everyone's liking and that does not mean that is because you have a different opinion. This book was simply a memoir of someone's life and the writing style was of no particular interest to me. Nothing more than that.
The first few chapters you are reading about his life you can take as an introduction to know who the person is writing this, but you never move on. The story is simply a retelling of his life and showing us examples of moments where he was privileged. A few incidents might have been good but this seems to drag on and on, making you feel this book is not going to end! It fell to be dragging on, going in circles. It might have been the case where you pick something up and your expected something different so you end up begin disappointed.
It is still a very important topic to explore, so I'll just have to continue looking for something else.
