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bexhobson's review against another edition
5.0
Invigorating.
"It is my belief that racism shapes all political movements in the United States, for better and for worse, but because white people so seldom talk about how we are affected by racism, we don't understand how to counter it."
"What I mean is a less lonely society, where we think collectively about resources for the common good, rather than struggling individually against each other for material and psychic health."
"If we could decide who could not come into our church, then it was just a building that belonged to us, not God."
"Leah affirmed my instincts to build not just coalitions, but movements grounded in relationships. .. The result was friendships that come among people who catalyze changes in each other. Our work carried a lot of risk, but the risk gave us occasions to develop substantial trust."
"Individuals project onto others the characteristics they cannot accept in themselves, then control, punish or eradicate the objects of those projections. Our identities, structured as they are on what we hate, resist or fear, are disturbingly unstable."
"There is a lot to be done, but how we go about it is also important. Because all we have ever had is each other."
"It is the failure to feel the communal bonds between humans, I think, and the punishment that undoubtedly came to those Europeans who did, that allowed the "community of the lie" to grow so genocidally in the soil of the "New World."
"White democracy, it seems, gets built on the backs of people of color, a fact that gives white people a very different subjective experience of U.S. democracy than many people of color."
"It is my belief that racism shapes all political movements in the United States, for better and for worse, but because white people so seldom talk about how we are affected by racism, we don't understand how to counter it."
"What I mean is a less lonely society, where we think collectively about resources for the common good, rather than struggling individually against each other for material and psychic health."
"If we could decide who could not come into our church, then it was just a building that belonged to us, not God."
"Leah affirmed my instincts to build not just coalitions, but movements grounded in relationships. .. The result was friendships that come among people who catalyze changes in each other. Our work carried a lot of risk, but the risk gave us occasions to develop substantial trust."
"Individuals project onto others the characteristics they cannot accept in themselves, then control, punish or eradicate the objects of those projections. Our identities, structured as they are on what we hate, resist or fear, are disturbingly unstable."
"There is a lot to be done, but how we go about it is also important. Because all we have ever had is each other."
"It is the failure to feel the communal bonds between humans, I think, and the punishment that undoubtedly came to those Europeans who did, that allowed the "community of the lie" to grow so genocidally in the soil of the "New World."
"White democracy, it seems, gets built on the backs of people of color, a fact that gives white people a very different subjective experience of U.S. democracy than many people of color."
mad_taylh's review against another edition
4.0
"'I don't see how you do the things you do,' she told me.
'What choice is there?' I wondered."
'What choice is there?' I wondered."
bbpettry's review against another edition
3.0
This book is written like a story that might be told on a porch to a friend whose dropped by to catch up. It's intimate, winding & harrowing, leafing out into emotional and intellectual tangents as Segrest recounts her years as an activist against white supremacist violence. She comes from a generation of queer people I am so different from, and it was interesting to compare. There are a few things that ring really loud and true in the book: It is the responsibility of anti racist white folks to put themselves between white supremacists and marginalized people. Activists absolutely must take care of themselves and each other.
After the memoir part of the book is a more academic piece that is, even at its age, worth the price of the book. Among other things, it makes the connection between white supremacy and capitalism.
After the memoir part of the book is a more academic piece that is, even at its age, worth the price of the book. Among other things, it makes the connection between white supremacy and capitalism.
meslivres's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
phoebe_phorreal's review against another edition
5.0
Thanks to The New Press for this free copy.
This was a good book, and although the criticisms of it do hold water in terms of how the narrating can jump around a little, ultimately, I feel that specific style is actually really helpful. I felt it gave me insight into how difficult it is to catalog the raw emotions and both the successes and disappointments, the squabbles and the unity, the hope amid the chaos on the ground. Also, what makes or breaks a memoir for me is self-reflection and Mab has that in spades. She acknowledges, for example that, due to the portrayal of sensitive events, the organizing chapters and the personal chapters (which alternate more or less throughout the book) may have a vast difference in tone.
That's not to say that there weren't occasions where I had to look up names when they were reintroduced, but that had a negligible impact on the reading for me. It did take me a while to get through, though I'm not sure whether that's because it is chock-full of dates and meticulously researched events or because I've had less time on my hands recently. Either way, if it is dense, it is still definitely worth reading.
If you've read Howard Zinn or Eduardo Galeano, the coda may seem a bit basic, as its intention is to be an introduction or reintroduction which places the memoir part in a wider American history of race. Still, even though at least the first part of said coda was familiar ground for me, it was a welcome reminder.
"A Bridge, Not A Wedge" and the new Introduction and Afterword seamlessly bring the story into the present, though the lessons of the main body hold up sadly all too well today, so it's worth a read whether you read the first edition or are just reading it for the first time.
Although this book resonated with me a fair deal due in part to my race, how I grew up, and the messy way in which I (and we all, I suppose) process identity and, at some times, family, I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wishes to get involved in antiracist organizing, along with other books on the subject.
This was a good book, and although the criticisms of it do hold water in terms of how the narrating can jump around a little, ultimately, I feel that specific style is actually really helpful. I felt it gave me insight into how difficult it is to catalog the raw emotions and both the successes and disappointments, the squabbles and the unity, the hope amid the chaos on the ground. Also, what makes or breaks a memoir for me is self-reflection and Mab has that in spades. She acknowledges, for example that, due to the portrayal of sensitive events, the organizing chapters and the personal chapters (which alternate more or less throughout the book) may have a vast difference in tone.
That's not to say that there weren't occasions where I had to look up names when they were reintroduced, but that had a negligible impact on the reading for me. It did take me a while to get through, though I'm not sure whether that's because it is chock-full of dates and meticulously researched events or because I've had less time on my hands recently. Either way, if it is dense, it is still definitely worth reading.
If you've read Howard Zinn or Eduardo Galeano, the coda may seem a bit basic, as its intention is to be an introduction or reintroduction which places the memoir part in a wider American history of race. Still, even though at least the first part of said coda was familiar ground for me, it was a welcome reminder.
"A Bridge, Not A Wedge" and the new Introduction and Afterword seamlessly bring the story into the present, though the lessons of the main body hold up sadly all too well today, so it's worth a read whether you read the first edition or are just reading it for the first time.
Although this book resonated with me a fair deal due in part to my race, how I grew up, and the messy way in which I (and we all, I suppose) process identity and, at some times, family, I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone who wishes to get involved in antiracist organizing, along with other books on the subject.
tarae's review against another edition
5.0
The first, largest section of this book is the memoir part of the book, what the book takes its title from. It is largely a memoir of Segrest's time doing anti-racist organizing in North Carolina, set against the backdrop of her white family's long history of perpetuating white supremacy -- both her close, immediate family and her distant, long-dead relatives. She isn't too ashamed to write of the Black men her relatives killed, or the organizing her father did against desegregated schools in Alabama, or of any of their acts of racist violence, knowing rightly what little good her shame could do anyone. And she understands the value in exposing legacies of racism and racist violence in white families. And she isn't afraid to make herself vulnerable and doesn't hold herself above criticism, doesn't write herself in a soft, favorable light, doesn't wholly set herself in opposition to her roots. She knows that she is intricately tangled in them. She's constantly struggling to understand her family rather than demonizing them, while still maintaining a healthy balance of anger and shock and disgust at both their racism and the homophobia she experiences from them.
But, as I mentioned earlier, her family and its history is largely the backdrop that informs and enriches her writing of her organizing against racist violence in North Carolina. This section of the book really does so much -- it's partly a chilling history of racist violence in civil-rights era Alabama & 1980's North Carolina, partly a history of those racist judicial systems, partly a window into what organizing work looks like, partly a window into what it was like to organize as a lesbian in the 80's, partly a window into how Segrest, as a lesbian, was affected by AIDS, partly a reflection on what it means to be white and doing anti-racist work (to be a "race-traitor"), partly a reflection on memoir itself -- it does so much, and so much more than what I've named, even. And it does it in a messy, emotional, beautiful way.
The second section of the book is titled "On Being White and Other Lies: A History of Racism in the United States." The history begins with English settlement, and, as the first section of the book, is informed by Segrest's family history, which can be traced in North America to the near-beginning of English settlement. It very clearly and concisely lays out a history of racism and capitalism in the U.S (and globally, to an extent, as the U.S. is and is not an island). I found it useful in the (ongoing/never-ending) work of organizing and plotting history in my head. I plan on reading it about 5 more times to help some of the information densely contained in it solidify.
The third section, "A Bridge, Not a Wedge," was sort of an addendum to the second. It was originally delivered as a keynote for a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force conference in 1993, which helps explain why it was my least favorite section, as it was written with that audience in mind, one that Segrest assumed might be reluctant to accept its charge -- that queer organizing must too be anti-racist organizing, must work with anti-racist organizers, that white queers must understand race and racism. Still, I was a sucker for how poetically this section (and the book) ended.
This book gave me basically everything I wanted from a book, ever! And more things done well in one short book than I could have imagined?? I learned so much?? I was so moved?? It gave me so much perspective?? Segrest, of course, has minor flounders at times, but still, I didn't really think that a white person could write so well about race and I'm glad to be wrong.
But, as I mentioned earlier, her family and its history is largely the backdrop that informs and enriches her writing of her organizing against racist violence in North Carolina. This section of the book really does so much -- it's partly a chilling history of racist violence in civil-rights era Alabama & 1980's North Carolina, partly a history of those racist judicial systems, partly a window into what organizing work looks like, partly a window into what it was like to organize as a lesbian in the 80's, partly a window into how Segrest, as a lesbian, was affected by AIDS, partly a reflection on what it means to be white and doing anti-racist work (to be a "race-traitor"), partly a reflection on memoir itself -- it does so much, and so much more than what I've named, even. And it does it in a messy, emotional, beautiful way.
The second section of the book is titled "On Being White and Other Lies: A History of Racism in the United States." The history begins with English settlement, and, as the first section of the book, is informed by Segrest's family history, which can be traced in North America to the near-beginning of English settlement. It very clearly and concisely lays out a history of racism and capitalism in the U.S (and globally, to an extent, as the U.S. is and is not an island). I found it useful in the (ongoing/never-ending) work of organizing and plotting history in my head. I plan on reading it about 5 more times to help some of the information densely contained in it solidify.
The third section, "A Bridge, Not a Wedge," was sort of an addendum to the second. It was originally delivered as a keynote for a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force conference in 1993, which helps explain why it was my least favorite section, as it was written with that audience in mind, one that Segrest assumed might be reluctant to accept its charge -- that queer organizing must too be anti-racist organizing, must work with anti-racist organizers, that white queers must understand race and racism. Still, I was a sucker for how poetically this section (and the book) ended.
This book gave me basically everything I wanted from a book, ever! And more things done well in one short book than I could have imagined?? I learned so much?? I was so moved?? It gave me so much perspective?? Segrest, of course, has minor flounders at times, but still, I didn't really think that a white person could write so well about race and I'm glad to be wrong.
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