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fflur_jones's review against another edition
1.0
The book was pretty dull and reads very much as Racism 101 (not necessarily a bad thing but just didn't give me any information I wasn't aware of). It also feels wrong for a white author to get paid off the back of racial trauma... Some justifications I've heard are that white people respond better to discussions/criticisms with regards to racism when coming from a fellow white person but that line of argument seems to just recentre whiteness and white comfort all over again. Honestly, there are many way better books written by amazing BIPOC authors that I would invest in over this book.
tildahlia's review against another edition
5.0
Every white person needs to read this book. For those interested in combating racism, a lot of the concepts won't be totally foreign, but they are articulated in such simple and clear-eyed terms that overcomes any residual fuzziness you may have about unconscious bias, white defensiveness and the collecting gaslighting that white people engage in to deny the day-to-day realities of people of colour. You will find things in here that you have been guilty of (for me: seeking absolution from people of colour), which makes it uncomfortable but effective. Once you understand white fragility you see it everywhere.
Note: I don't recommend the Audiobook for this one. The narrator is a bit deadpan and the writing is so rich and dense, it lends it's self to being read, re-read and pondered over.
Note: I don't recommend the Audiobook for this one. The narrator is a bit deadpan and the writing is so rich and dense, it lends it's self to being read, re-read and pondered over.
bitsandbookends's review against another edition
3.0
3.2/5
I did really enjoy this book as it was informational and eye opening as a ✨white✨. There were some points I’m not sure I entirely agree on, as some felt more divisive than equal but overall a really good read/listen to broaden my perspective on the roots of racism!!
I did really enjoy this book as it was informational and eye opening as a ✨white✨. There were some points I’m not sure I entirely agree on, as some felt more divisive than equal but overall a really good read/listen to broaden my perspective on the roots of racism!!
lexinator's review against another edition
I think I would have enjoyed this book more if I hadn't already read How to be Anti-Racist by Ibram X Kendi. This was very entry level stuff and perhaps good for beginners in intersectionality.
blaineduncan's review against another edition
3.0
This was an important and challenging read. The challenge came from how it pushed up against some of my own notions and how it framed racism.
dgonzo's review against another edition
1.0
This is a really important book and I think most people would get something from reading this not just in regards to the black experience in the US though that is and remains the focus throughout (as it should be given their history and present experience with systematic racism). It is written by an ally and not a minority but I don't believe it is a weakness of the book (in most cases) as I don't think it is up to people of color to educate the 'white collective' as Robin DiAngelo calls it. It tackles the topic of 'white' as the default through the lens of someone who has grown up and lived a large portion of their life without questioning why that is and how that can affect groups not of that default.
Now for what went wrong:
As a person of color I did find the concept that "only white people can be racist" more than a bit problematic, she does qualify it as whites being consistently able to enforce systems of oppression on minorities but the qualifier should have been the concept not the qualifier. She states that people of color can also hold prejudices against other groups and can act on those prejudices but distinguishes this from racism ignoring the very definition of racism. Systematic oppression needs to be called out but ignoring more insidious forms of racism is inviting more discrimination to arise further dividing minorities and weakening our political leverage, and ultimately I don't think that's the goal.
***Edit- The more I think about this the more I find it unacceptable. Saying that minorities can't be racist is another example of telling minorities what they are and are not allowed to be despite reality blatantly demonstrating otherwise. Saying that a minority shop owner is not racist but 'prejudiced' when they follow a Muslim, or Hispanic, or Black customer around their store for 'suspicious' behavior is ignoring blatant acts of racism because they just so happen to be a minority themselves. It's splitting hairs. Saying that a Portuguese or Cuban american who have racist tendencies are/can be/are allowed to be racist in their own country but cannot be so when they step foot on US soil even though they are engaging in the same behavior, simply because they are no longer part of the group in power and therefore cannot be racist is illogical. And frankly by the same logic it could be said that only governmental structures can be racist because they are what make systems of oppression possible (that's taking her rationality to an extreme but also logical conclusion). It's also very US centric in a book that tends to frame its arguments through a global perspective, it ignores the realities of immigration and that discrimination happens all over the world to all types of groups by all types of groups, not just in the US and we are not isolated from it, something which at times she seems very aware of and others completely ignores.
There's no racism Olympics, racism is racism no matter how big or small it manifests and calling it out as such in all instances regardless of who is being targeted or who is doing the targeting is the way forward, not arbitrarily deciding what is suitable enough to be called racist and who is and isn't allowed to be racist. Just call a spade a spade.
Even though, I'm very critical of the arguments made in this book, mostly in regards to what the author considers acceptable racism, this was an educational well crafted open letter to anyone that would like to start on educating themselves on the systematic oppression of minorities and the role white people, as the group in power, play in that oppression. Though it wasn't without its faults it is worth a read/listen, but I think there are better books out there on the topic written by both minority authors and allies.
Now for what went wrong:
As a person of color I did find the concept that "only white people can be racist" more than a bit problematic, she does qualify it as whites being consistently able to enforce systems of oppression on minorities but the qualifier should have been the concept not the qualifier. She states that people of color can also hold prejudices against other groups and can act on those prejudices but distinguishes this from racism ignoring the very definition of racism. Systematic oppression needs to be called out but ignoring more insidious forms of racism is inviting more discrimination to arise further dividing minorities and weakening our political leverage, and ultimately I don't think that's the goal.
***Edit- The more I think about this the more I find it unacceptable. Saying that minorities can't be racist is another example of telling minorities what they are and are not allowed to be despite reality blatantly demonstrating otherwise. Saying that a minority shop owner is not racist but 'prejudiced' when they follow a Muslim, or Hispanic, or Black customer around their store for 'suspicious' behavior is ignoring blatant acts of racism because they just so happen to be a minority themselves. It's splitting hairs. Saying that a Portuguese or Cuban american who have racist tendencies are/can be/are allowed to be racist in their own country but cannot be so when they step foot on US soil even though they are engaging in the same behavior, simply because they are no longer part of the group in power and therefore cannot be racist is illogical. And frankly by the same logic it could be said that only governmental structures can be racist because they are what make systems of oppression possible (that's taking her rationality to an extreme but also logical conclusion). It's also very US centric in a book that tends to frame its arguments through a global perspective, it ignores the realities of immigration and that discrimination happens all over the world to all types of groups by all types of groups, not just in the US and we are not isolated from it, something which at times she seems very aware of and others completely ignores.
There's no racism Olympics, racism is racism no matter how big or small it manifests and calling it out as such in all instances regardless of who is being targeted or who is doing the targeting is the way forward, not arbitrarily deciding what is suitable enough to be called racist and who is and isn't allowed to be racist. Just call a spade a spade.
Even though, I'm very critical of the arguments made in this book, mostly in regards to what the author considers acceptable racism, this was an educational well crafted open letter to anyone that would like to start on educating themselves on the systematic oppression of minorities and the role white people, as the group in power, play in that oppression. Though it wasn't without its faults it is worth a read/listen, but I think there are better books out there on the topic written by both minority authors and allies.