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emmaito's review
4.0
"I sometimes joke that my optimism has been stolen by white supremacy.
Don't be burdened by white supremacy, my friend responds.
The 'toomuchness' of our present reality sometimes gives rise to humor but could occasion disassociation, detachment from engagement, a refusal to engage in our democractic practices given how structural and invasive white supremacy remains.
A white supremacist orientation is packaged as universal thinking and objective seeing, which insists on the erasure of anyone - my actual presence, my humanity - who disrupts its reflection. Its form of being.
The idea that one can stand apart is a nice fantasy but we can't afford fantasies."
claudia rankine's just us: an american conversation is a powerful book that requires a lot of sitting with it. i loved the format of this book, which felt so unique. claudia rankine shares with us & reflects on her experiences & thoughts on whiteness in the United States through not just her excellent writing, but also through poetry, photos, & historical documents. my copy is dotted with tabs, pointing to not just memorable quotes, but also to sources that rankine gives for deeper understanding. this book is not a quick read, but it is well-worth the time.
Don't be burdened by white supremacy, my friend responds.
The 'toomuchness' of our present reality sometimes gives rise to humor but could occasion disassociation, detachment from engagement, a refusal to engage in our democractic practices given how structural and invasive white supremacy remains.
A white supremacist orientation is packaged as universal thinking and objective seeing, which insists on the erasure of anyone - my actual presence, my humanity - who disrupts its reflection. Its form of being.
The idea that one can stand apart is a nice fantasy but we can't afford fantasies."
claudia rankine's just us: an american conversation is a powerful book that requires a lot of sitting with it. i loved the format of this book, which felt so unique. claudia rankine shares with us & reflects on her experiences & thoughts on whiteness in the United States through not just her excellent writing, but also through poetry, photos, & historical documents. my copy is dotted with tabs, pointing to not just memorable quotes, but also to sources that rankine gives for deeper understanding. this book is not a quick read, but it is well-worth the time.
marireadstoomuch's review
5.0
Incredible read, as expected from Rankine’s work. Thoughtful, probing, measured.
Some quotations, leaning heavily towards engagements with whiteness that stood out to me as a white person. Due to the nature of the citations as inter text, the following also includes other voices:
“The lack of an integrated life meant that no part of his life recognized the treatment of black peoples as an important disturbance. To not remember is perhaps not to feel touched by events that don’t interfere with your livelihood. This is the reality that defines white privilege no matter how much money one has or doesn’t have.”
Thinking about integration/having conversations in all-white rooms (and suggested reading Elizabeth Anderson’s The Imperative of Integration): “But if you’re white and you’re getting messages from your surroundings that reaffirms the idea that white solidarity is the way to organize your world, even while doing anti racist work, then how are you not going to believe that a constructed all-white world isn’t you at your most functioning? How isn’t that going to feel natural and right? Stark, yes. Ironic, yes.”
“If white people don’t see their whiteness, how can they speak to it? ...Does diversity not include any training to see ourselves or is it simply about addressing black grievance?”
“Understanding what is possible on the part of liberal whites means understanding that black personal achievement does not negate the continued assault of white terrorism”
“It’s harder than you would think because white people don’t really want change if it means they need to think differently than they do about who they are.”
“Among white people, black people are allowed to talk about their precarious lives, but they are not allowed to implicate the present company in that precariousness. They are not allowed to point out its causes. In ‘Sexism—a Problem with a Name,’ Sara Ahmed writes that ‘if you name the problem you’ve become the problem.’ To create discomfort by pointing out facts is seen as socially unacceptable. Let’s get over ourselves, it’s structural not personal, I want to shout at everyone, including myself.”
Sara Ahmed in “The Phenomenology of Whiteness”: “To give a problem a name can change not only how we register an event but whether we register an event. To give the problem a name can be experienced as magnifying the problem; allowing something to acquire a social and physical density by gathering up what otherwise remain scattered experiences to a tangible thing.”
“...could it be the students have divested from the performance of exceptional blackness, a performance that will never save us from the actions of ordinary whiteness...”
“The question is not really whether we’ll be tied to the somethings of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them” -Ta-Nehisi Coates’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, 19 June 2019
Some quotations, leaning heavily towards engagements with whiteness that stood out to me as a white person. Due to the nature of the citations as inter text, the following also includes other voices:
“The lack of an integrated life meant that no part of his life recognized the treatment of black peoples as an important disturbance. To not remember is perhaps not to feel touched by events that don’t interfere with your livelihood. This is the reality that defines white privilege no matter how much money one has or doesn’t have.”
Thinking about integration/having conversations in all-white rooms (and suggested reading Elizabeth Anderson’s The Imperative of Integration): “But if you’re white and you’re getting messages from your surroundings that reaffirms the idea that white solidarity is the way to organize your world, even while doing anti racist work, then how are you not going to believe that a constructed all-white world isn’t you at your most functioning? How isn’t that going to feel natural and right? Stark, yes. Ironic, yes.”
“If white people don’t see their whiteness, how can they speak to it? ...Does diversity not include any training to see ourselves or is it simply about addressing black grievance?”
“Understanding what is possible on the part of liberal whites means understanding that black personal achievement does not negate the continued assault of white terrorism”
“It’s harder than you would think because white people don’t really want change if it means they need to think differently than they do about who they are.”
“Among white people, black people are allowed to talk about their precarious lives, but they are not allowed to implicate the present company in that precariousness. They are not allowed to point out its causes. In ‘Sexism—a Problem with a Name,’ Sara Ahmed writes that ‘if you name the problem you’ve become the problem.’ To create discomfort by pointing out facts is seen as socially unacceptable. Let’s get over ourselves, it’s structural not personal, I want to shout at everyone, including myself.”
Sara Ahmed in “The Phenomenology of Whiteness”: “To give a problem a name can change not only how we register an event but whether we register an event. To give the problem a name can be experienced as magnifying the problem; allowing something to acquire a social and physical density by gathering up what otherwise remain scattered experiences to a tangible thing.”
“...could it be the students have divested from the performance of exceptional blackness, a performance that will never save us from the actions of ordinary whiteness...”
“The question is not really whether we’ll be tied to the somethings of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them” -Ta-Nehisi Coates’s testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, 19 June 2019
sausome's review
3.0
This was an interesting look at racism through a more free-form, conversational lens, while still feeling fairly academic. It felt a bit like a memoir-style analysis of a professor's class experiences, merged with personal experiences with everyday racism. There are often not solid answers, and generally more questions, and in this way, the book felt like it was discussing philosophy. I'm not sure this style will resonate/connect with everyone, and it didn't quite get there with me, but it is definitely a good book to add to the antiracist cannon. I can imagine anyone teaching about antiracism or African American Studies or Black Studies, would find this an invaluable resource to support and add further discussion points and sources to turn to.
sageblue47's review
4.0
I will read whatever Rankine puts out. I prefer Citizen to this, but this is still great: incisive, emotional, raw. The final piece gives hope amongst the despair and calls for us all to keep searching and engaging.
drewboo's review
“...response is my strategy. Endless response and study and adjustments and compromises become a life.
.... remaining in the quotidian of disturbance is our way of staying honest until another strategy offers another pathway, a yet to be imagined pathway that allows existing structures to stop replicating”
.... remaining in the quotidian of disturbance is our way of staying honest until another strategy offers another pathway, a yet to be imagined pathway that allows existing structures to stop replicating”
mhkloster's review
5.0
This book’s exploration of white privilege really challenged me. Her poetic style of writing sometimes had me confused, but her style of questioning and exploring her own thoughts and responses to situations or people made me feel like I was part of the conversation.
zmftimelord's review
4.0
The most fascinating read in the book to me was the discussion of blonde hair. Silly, I know, but a challenging (to ideas) read with a beautiful literary style.