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haerlee's review against another edition
5.0
I should have purchased this book. Instead, I borrowed a pristine version of this book, only to return it well-loved: dog eared and fingerprint smudged. I carried this book and slept with it because I didn't want to put it down. I also wanted to take note of some of the people, conferences, and movements that Jones referenced in the book.
All told, Jones delivered a book of recent histories. I started graduate school right when Melissa Harris-Perry ruled my weekends with her MSNBC show and the #nerdland twitter feed. I was able to supplement my assigned (read colonized) syllabi with nuanced readings and voices that I could learn from through their own twitter profiles. Jones deftly reminds us of this time while granting us extended context and connects the newer histories with the foundational voices such as the Combahee River Collective. This is a book to read, study, analyze, recommend, and re-read.
All told, Jones delivered a book of recent histories. I started graduate school right when Melissa Harris-Perry ruled my weekends with her MSNBC show and the #nerdland twitter feed. I was able to supplement my assigned (read colonized) syllabi with nuanced readings and voices that I could learn from through their own twitter profiles. Jones deftly reminds us of this time while granting us extended context and connects the newer histories with the foundational voices such as the Combahee River Collective. This is a book to read, study, analyze, recommend, and re-read.
sbnielsen's review
challenging
funny
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Feminista Jones is witty and sharp with her breakdown of a modern day feminist internet.
veefuller's review against another edition
4.0
To be truly intersectional, I must do better and learn. This was immensely helpful to me in finding ways that I can do better.
readingrecsfromjoy's review against another edition
5.0
Whew! What can I say? I’ve been following Feminista Jones on Twitter for a long while now, and I’ve always loved her witty humor and intelligence. I knew reading her book would be incredibly rewarding and I was correct. Jones’s deep roots in Black Feminism means that every single topic she tackles is thoroughly contextualized within those movements. Her existence at the intersection of so many marginalized communities and her frank approach to addressing bigotry within movements makes it clear that internet activism naturally leads people to connect with each other offline and translates to real world action and therefore progress. She chronicles not only her own education and background in order to understand her perspective, but also many online movements started and led by Black Feminists that resulted in tangible positive change in our country and the world. As someone who has followed her and many of the people she references in the book, it is exciting to read more deeply about movements and online trending topics that I was able to witness from the sidelines as they happened. If you don’t yet follow her and the folks she mentions, it is not too late! I urge you to follow them now. This text is great for anyone looking to expand their understanding of Black Feminist work (as everyone should be as a first step to creating change) and if you’re interested in how technology and social media is exposing long-standing forms of bigotry and racial terrorism AND empowering folks to be able to speak out, form coalitions, and collectively organize to fight against that bigotry, you can’t miss it.
telemachus's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
4 stars because, while a solid introduction to black feminism in the current era (up to 2019), it reads more as an overview than an in-depth exploration in many sections. The discussions regarding twitter, twitter hashtags, and black media & news were the sections that felt the most unique to this book and that I took the most value from.
I also appreciated Feminista Jones' examination of how her feminism has included (and excluded) trans woman over the years; her admitting to having been transphobic in the past and the steps she's taken to rectify that and change her feminism was important and appreciated, even if there are still things she could work on (see: other reviews discussing some of the ciscentric language in Reclaiming Our Space).
I also appreciated Feminista Jones' examination of how her feminism has included (and excluded) trans woman over the years; her admitting to having been transphobic in the past and the steps she's taken to rectify that and change her feminism was important and appreciated, even if there are still things she could work on (see: other reviews discussing some of the ciscentric language in Reclaiming Our Space).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia, Racism, and Sexism
As a book about black feminism, naturally is discusses the racism and sexism experience by black woman generally and by Feminista Jones herself. In discussing the role of trans black women in black feminism, Jones also discusses past instances where she had been transphobic.sookie13's review against another edition
3.0
Per other reviews, this is entirely mis-marketed. It's more of a blog-ish memoir of essays instead of being about other black feminists as well, and very all over the place. It's more about social media and using it, and it's a confusing assortment to put into book form. I thought I would be reading a collection of different women's viewpoints, but it's very much the author's, so again, not what was expected. And despite her being queer, she barely discussed that at all, instead focusing on heteronorm relationships, but then went into womanism, which feels very queer-exclusionary, so that was a brain scratcher. This had potential, but it was just way too sparse. The section "Black Mamas Matter" was definitely worth the read, though.