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tiffanywang29's review
4.0
Have a little bit more thinking to do on this...maybe also a revisit afterwards too. Still gathering my thoughts, thinking about love and care and what it really means to hold people accountable.
dizzyinsane's review
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
as somebody who has experienced sexual assault, somebody who has participated many times in the instant gratification of call out culture, and somebody who has lost many friends due to them causing harm, i felt very invested in this book. to move towards the abolition of the nation-state and truly come together as a community we have to create the opportunity for harm doers and the harmed alike to heal, to grow, and to find a space within our community. at the beginning of this book i was unsure of how one could practice transformative justice without eliminating a survivors right to publicly call out their abuser. If somebody posted about my abuser, wouldn’t i, too, post it? Is transformative justice taking away that option? For us to truly grow and revolt, we must unlearn the mob mentality, call out to culture that gives us instant gratification. And feeds us power. To unlearn this rushed and objectively harmful mob mentality and ask the questions this book provides and to open ourselves (myself) up to having hard conversations with the hope of growth and healing truly is to heal us. each case is subjective and calls for a different action but unlearning callout culture is a good start towards healing. We must make the time so that we can begin the revolution as a collective whole. unlearning the collective behavior, especially on social media is a somewhat new and difficult process that I am interested in learning more about and perfecting as a collective people together with the goal of community, liberation, and revolution.
froggin_around_'s review
2.0
this booklet let me with somehow of a sour taste. this is my first encounter with the author and from AMB's reputation, I really thought this would be more nuanced. while using vocabulary from the basic leftist booklet, it felt a lot like a very centrist take on cancel culture. statements about capitalism, abolitionism and other leftist talkpoints were constantly brought into the text, but without any depth. and I also felt that the text was quite dismissive of the survivors' perspective. despite many disclaimers related to the reactions to the initial essay, I felt like survivors' perspective was pretty much just an aside. also I haven't read the initial essay which is supposed to have some bad metaphors that have been fixed here, but to me the cancer/disease metaphor was pretty bad even in this form. ultimately, no collection like this should exist without it actually engaging with what transformative justice means and how support can be built for the survivors. in this form, it gives off the impression that for the author the fear of being accused of something is a lot stronger than the care for those harmed.
also I almost forgot, but somewherr at the beginning there's this part that talks about who the US is as a nation and about how great some other states are for having better leadership and I couldn't stop eyerolling, which is why the whole abolishing the state felt very performative
also I almost forgot, but somewherr at the beginning there's this part that talks about who the US is as a nation and about how great some other states are for having better leadership and I couldn't stop eyerolling, which is why the whole abolishing the state felt very performative
ejoys84's review
5.0
I got a lot of out this short book by AMB. So often the folks I hear talking about cancel culture are white folks who don't share my politics -- hearing Adrienne Maree Brown struggle with where/when the practice of calling someone out belongs and what questions we should be asking was very helpful. Especially through the lens of an abolitionist and movement leader -- I put this book down feeling clear and hopeful.
mollyd's review
5.0
Truly fantastic book. A short, fast read with a really important framing for those wanting to build a better world together.
lofi_insect's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
sweet little intro to the practice of transformative justice in social movements, reflecting on how we can do better than just to create the same systems of punishment we aim to fight. doesn't really go in depth about it all, given how short it is, but a nice starting point