Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, by Mikki Kendall

53 reviews

mads_jpg's review

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

A fantastic book on a complex but necessary subject. I learnt a lot from this book and it made me reflect on how I can be a better accomplice to marginalized women. The book was mostly accessible but my only gripe is that I sometimes found the writing style hard to understand, not sure if that's the result of how complicated the subject is or the way it was edited. Otherwise, an amazing book that everyone should read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Sexism, Violence, Classism, Gun violence, Misogyny, Police brutality, and Racism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Abortion, Confinement, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Deportation, Medical content, Pregnancy, Ableism, Medical trauma, Cultural appropriation, Slavery, and Colonisation

amandamarieger's review

challenging hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This is a tough read at times, but so incredibly necessary. White feminism often makes itself out to be feminism as a whole, but there are a lot of missing pieces that this book starts to highlight. Read it! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Xenophobia, Hate crime, Classism, Colonisation, Murder, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Abortion, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Deportation, Racism, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia

horizonous's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, Blood, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Infidelity, Sexism, Ableism, Drug abuse, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment

nataliegray's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Transphobia, Racism, and Misogyny

Moderate: Hate crime, Abortion, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infertility, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage

redrosemoth's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.25

A must read. This book is the friend that tells you you have something stuck in your teeth. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Violence, Abortion, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Mass/school shootings, Ableism, Hate crime, Racism, Addiction, and Police brutality

clarabooksit's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Violence, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Abortion, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Classism, Police brutality, Sexism, Murder, Transphobia, Ableism, Medical trauma, and Hate crime

rather_b_reading's review

informative medium-paced

5.0

Read it! I can't review it here. I'm still processing and wouldn't know where to start besides that I underlined a fourth of it and used a whole page of tabs. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Misogyny

Moderate: Pregnancy, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Police brutality, and Violence

rieviolet's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

At times I found the book a bit meandering and more hard to follow (but I recognize that it is mostly on me and my lacking of knowledge/expertise). For example, some of the references flew right over my head, given that they are mostly based on USA's history, society and culture/media and that I am not 100% familiar with them. 

What I appreciated the most was the intersectionality, the broad focus on all aspects of social justice relating to race, class, gender and sexuality. 

Without a doubt it was an important and eye-opening reading experience, that really made me understand the necessity to keep learning and trying to translate what I learn into effective action and behaviour.

Real feminism (if such a thing can be defined) isn't going to be found in replicating racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, or classit norms. But we are all human, all flawed in our ways, and perhaps most important, none of us are immune to the environment  that surrounds us. We are part of the society that 
we are fighting to change, and we cannot absolve ourselves of our role in it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Classism, Gun violence, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Blood, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Racism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Violence, Bullying, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Ableism, Rape, Murder, Slavery, Sexual violence, Child death, Death, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, and Drug use

Minor: Pedophilia, Trafficking, Stalking, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Homophobia, Suicide, Islamophobia, and Abortion

jessthanthree's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Violence, Gun violence, Police brutality, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, and Physical abuse

crybabybea's review

challenging reflective fast-paced

3.5

 Hood Feminism is a collection of essays calling out the toxicity and harmful behavior of modern white feminists who oftentimes choose their whiteness and privilege over helping the most disadvantaged. It is a call to arms for all those who consider themselves allies to examine their place in feminism and the privileges they hold in regards to intersectionality. Mikki Kendall uses real-world anecdotal evidence of the ways that white feminism fails marginalized communities, and women as a whole. She argues that issues that plague marginalized communities should be considered feminist issues, as women in these communities are often the most disadvantaged and overlooked. I feel like the premise of these writings can be summarized with this quote: 

“One of the biggest issues with mainstream feminist writing has been the way the idea of what constitutes a feminist issue is framed. We rarely talk about basic needs as a feminist issue. Food insecurity and access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival but on increasing privilege. For a movement that is meant to represent all women, it often centers on those who already have most of their needs met.”

Being a collection of essays, the subject matter can seem to be disjointed and jump from place to place, but I think this is precisely Kendall’s point; there are so many issues that should be considered feminist issues but aren’t, because at surface-level they seem to be separate altogether, but when approached critically and with empathy, they surely have a place within feminism. This is the nature of intersectionality; so many issues are interwoven and connected in ways that are seldom talked about and often go overlooked. Most mainstream, white feminists don’t consider the issues that do not affect them, and Kendall’s essays are a call to action from those that consider themselves feminist.

Kendall, being a Black woman, focuses mainly on issues that disproportionately affect the Black community, including the housing crisis, hunger and welfare systems, gun violence, healthcare, and poverty. She also briefly speaks about queer and trans lives, as well as disability rights. Kendall uses anecdotes from her life and the people she grew up around to connect the dots of suffering and injustice in marginalized communities. 

The overarching theme of Hood Feminism is a widening of perspective and a plea for mainstream, cishet white feminists to acknowledge their privilege and see how their movement is actively harming marginalized groups. Through the lens of a Black woman, Kendall shows how white women uphold not only the patriarchy, but white supremacy by continuing to use harmful rhetoric, tone policing, and white tears. Hood Feminism calls out hypocritical white women who cling to the power they have over marginalized communities, especially women of color and Black women. It is a critique of feminism that silences women who look or live a certain way due to systems outside of their control, and encourages white feminists to use their privilege and platforms to uplift the voices of those who often go unheard, and to help communities that need it the most. 

I enjoyed the matter-of-fact tone of the essays. Kendall began the book with a strong introduction proclaiming that she isn’t here to be nice, or to make white people feel good, and she accomplishes just that. She states things as they are, simply and effectively, and tells white people point blank what they need to do to be better allies to not only Black women, but all women of color, and the LGBTQIA+ and disabled communities. In this way, Mikki Kendall steps in as a voice for the communities that have spent so long going unheard and underrepresented, and demands their spot in the mainstream.

Hood Feminism provides a modern application of the ideas of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, and bell hooks, among others. She explores intersectionality is still an issue in America, and there is still work to be done. Thus, I would recommend this book most to those white feminists just beginning their learning of intersectionality, rather than those who are well-versed in intersectional feminism. However, Hood Feminism was a quick, simple, enjoyable read, and in my opinion you can never read “too much” about intersectionality. Hood Feminism still stands as an important and informative read, and should be heard by not only those who call themselves feminists, but America as a whole. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Racism

Moderate: Abortion, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Domestic abuse, and Eating disorder