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leemac027's review
4.0
This is such an important book dealing with a subject that the majority in Australia want to believe does not exist - racism.
This anthology was collated by Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement and features works from authors across the cultural spectrum highlighting the direct, aggressive, and subtle micro-aggressive racism that is their every day experience in Australia.
This book should be on every school curriculum, in every place of work and in every home - and it should be read from cover to cover.
It is best summed up by one of the contributors, Sarah Ayoub who wrote: "In offering Indigenous writers and writers of colour a space to share their stories, this book is a step towards transformation. These stories are no longer chips on our shoulders or scars on our skin or evidence of the storms we have weathered for daring to deviate from the norm. These stories are weapons in literature's shift towards change. They are no longer committed to memory but to print: re-writing our past, challenging our present, and remedying our future."
This anthology was collated by Sweatshop: Western Sydney Literacy Movement and features works from authors across the cultural spectrum highlighting the direct, aggressive, and subtle micro-aggressive racism that is their every day experience in Australia.
This book should be on every school curriculum, in every place of work and in every home - and it should be read from cover to cover.
It is best summed up by one of the contributors, Sarah Ayoub who wrote: "In offering Indigenous writers and writers of colour a space to share their stories, this book is a step towards transformation. These stories are no longer chips on our shoulders or scars on our skin or evidence of the storms we have weathered for daring to deviate from the norm. These stories are weapons in literature's shift towards change. They are no longer committed to memory but to print: re-writing our past, challenging our present, and remedying our future."
nixiethepixie's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
Really fantastic collection of essays, poems, stories and reflections. Brilliantly edited/curated - I loved the Micro Aggressive fiction - written by Young People. Much to reflect on - so-called ‘Australia’ is truly booming with stories, we just have to give the time of day to listen.
witmol's review
challenging
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
This wide-ranging anthology of personal essays and anecdotes about racism spans from microaggressions to the overt to the internalised. This is not a brutal read, it is artful and reflective, sometimes even entertaining, all serving to reflect the various types of racism that affect the authors and their responses to it.
My favourites of the collection are 'Act like a Filipino', in which the author auditions for a role as a nurse with a surprising and hilarious turn of events, and 'Gheebah in the kitchen', in which the author overhears a supposed ally gossiping about her to a co-worker. It is the betrayal of the latter that demonstrates how lonely it can be to endure racism only to find the person you thought was on your side is in fact selling you out behind your back.
There is no preaching here. The anthology acts as a way for the authors to expel these incidents from their memory to share the exhausting range of ways in which race is made an issue and has an impact on everyday life.
My favourites of the collection are 'Act like a Filipino', in which the author auditions for a role as a nurse with a surprising and hilarious turn of events, and 'Gheebah in the kitchen', in which the author overhears a supposed ally gossiping about her to a co-worker. It is the betrayal of the latter that demonstrates how lonely it can be to endure racism only to find the person you thought was on your side is in fact selling you out behind your back.
There is no preaching here. The anthology acts as a way for the authors to expel these incidents from their memory to share the exhausting range of ways in which race is made an issue and has an impact on everyday life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Racial slurs
More...