Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Warum ich nicht länger mit Weißen über Hautfarbe spreche by Reni Eddo-Lodge

34 reviews

sakisreads's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

✨ Reread ✨

Now this is a PHENOMENAL book. It is hard hitting and informative. I had so many moments of anger and sadness throughout, but also a determination to address the prejudices I have in my own life. I have been struggling to find a sustainable way to address people’s racism, so Reni Eddo-Lodge talking about towards the end of the book that was impactful to me. I don’t feel that I have the eloquence to discuss what this book meant to me, so I’m including some of the text here that I really appreciated 😳

(Page 79) Opposing positive discrimination based on apprehensions about getting the best person for the job means inadvertently revealing what you think talent looks like, and the kind of person in which you think talent resides.

(Page 92) (White privilege) eases you into letting your guard down with white people, assured you’ll be taken seriously, but simultaneously not being surprised when a conversation highlights your differences against your white peers.

(Page 201) It’s worth questioning exactly who wins from the suggestion that the only working-class people worth of compassion are white, or that it’s black and ethnic minority people who are holding scant resources at the expense of white working-class people who are losing out.

A must read for anybody and everybody ✨
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keeganrb's review against another edition

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challenging informative fast-paced

5.0

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prettynerdy3's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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thereaderfriend's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Essential, insightful, important, enlightening, a gut-punch of a read. Learned so much from this book. Especially how we must be honest with ourselves, and recognize our inherent biases, before we think about performing any anti-racism for others. 
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lenni_sc's review

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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josxphinchen's review against another edition

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informative reflective slow-paced

3.25

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meganamelia's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

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laverlately's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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ellewg's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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flara's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

Eddo-Lodge states that she owes her respectability to the fact that against all odds, she was able to follow a professional trajectory very similar to those she criticises. She specifically mentions that she speaks and writes like them. As much as this statement makes you think about the way things are, and how they shouldn't be, I cannot disagree with it, because this book truly is very, very digestible. It starts off as a reflective academic-style text, becomes more and more personal throughout, until it morphs into anger-fuelled call for action in the last chapters. When I got to the 3rd chapter 'What is White Privilege?' I found myself reaching for a pencil and underlining important passages, and could not let go of the pencil until the very end. I don't know what essay I'll be writing since I'm no longer in university, but somehow I felt that these quotes were important and I need to make note of them.

Now I must say that as the book progressed, the writing became less fact-based and more emotional. I can't really blame Eddo-Lodge, she has every right to feel outraged. She wrote from her experience, which is experience shared by far too many. We don't need a statistic, an exact number, in order to believe or understand that yes, racism is truly ever-present and encompassing of non-white people's lives. Especially if those numbers had been laid out in previous chapters. I specifically mention this, because it has been pointed out in other reviews. I personally don't mind this, I think there is a need for an outcry where necessary. I haven't read as much as I would have liked about this topic in the past, I have to shamefully admit, therefore my review might be favourable due to this fact. 

I enjoyed reading other people's perspectives, such as the interview (well, not really, but anyway) with Eddo-Lodge's mixed-raced friend, or her Texan white friend. I wish there were more, I think they intensified EL's point. The Nick Griffin interview was quite short, but oh my, so intense. I wanted to punch him through the book. How EL kept her cool during this phone call is beyond me. 

All in all a great, essential read.
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