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rainbowwitch's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
jennaclarek's review against another edition
what i liked most about this book is that while it does have helpful tips on what we can do to help with racism, it's mostly a book about how allyship in general is not enough. a lot of what people consider allyship these days is either performative or online-based...and while that can be important, and it's great to diversify our feeds, etc. most of the work we need to do cannot be quantified. i think so much of modern allyship is focused on shaming people and doing things to be seen, when in actuality a lot of the things we white people need to be doing are more internal and also more proactive. this book does a great job of highlighting that — how we should be learning more, but that learning looks like a lot of different things. and we also need to be putting actions to our words. and we need to work on changing the systems rather than just sharing posts on instagram. i think i most enjoyed the sections on capitalism if only because i HATE capitalism and it's always great to see people explore how racism and capitalism overlap. i also really enjoyed hearing more about the specific racism in ireland because that is so rarely talked about in the books i read! overall this was pretty quick (and i'm grateful because my brain is fried) but it packed a lot of punch and i think it can be really helpful to people in the early stages of anti-racism literature!
acacia_happy_hour's review against another edition
5.0
Well worth a read if you want to create a better world (and who doesn’t these days?) - a good reminder of how we got here, who the real enemy is, and that we need to join hands and do the hard work to fix it.
decie's review against another edition
4.75
much to think about!! I think I need to let this settle and then come back to some of the concepts to let them sink in.
andreareyes's review against another edition
2.5
What I liked: Dabiri’s request to find spaces of mutuality; insistence that our sanctimonious categories of race/ class/ gender/ sexuality are still built within the white superiority framework and her attitude of annoyance. I liked that she was annoyed that so much rhetoric surrounding anti racism is created for white people. I liked that she really didn’t care for racial identities. They’re made up anyway. I liked that she wanted us to deemphasize race.
For example, people are very much into anti-racist tactics right now. The very act of anti-racism emphasizes race. Emphasizing race causes (for lack of a better word) white people still look through the world through a lens of race. There are more to people than their race!!!!
Dabiri also knows that of course of COURSE all our history and context is through the lens of race, so learning about it is important. She’s still allowed to be annoyed by it. I like that
What I didn’t like: I wish there was more theory or critiques for and by Southeast Asian people. I desperately missed that in this novel. I kept wanting to scream “what about me”
For example, people are very much into anti-racist tactics right now. The very act of anti-racism emphasizes race. Emphasizing race causes (for lack of a better word) white people still look through the world through a lens of race. There are more to people than their race!!!!
Dabiri also knows that of course of COURSE all our history and context is through the lens of race, so learning about it is important. She’s still allowed to be annoyed by it. I like that
What I didn’t like: I wish there was more theory or critiques for and by Southeast Asian people. I desperately missed that in this novel. I kept wanting to scream “what about me”
aphoenixwriting's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
stricker's review against another edition
sad
slow-paced
1.5
I admit that I am "white". I picked this book up hoping for some help in understanding ways to communicate better with those minorities, particularly black, and empathizing with their situation and ways to share ways of narrowing our communication gulf. This was not that book.
The book, written by a "black", female, Irish-woman who had obviously suffered a great deal of negativity from her "white" Irish compatriots, seemed intent on striking out to overturn the political and economic system of the world. Seems unlikely.
In addition, she insisted, throughout this 150 page book to try to impress with her command of the English language, often to the detriment of what she was trying to say. For example (far from the worst), she wrote on page 140, "While it was a radical and necessary step at the time, which achieved the impressive task of creating awareness of the realities of people whose experiences had been historically disregarded, identity politics requires a self-reflexive understanding of its own limitations (and in fact the collective stated their commitment to 'a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice') -- Did you get all that?
Without explicitly saying so, the author seems to lean heavily toward a socialist or communist approach to a new economic world order. To me, this seems to be swimming against the current.
The book seems to denigrate the notion of people (presumably "whites") helping the downtrodden through what the author calls "ally", because this is simply insulting the the minority individual and is intended as something to make the "white" feel better and ease their mind without doing anything positive for the minority. She completely ignores the possibility that there are indeed some people that take the directives of many religions to "help one another" and "to do for others what you would want done for you" to heart.
As one picking up this book, seeking to better understand the issues and ways to help, I found the bulk of the book -- directed toward the complete overturning of the political and economic system not only naive but ridiculous. Concerns about those in power positions, while largely valid, fail to recall that even Africans at the time of slavery, used their positions of power (when they had that power over their own people or neighboring tribes) sold people of their own color into slavery. So to rail against people in positions of power seems to be spitting into the wind and attempting to defy history.
Much as I applaud the authors effort to direct more power, both politically and economically to the minority blacks and Bengladishi of her current home, England, I think trying to find ways for the people of good faith among both "whites" and "blacks" toward more communication and understanding is more likely to bear fruit.
The book, written by a "black", female, Irish-woman who had obviously suffered a great deal of negativity from her "white" Irish compatriots, seemed intent on striking out to overturn the political and economic system of the world. Seems unlikely.
In addition, she insisted, throughout this 150 page book to try to impress with her command of the English language, often to the detriment of what she was trying to say. For example (far from the worst), she wrote on page 140, "While it was a radical and necessary step at the time, which achieved the impressive task of creating awareness of the realities of people whose experiences had been historically disregarded, identity politics requires a self-reflexive understanding of its own limitations (and in fact the collective stated their commitment to 'a continual examination of our politics as they develop through criticism and self-criticism as an essential aspect of our practice') -- Did you get all that?
Without explicitly saying so, the author seems to lean heavily toward a socialist or communist approach to a new economic world order. To me, this seems to be swimming against the current.
The book seems to denigrate the notion of people (presumably "whites") helping the downtrodden through what the author calls "ally", because this is simply insulting the the minority individual and is intended as something to make the "white" feel better and ease their mind without doing anything positive for the minority. She completely ignores the possibility that there are indeed some people that take the directives of many religions to "help one another" and "to do for others what you would want done for you" to heart.
As one picking up this book, seeking to better understand the issues and ways to help, I found the bulk of the book -- directed toward the complete overturning of the political and economic system not only naive but ridiculous. Concerns about those in power positions, while largely valid, fail to recall that even Africans at the time of slavery, used their positions of power (when they had that power over their own people or neighboring tribes) sold people of their own color into slavery. So to rail against people in positions of power seems to be spitting into the wind and attempting to defy history.
Much as I applaud the authors effort to direct more power, both politically and economically to the minority blacks and Bengladishi of her current home, England, I think trying to find ways for the people of good faith among both "whites" and "blacks" toward more communication and understanding is more likely to bear fruit.