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daisybell5's review
3.0
I was pleasantly surprised at how this book flowed so well between fact, theory, and personal experience. It was challenging to get through mainly due to the interactive aspects that picked at my brain. As someone who has studied racism/antiracism a fair bit during my degree, I found that there was a lot of information and ideas that I had read previously but for someone a bit more new to the topic it might be more informative. I didn’t manage to finish it in the 28 days recommended but I feel that I was still able to get a lot out of the writing prompts after each chapter.
zoes_human's review
challenging
3.0
My feelings about this book are complicated but overall good. It's relevant to note going in that I have a couple of fundamental disagreements with the author that, while they are not specific to this work, are relevant to how I take in this work.
First, know from the outset, that I am biased against folks who self-identify as "spiritual", in particular those who are active participants in the spiritual industry. I've had a significant number of negative encounters with spiritual bypassing and folks who violated my boundaries because they felt their spirituality gave them a better understanding of what I need than I had. I recognize this as an unfair bias to apply to everyone who identifies in this manner, but my failing to acknowledge the bias certainly isn't going to make it go away. If I'm being fully honest, self-identified "spiritual" people who invest a lot of time and energy into makeup and fashion also bother me. I consider the fashion and make-up industries to be inherently harmful and the imbedded capitalism of this industry is something I have trouble balancing with feminism or spirituality. I'm working on this mess, but it's a lifetime of work because it's a mix of unfair stereotyping on my part and legitimate criticism. Unwinding those threads is difficult.
Second, I find that the vast majority of anti-racist materials have a strong middle-class bias. This makes sense as the majority of folks producing these works have spent their entire lives in the middle-class, but it nevertheless produces a hurdle for me to work around as an individual who crossed class lines from an impoverished childhood into a middle class adulthood. I'm not going to go into details about those biases at this time, because I currently lack the energy to deal with the inevitable backlash that always results when I try to talk about how the poor experience is different from the middle-class experience.
However, despite these additional issues I brought with me to this book, I heartily recommend it as an excellent tool to anyone who cares about anti-racism. Far too often, I see white people othering other white people as the problem that causes racism. (I was pleased to see that this was addressed in this book.) Inevitably, despite my being fundamentally secular, what runs through my mind is "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye."
I don't care to speak for other cultures, but I will tell you flat out that if you, like me, were raised in the United States, you were raised in a white supremacist culture. Your experience of that culture will not be identical to mine or anyone else's and will be individual, but it will have shaped who you are. Just as I as a woman have internalized sexism and have found myself having fundamentally sexist ideas, I have taken in and internalized racism. So have you. It's inevitable and not your fault. However, to paraphrase Will Smith, even if it isn't your fault, it is still your responsibility.
This book is an excellent tool for digging out those internalized messages. Parts of it will be hard. Parts of it you will disagree with, sometimes because of implicit bias, sometimes because of legitimate disagreement. That's okay too. The important part is to be thinking about these things, to be considering the racism inside yourself, to be working towards being more self-aware. The first step in building a better world is building a better you.
First, know from the outset, that I am biased against folks who self-identify as "spiritual", in particular those who are active participants in the spiritual industry. I've had a significant number of negative encounters with spiritual bypassing and folks who violated my boundaries because they felt their spirituality gave them a better understanding of what I need than I had. I recognize this as an unfair bias to apply to everyone who identifies in this manner, but my failing to acknowledge the bias certainly isn't going to make it go away. If I'm being fully honest, self-identified "spiritual" people who invest a lot of time and energy into makeup and fashion also bother me. I consider the fashion and make-up industries to be inherently harmful and the imbedded capitalism of this industry is something I have trouble balancing with feminism or spirituality. I'm working on this mess, but it's a lifetime of work because it's a mix of unfair stereotyping on my part and legitimate criticism. Unwinding those threads is difficult.
Second, I find that the vast majority of anti-racist materials have a strong middle-class bias. This makes sense as the majority of folks producing these works have spent their entire lives in the middle-class, but it nevertheless produces a hurdle for me to work around as an individual who crossed class lines from an impoverished childhood into a middle class adulthood. I'm not going to go into details about those biases at this time, because I currently lack the energy to deal with the inevitable backlash that always results when I try to talk about how the poor experience is different from the middle-class experience.
However, despite these additional issues I brought with me to this book, I heartily recommend it as an excellent tool to anyone who cares about anti-racism. Far too often, I see white people othering other white people as the problem that causes racism. (I was pleased to see that this was addressed in this book.) Inevitably, despite my being fundamentally secular, what runs through my mind is "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye."
I don't care to speak for other cultures, but I will tell you flat out that if you, like me, were raised in the United States, you were raised in a white supremacist culture. Your experience of that culture will not be identical to mine or anyone else's and will be individual, but it will have shaped who you are. Just as I as a woman have internalized sexism and have found myself having fundamentally sexist ideas, I have taken in and internalized racism. So have you. It's inevitable and not your fault. However, to paraphrase Will Smith, even if it isn't your fault, it is still your responsibility.
This book is an excellent tool for digging out those internalized messages. Parts of it will be hard. Parts of it you will disagree with, sometimes because of implicit bias, sometimes because of legitimate disagreement. That's okay too. The important part is to be thinking about these things, to be considering the racism inside yourself, to be working towards being more self-aware. The first step in building a better world is building a better you.
sarahgreads's review
5.0
Phenomenal resource for engaging white people in anti-racist thinking and action.
"The primary force which drives my work is my desire to become a good ancestor. I know that my soul work is to help create change, facilitate healing, and seed new possibilities for those who will come after I am gone. This workbook is a contribution to that purpose. It is a resource which I hope will help you do the internal and external work needed to become a good ancestor, too." -- layla f. saad
"The primary force which drives my work is my desire to become a good ancestor. I know that my soul work is to help create change, facilitate healing, and seed new possibilities for those who will come after I am gone. This workbook is a contribution to that purpose. It is a resource which I hope will help you do the internal and external work needed to become a good ancestor, too." -- layla f. saad
sydneystein's review
4.0
Saad's workbook gave me a great space to think through my own white supremacy. I wish I had participated in the 28-day Instagram challenge instead, to see other responses. I would like to revisit this workbook every few years - hopefully with new knowledge and experiences.
sincitylibrarian's review
5.0
Gratitude to Layla Said for her exceptional work creating so many resources for white people and giving us a place to start the lifetime of work we need to do. Additional thanks to the two women that spent the last year working through this book with me using the Circle Way and creating a shared commitment to the process. If you are feeling helpless and angry, this workbook (and the now-published expanded book) might just be the resource you need during this horribly tragic week.
sofivear's review
3.0
A good jumping-off point for self-reflection and deconstruction of racial biases that permeate our society part of which you might not even realise you still hold. Looking back though, I don't think the book taught me anything I didn't already know? But providing the instance to pause and think with each prompt in itself was useful.
I think I'd like to read books with more background in history, concrete events, maybe personal accounts about this subject moving forward, but that's not what this book is.
I think I'd like to read books with more background in history, concrete events, maybe personal accounts about this subject moving forward, but that's not what this book is.
abs171910's review
4.0
My boss at the Harry Potter Alliance encouraged white (& passing) volunteers to do this workbook in the month of February, and needless to say I have learned a lot. The questions didn't allow for any shying away, and I know now that, though I have a lot of work to do, I have a direction.
Nonetheless, I'm afraid I still fall into a couple of the "why did I read this?" categories Saad mentions at the end of the book: "There will be those who read this book because they want others to think they are a good white person. There will be those who read this book because they genuinely want to do the work, but they tap out after a few days because it challenged them too much and required too much of them."
I am going to go back and look at my highlights and notes and answers and I am going to listen and learn and be anti-racist. No matter what it takes.
This workbook is free online, so please do donate to the author, Layla F. Saad, via PayPal if you can.
Nonetheless, I'm afraid I still fall into a couple of the "why did I read this?" categories Saad mentions at the end of the book: "There will be those who read this book because they want others to think they are a good white person. There will be those who read this book because they genuinely want to do the work, but they tap out after a few days because it challenged them too much and required too much of them."
I am going to go back and look at my highlights and notes and answers and I am going to listen and learn and be anti-racist. No matter what it takes.
This workbook is free online, so please do donate to the author, Layla F. Saad, via PayPal if you can.
katherinew's review
4.0
This book is never finished! I will get more out of it the more work I do. I think it would be a good book to read and work on with someone else to keep me accountable. I took way more than 28 days, which was good (gave me more time to reflect) and bad (gave me more time to put it aside and ignore it).