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rumetzen's review
5.0
Possibly one of the most essential books for understanding how race functions in modern America.
sydodo13's review
4.0
Remind me to re-read to this book in a few years, when I can hopefully comprehend it better. The writing was beautiful, witty, observant, and sometimes over my head (what do the polar bears mean????)
cattymills's review
4.0
Moving, expressive -- both emotionally and intellectually. The style meshes cohesively with the subtext, which probably makes it so effective. Does get a little one-note. Otherwise this would've been 5 stars.
onceandfuturelaura's review
4.0
Wherein a law professor meditates on being the object of property. I read portions of this in law school. I’m glad I did. It is, to no small extent, a critical reflection on being The Other in the academy. The author was one of the first African American professors at Harvard and she was very much alone. Among the things that reinforced her aloneness were gratuitously racist factual scenarios on exams. E.g. 84 (what are “the tax implications for Kunta Kinte’s master when the slavecatchers cut off his foot”?). She has quite a list. When she pushed back, the academy responded defensively and childishly. 91. My vague dislike of Harvard continues unabated.
She also recounts the story of one of her students who transitioned while in law school. 122. When the student started using the women’s restroom, some members of the student body totally lost their tiny normative minds:
122-23. I’m watching this same fight go on right now and I’m horrified that in 25 years, we couldn’t see our way to just letting people pee in peace.
This book is agonizing in a lot of ways. Professor Williams is a real product of our country, our moral triumphs and our moral defeats. She is also the descendent of a lawyer. As she recounts, “My great-great-grandfather Austin Miller, a thirty-five-year-old lawyer, impregnated my eleven-year-old great-great-grandmother Sophie, making her the mother of Mary, my great-grandmother, by the time she was twelve.” 155. Professor Williams’ mother told her she “had nothing to fear in law school, that law was ‘in my blood.’” 217.
As a book, it’s a little disjointed; felt like a bunch of essays strung together rather than a long form piece. But as individual pieces, they are powerful. The last essay, “On Being the Object of Property” is both a gut punch and incredibly generous.
Well worth the time.
She also recounts the story of one of her students who transitioned while in law school. 122. When the student started using the women’s restroom, some members of the student body totally lost their tiny normative minds:
There was an enormous outcry from women students of all political persuasions, who ‘felt raped’ in addition to the more academic assertions of some who ‘feared rape.’ In a complicated storm of homophobia, the men of the student body let it be known that they too ‘feared rape’ and vowed to chase her out of any and all men’s rooms. The oppositional forces of men and women reached a compromise: S. should use the dean’s bathroom. Alas, in the dean’s bathroom no resolution was to be found, for the suggestion had not been an honest one but merely an integration of the fears of each side. Then, in his turn of the dean, circumspection having gotten him this far in life, expressed polite, well-modulated fears about the appearance of impropriety in having students visit his inner sanctum, and many other things most likely related to his fear of a real compromise of hierarchy.
122-23. I’m watching this same fight go on right now and I’m horrified that in 25 years, we couldn’t see our way to just letting people pee in peace.
This book is agonizing in a lot of ways. Professor Williams is a real product of our country, our moral triumphs and our moral defeats. She is also the descendent of a lawyer. As she recounts, “My great-great-grandfather Austin Miller, a thirty-five-year-old lawyer, impregnated my eleven-year-old great-great-grandmother Sophie, making her the mother of Mary, my great-grandmother, by the time she was twelve.” 155. Professor Williams’ mother told her she “had nothing to fear in law school, that law was ‘in my blood.’” 217.
As a book, it’s a little disjointed; felt like a bunch of essays strung together rather than a long form piece. But as individual pieces, they are powerful. The last essay, “On Being the Object of Property” is both a gut punch and incredibly generous.
Well worth the time.
zeldaspellman's review
4.0
Personal and relevant, Williams offers a human viewpoint into critical race theory and law.
mikki_9's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
I had to google a lot of words and concepts to read this book, but I’m so glad I did. I know I didn’t get as much out of it as someone who is educated in lawyery things would, but I got enough I think. I would definitely like to read more of her books in the future.