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lilprecious's review against another edition
5.0
This was a disturbing but eye-opening book.
One which I believe is a MUST read for everyone.
One which I believe is a MUST read for everyone.
ivanainthecity's review against another edition
4.0
This was a well-researched look into systemic racism in the United States through the lens of white rage. It's meant to be YA nonfiction adaptation, but it was a bit choppy. Even though I found the book a bit dense, I did appreciate the short chapters and the infuriating stories within them. I would definitely recommend this to a teenager (or adult!) interested in learning more about how racism is weaved into the fabric of American society.
bethmitcham's review against another edition
4.0
A history of racism, starting after the Civil War and tracing the attacks on voting rights, education, job opportunities both in the South (where whites felt free to be completely open in their aims of race supremacy) and in the rest of America, where sometimes they had to mask their language. It is looking at broad strokes, so it ignores some nuance, but honestly it most cases there really isn't much room for nuance anyway. The final chapters deal with the rolling back of the Voting Rights Act and the effects on minority access to the ballot box, and then an epilogue that says we can pull together.
roxanne's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, wow, wow. I finished this book last night and I'm still at a loss for words. This is a horror story of truth about America and the ongoing, systemic, often deadly racism that plagues its history. To say it's shocking is an understatement. It's so well researched and so well presented, written in a way that is easily readable by a younger audience but also appealing to adults. It's a raw statement of facts and the tells the political and legal history of racism, gerrymadering, and even gaslighting in America.
If I were an American, I'd be angry by the blatant manipulation of the truth that's been fed to Americans throughout their history. If I was a journalist in America, I'd be ashamed by how taken in by the code words and phrases politicians have used to mask racism that were further perpetuated by the media. My personal belief is that most people just want to get along, love their families, make a living, have a nice life, be nice to people and have people be nice to them. For my own sanity, I have to believe that 99.9% of us are not born to hate. And if I was a young white American, I'd be angry that my education about my country's history has been a blatant lie. And I'd be committed to deprogramming myself and ensuring America's children are not fed the same lies.
I'm not American. But I'm honestly fearful that I'm going to find that I've experienced similar manipulation done to me in my own country's history. I know I'm going to find it. I already know about the atrocities Canada inflicted upon our first nations peoples, similar in vein and tactic to America's treatment of their native sons and daughters. What else have we done to oppress and stamp down the potential of black Canadians? What laws are still in place to ensure white privilege? It makes me so ashamed and hurt to realize that we've been lied to and manipulated by people we've entrusted to care for the best interests of ALL citizens. It makes me feel like a fool, to have been influenced by code words and phrases floated used to make racism more palatable to the unsuspecting citizen who has no malice in their heart, only wanting to get along and take care of their families. It's innocence lost, innocence manipulated, innocence corrupted in the worst possible ways.
It's time to wake up to the truth, as awful and as shameful as it is. It's time to stop the lies and ensure our children are taught the truth of our history. My generation has failed by if given the truth, I have faith the younger generations CAN work towards healing and building a truly equal society. I fear I won't see it in my lifetime but I have hope for my children.
If I were an American, I'd be angry by the blatant manipulation of the truth that's been fed to Americans throughout their history. If I was a journalist in America, I'd be ashamed by how taken in by the code words and phrases politicians have used to mask racism that were further perpetuated by the media. My personal belief is that most people just want to get along, love their families, make a living, have a nice life, be nice to people and have people be nice to them. For my own sanity, I have to believe that 99.9% of us are not born to hate. And if I was a young white American, I'd be angry that my education about my country's history has been a blatant lie. And I'd be committed to deprogramming myself and ensuring America's children are not fed the same lies.
I'm not American. But I'm honestly fearful that I'm going to find that I've experienced similar manipulation done to me in my own country's history. I know I'm going to find it. I already know about the atrocities Canada inflicted upon our first nations peoples, similar in vein and tactic to America's treatment of their native sons and daughters. What else have we done to oppress and stamp down the potential of black Canadians? What laws are still in place to ensure white privilege? It makes me so ashamed and hurt to realize that we've been lied to and manipulated by people we've entrusted to care for the best interests of ALL citizens. It makes me feel like a fool, to have been influenced by code words and phrases floated used to make racism more palatable to the unsuspecting citizen who has no malice in their heart, only wanting to get along and take care of their families. It's innocence lost, innocence manipulated, innocence corrupted in the worst possible ways.
It's time to wake up to the truth, as awful and as shameful as it is. It's time to stop the lies and ensure our children are taught the truth of our history. My generation has failed by if given the truth, I have faith the younger generations CAN work towards healing and building a truly equal society. I fear I won't see it in my lifetime but I have hope for my children.
pattydsf's review against another edition
4.0
”The trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black achievement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem; rather, it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspiration, and with demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation, to give up. A formidable array of policy assaults and legal contortions has consistently punished black resilience, black resolve.”
I didn’t realize that this is the young adult version of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide when I started reading. I am actually glad that I read this version, because I am not sure I could have read the adult edition. I know in my brain that what Anderson says is true, that many white people are enraged by black ambition, but to read that history, page by page, from Reconstruction until now is sickening. Why would anyone be against another person’s success?
I will admit that I have a long way to go before I am an antiracist, but actively attempting to thwart another person’s ambition seems unchristian and immoral to me. It feels like we are back at the pie analogy. If you achieve what you want and need then I get less. Wrong. There is more than enough for everyone.
I highly recommend this book. It is written succinctly with plenty of corroboration of the facts presented. I suspect that White Rage, but I also am sure it is a tougher read.
I didn’t realize that this is the young adult version of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide when I started reading. I am actually glad that I read this version, because I am not sure I could have read the adult edition. I know in my brain that what Anderson says is true, that many white people are enraged by black ambition, but to read that history, page by page, from Reconstruction until now is sickening. Why would anyone be against another person’s success?
I will admit that I have a long way to go before I am an antiracist, but actively attempting to thwart another person’s ambition seems unchristian and immoral to me. It feels like we are back at the pie analogy. If you achieve what you want and need then I get less. Wrong. There is more than enough for everyone.
I highly recommend this book. It is written succinctly with plenty of corroboration of the facts presented. I suspect that White Rage, but I also am sure it is a tougher read.
thebookishexperience's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
tonstantweader's review against another edition
4.0
We Are Not Yet Equal is a condensed history of the post-Civil War struggles to combat racism and protect the civil rights of African Americans and the resistance to that struggle by white supremacists of all kinds, from those in sheets to those in business suits to those in the White House. As soon as the War was over, racists in the North and the South and in both parties set to work to get things back to their normal, the white supremacist normal, with Black Codes and new laws that effectively reestablished slavery, this time through forced labor for debt and petty offenses like vagrancy.
Many sought relief by moving north, though the South’s demand for cheap labor led to laws and strategies designed to keep Black families from leaving. Seriously, they went so far as to kidnap trains and hold them, refusing to let them leave if they carried Black people north despite the fact we were in the middle of World War I.
The Massive Resistance to Brown vs. Bd. of Education is somewhat familiar to Americans. We’ve seen the Norman Rockwell painting, after all. However, it lasted far longer and was far more extreme and costly than is usually recognized. Some places simply shut down education completely for years. It’s not only they would rather be poor than equal, they also would rather be uneducated than integrated. If we are honest, the Massive Resistance to integrated education continues to the day with charter schools and the ongoing attacks on public education.
Anderson and Bolden also cover mass incarceration, the war on drugs, including the Reagan era policy of promoting crack cocaine to fund the Contras. It’s depressing, particularly how effectively the gains of the Civil Rights Movement have been undercut by the Supreme Court who is now working hard to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act.
We Are Not Yet Equal is an excellent primer on systemic racism. The people who wrote this know it really doesn’t matter whether there is a tape of Trump saying a racist fighting word because, through policy, Trump’s Administration has undone progress on criminal justice reform, okayed segregated housing and schools, and attacked voting rights. They are not wasting their time on personal racism because it is the laws, policies, and structures that enforce racism that have the greatest impact and, frankly, perpetuated personal racism.
This is a short book that is clear and easy to understand that sometimes vibrates with outrage and a passion for justice. This is less about the search for equality and more about white resistance to equality and the extreme ends to which white people will go to enforce white supremacy and how that is achieved through courts and legislation, not so much through protest and unrest–because if you’re in power, you can use the tools of power.
This would be a great book for people to read in high school or junior high. It would be fabulous if everyone was exposed to this history because as a country, we need it.
We Are Not Yet Equal will be published on September 11th. I received an ARC from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.
We Are Not Yet Equal at Bloomsbury
Carol Anderson faculty site
Tonya Bolden author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/9781547600762/
Many sought relief by moving north, though the South’s demand for cheap labor led to laws and strategies designed to keep Black families from leaving. Seriously, they went so far as to kidnap trains and hold them, refusing to let them leave if they carried Black people north despite the fact we were in the middle of World War I.
The Massive Resistance to Brown vs. Bd. of Education is somewhat familiar to Americans. We’ve seen the Norman Rockwell painting, after all. However, it lasted far longer and was far more extreme and costly than is usually recognized. Some places simply shut down education completely for years. It’s not only they would rather be poor than equal, they also would rather be uneducated than integrated. If we are honest, the Massive Resistance to integrated education continues to the day with charter schools and the ongoing attacks on public education.
Anderson and Bolden also cover mass incarceration, the war on drugs, including the Reagan era policy of promoting crack cocaine to fund the Contras. It’s depressing, particularly how effectively the gains of the Civil Rights Movement have been undercut by the Supreme Court who is now working hard to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act.
We Are Not Yet Equal is an excellent primer on systemic racism. The people who wrote this know it really doesn’t matter whether there is a tape of Trump saying a racist fighting word because, through policy, Trump’s Administration has undone progress on criminal justice reform, okayed segregated housing and schools, and attacked voting rights. They are not wasting their time on personal racism because it is the laws, policies, and structures that enforce racism that have the greatest impact and, frankly, perpetuated personal racism.
This is a short book that is clear and easy to understand that sometimes vibrates with outrage and a passion for justice. This is less about the search for equality and more about white resistance to equality and the extreme ends to which white people will go to enforce white supremacy and how that is achieved through courts and legislation, not so much through protest and unrest–because if you’re in power, you can use the tools of power.
This would be a great book for people to read in high school or junior high. It would be fabulous if everyone was exposed to this history because as a country, we need it.
We Are Not Yet Equal will be published on September 11th. I received an ARC from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.
We Are Not Yet Equal at Bloomsbury
Carol Anderson faculty site
Tonya Bolden author site
https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2018/08/20/9781547600762/
britthebookguru's review against another edition
5.0
THIS is what our students should be reading in history textbooks. I can't even fathom the amount of research required to put this together, but I highly applaud the persistence. This is quality nonfiction; facts that we either don't know, or do know and have previously ignored. Anderson put so much into this and I came out the other end of it feeling honestly educated and informed. Amazing.
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