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A review by pattydsf
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine
4.0
“Among white people, black people are allowed to talk about their precarious lives, but they are not allowed to implicate the present company in that precariousness. They are not allowed to point out its causes. In ‘Sexism—a Problem with a Name,’ Sara Ahmed writes that ‘if you name the problem you become the problem.’ To create discomfort by pointing out facts is seen as socially unacceptable. Let’s get over ourselves, it’s structural not personal, I want to shout at everyone, including myself.”
I cannot do justice to this book. I am repeating myself because that is close to what I said about Rankin’s book Citizen. This book is a powerful look at our country from someone who has a very different viewpoint than most people I know. I want to talk to someone about Rankins words, her ideas and where she takes her readers in these essays.
I am discomforted by much of what she has to say. Many of the essays made me consider the world in new ways. The essay that struck me the hardest is on blondeness, but they are all changing my viewpoint.
What will we ever do about this whiteness that so many Americans cannot see and those who see it and are privileged by it won’t give it up?
I cannot do justice to this book. I am repeating myself because that is close to what I said about Rankin’s book Citizen. This book is a powerful look at our country from someone who has a very different viewpoint than most people I know. I want to talk to someone about Rankins words, her ideas and where she takes her readers in these essays.
I am discomforted by much of what she has to say. Many of the essays made me consider the world in new ways. The essay that struck me the hardest is on blondeness, but they are all changing my viewpoint.
What will we ever do about this whiteness that so many Americans cannot see and those who see it and are privileged by it won’t give it up?