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A review by amanda28
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Tonya Bolden, Carol Anderson
4.0
Advance copy made available to me through Net Galley.
This book delves into the history of racism in the United States and it pulls zero punches. Early on the book starts with the statement that Abraham Lincoln lacked "clarity" "humanity" and "resolve" when it came to post-Civil War/reconstruction and moving the U.S. forward. The authors go in on a number of founding fathers and at first, I was genuinely surprised at the tone of the book. Was it all right, I wondered, for a history book for teens to be written in such a manner? Then I wondered why I, a woman of color, felt obligated to defend white men who died 150+ years ago, that did little to nothing to ensure the safety and prosperity of black people in America? With that mentality, I continued reading the book and though the outrage in the book very much comes through in the writing, they have the hard facts to back up every claim. What Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden have done is clearly lay out in chronological order the myriad steps politicians, police enforcement, and the judicial system took to undermine the chances of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for black Americans. It also makes clear that the collateral damage was the American education system. Sometimes brutal to read (I almost had to stop reading at an explicit description of the lynching and mutilation of a pregnant black woman and her unborn child--yes, they mutilated the child too), I learned a tremendous amount. At the end of the book I wished it weren't so bleak, I wished there were more of a call to action to save the United States. It is not up to people of color to improve the lives of people of color in America, no, this book makes apparent that there are systems in place built exactly to prevent that. What then, do I take away from this book? I suppose it's the relief to see the problems in our nation and be able to understand and articulate the how and the why. Maybe that is a start.
This book delves into the history of racism in the United States and it pulls zero punches. Early on the book starts with the statement that Abraham Lincoln lacked "clarity" "humanity" and "resolve" when it came to post-Civil War/reconstruction and moving the U.S. forward. The authors go in on a number of founding fathers and at first, I was genuinely surprised at the tone of the book. Was it all right, I wondered, for a history book for teens to be written in such a manner? Then I wondered why I, a woman of color, felt obligated to defend white men who died 150+ years ago, that did little to nothing to ensure the safety and prosperity of black people in America? With that mentality, I continued reading the book and though the outrage in the book very much comes through in the writing, they have the hard facts to back up every claim. What Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden have done is clearly lay out in chronological order the myriad steps politicians, police enforcement, and the judicial system took to undermine the chances of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness for black Americans. It also makes clear that the collateral damage was the American education system. Sometimes brutal to read (I almost had to stop reading at an explicit description of the lynching and mutilation of a pregnant black woman and her unborn child--yes, they mutilated the child too), I learned a tremendous amount. At the end of the book I wished it weren't so bleak, I wished there were more of a call to action to save the United States. It is not up to people of color to improve the lives of people of color in America, no, this book makes apparent that there are systems in place built exactly to prevent that. What then, do I take away from this book? I suppose it's the relief to see the problems in our nation and be able to understand and articulate the how and the why. Maybe that is a start.