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leshae051304 's review for:
The Retribution of Mara Dyer
by Michelle Hodkin
The book in itself is good, but I have a few things I want to say about the author.
Ignorance. That is what I found through the trilogy, but not as a whole. It was in a character. Jamie.
I’ll start with the basic shit. Jamie is black. He’s literally the ONLY black character there is, and ofc is a sidekick and provides comedic relief (the usual token black friend.) which is annoying in itself.
The first shit that pissed me off was the Ebola joke attached to Jamie’s character in book one. It’s mentioned in the two later books, but most evident here.
A lot of you may have missed it, but as someone who grew up in the south, I know how to catch these things.
When people think of Ebola, they think of Africa. Jamie, who is an African-American, and AGAIN the ONLYY black character tells this joke many times, referring to him telling the other students that he has Ebola, despite it not even being funny. It’s racism, and it’s not a coincidence that it went to his character above all others.
Second thing I caught : in the third book, specifically. The officer who found Jamie says ‘his name was Jamal or something.’ BFFR. Jamal is a name that is used in (I won’t say racist) but definitely an ignorant way by other races when they refer to black boys. And I don’t want to hear ‘the names are alike; they can easily get confused.’
Yeah, no.
‘His name was Jeremy, Jacob, jasper…’ etc.. ANY of those could have been used, but instead, the author chooses the mistaken name as ‘Jamal’ AGAIN for the ONLY black character there is.
I enjoyed this series as a whole, but I’m not an idiot. And author, I’m talking directly to you. You used these jokes to push a funny, black token friend narrative that was only offensive and showed your ignorance about a couple of things. Educate yourself, before someone else has to do it for you.
Ignorance. That is what I found through the trilogy, but not as a whole. It was in a character. Jamie.
I’ll start with the basic shit. Jamie is black. He’s literally the ONLY black character there is, and ofc is a sidekick and provides comedic relief (the usual token black friend.) which is annoying in itself.
The first shit that pissed me off was the Ebola joke attached to Jamie’s character in book one. It’s mentioned in the two later books, but most evident here.
A lot of you may have missed it, but as someone who grew up in the south, I know how to catch these things.
When people think of Ebola, they think of Africa. Jamie, who is an African-American, and AGAIN the ONLYY black character tells this joke many times, referring to him telling the other students that he has Ebola, despite it not even being funny. It’s racism, and it’s not a coincidence that it went to his character above all others.
Second thing I caught : in the third book, specifically. The officer who found Jamie says ‘his name was Jamal or something.’ BFFR. Jamal is a name that is used in (I won’t say racist) but definitely an ignorant way by other races when they refer to black boys. And I don’t want to hear ‘the names are alike; they can easily get confused.’
Yeah, no.
‘His name was Jeremy, Jacob, jasper…’ etc.. ANY of those could have been used, but instead, the author chooses the mistaken name as ‘Jamal’ AGAIN for the ONLY black character there is.
I enjoyed this series as a whole, but I’m not an idiot. And author, I’m talking directly to you. You used these jokes to push a funny, black token friend narrative that was only offensive and showed your ignorance about a couple of things. Educate yourself, before someone else has to do it for you.