A review by veecaswell
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine

5.0

Taking the study of whiteness and white supremacy as a guiding light, Claudia Rankine explores a series of real encounters with friends and strangers...and urges us to enter into the conversations which could offer the only humane pathways through this moment of division.

‘An American Conversation’ is an apt name for this book. Rankine in Just Us writes likes she is in conversation with you the reader - the personal is political and this conversation is certainly both. In this book the author touches on marriage, children and friendship, particularly with white friends, and by making this book feel like a conversation you are part of it feels like the author is sharing something with you and keeps you absorbed throughout. With each conversation the author backs her conversation up with the sources giving more context with each chapter.

Though I do feel you need some background reading with this (Audre Lorde, Crenshaw, and maybe bell hooks?) to give you more of an understanding of the background, the writer throughout this book is insightful, thoughtful and honest and it stays with you. What stuck with me was a quote from the near the beginning of the book ‘’I wanted to say, “It’s not my point, it’s our reality,” but the declarative nature of the sentence felt sharp on my tongue’’ it’s these moments that make this book has so much integrity and you see the craft in the writing.

A book that I feel every white person should read, Just Us lets you in on a small part of what it feels like to live in America and be black, you read what the author is looking for and feeling when she goes into a school and notices the teaching isn’t diverse for example, seeing the differences in everyday life, you can understand to an extent what it is like to be wary of every facet of your life and how people cope with that, without the privilege of whiteness.

Highly recommend this, one of the best non fiction books I’ve ever read.

(I received an ARC from Netgalley for honest review).