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A review by lcr16
White Women: Everything You Already Know About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better by Saira Rao, Regina Jackson
challenging
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Rao and Jackson invite you, presumably a white women, to sit with your discomfort around racism and your direct role in upholding white supremacy. Regina Jackson and Saira Rao run an organization called Race2Dinner where they are guests at a dinner party with white women to discuss their own racism. The casual conversational style of writing is engaging, fits well with the content around dinner parties, and flows well with the interspersed anecdotes that otherwise may have felt clunky. It’s very accessible, direct, and at times a even a little cheeky.
The retellings of the dinner parties explore the dynamics of groups of white women and their individually harmful behavior. The description of nice, but not kind hits the nail on the head. White women are conditioned to stay silent and keep the peace, rather than stand up for anything, let alone injustice. As well, white women’s tendency to speak nastily behind each other’s back is an example of upholding the patriarchy and white supremacy by expecting perfection. White supremacy is so ingrained into our lives as white women in our silence, search for perfection, defensiveness, and denial of reality.
The book also shared stories from both Jackson, Rao, and others to illustrate the detrimental impacts racism from white women in their lives. Whether it’s the grocery store, school, work, or their own community. To not be white is to be assumed to not be good enough, smart enough, capable enough, or safe enough. Even if you are tokenized. Jackson and Rao force you to check your ego and defensiveness at the door in order to start making real steps in anti-racism.
The retellings of the dinner parties explore the dynamics of groups of white women and their individually harmful behavior. The description of nice, but not kind hits the nail on the head. White women are conditioned to stay silent and keep the peace, rather than stand up for anything, let alone injustice. As well, white women’s tendency to speak nastily behind each other’s back is an example of upholding the patriarchy and white supremacy by expecting perfection. White supremacy is so ingrained into our lives as white women in our silence, search for perfection, defensiveness, and denial of reality.
The book also shared stories from both Jackson, Rao, and others to illustrate the detrimental impacts racism from white women in their lives. Whether it’s the grocery store, school, work, or their own community. To not be white is to be assumed to not be good enough, smart enough, capable enough, or safe enough. Even if you are tokenized. Jackson and Rao force you to check your ego and defensiveness at the door in order to start making real steps in anti-racism.