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A review by graveyardpansy
Memoir of a Race Traitor: Fighting Racism in the American South by Mab Segrest
4.0
Overall this was very good! I really enjoyed the memoir section, but my favourite part is probably the history bit. It was very powerful to read about cities that I live and grew up in, especially as a lot of the civil rights history things I’ve read focus very much on the northeast or west coast. Rarely are there specific discussions of more contemporary race-related history regarding the South, in this case the Triangle, and I really enjoy Segrest’s way of discussing the south as a place of oppression but also one of resistance.
I think the main areas of this book I am not entirely sold on are the lack of integration of trans struggles, which are brushed over multiple times despite definitely being a prevalent movement during the time it was written. However, I definitely understand that not everybody was involved in or aware of trans movements, especially in the south, and I think Segrest likely did not know the extent that trans movements overlapped with other movements, especially with race and class. My other note is that the section about queer Socialism very clearly struggles with a fear of the word communism, which is not surprising, but definitely reflects the impact of the red scare on a lot of civil rights activism.
In literary terms, this was not the /best/ memoir I have ever read, but I still think it is incredibly valuable. For my local folks, I definitely recommend this book, and I would pretty strongly recommend it to everybody regardless. However, if you are reading literature on race, fiction or non-fiction or memoir or otherwise, still be sure to centre Black writers and other people of colour, because while folks like Segrest who have been involved in civil rights for a long time do has valuable things to say, there is nothing Segrest said that I have not learned from my previous readings of Black authors and authors of colour. That is not a negative on Segrest’s part, it’s just important to thoughtfully consume media, and it is definitely related to the way that white people are more open to learning from other white people than they are from POC (which Segrest also talked about!) Memoirs of a Race Traitor is a good read, provided you prioritize POC’s voices and it is not the only antiracist reading you’re doing.
I think the main areas of this book I am not entirely sold on are the lack of integration of trans struggles, which are brushed over multiple times despite definitely being a prevalent movement during the time it was written. However, I definitely understand that not everybody was involved in or aware of trans movements, especially in the south, and I think Segrest likely did not know the extent that trans movements overlapped with other movements, especially with race and class. My other note is that the section about queer Socialism very clearly struggles with a fear of the word communism, which is not surprising, but definitely reflects the impact of the red scare on a lot of civil rights activism.
In literary terms, this was not the /best/ memoir I have ever read, but I still think it is incredibly valuable. For my local folks, I definitely recommend this book, and I would pretty strongly recommend it to everybody regardless. However, if you are reading literature on race, fiction or non-fiction or memoir or otherwise, still be sure to centre Black writers and other people of colour, because while folks like Segrest who have been involved in civil rights for a long time do has valuable things to say, there is nothing Segrest said that I have not learned from my previous readings of Black authors and authors of colour. That is not a negative on Segrest’s part, it’s just important to thoughtfully consume media, and it is definitely related to the way that white people are more open to learning from other white people than they are from POC (which Segrest also talked about!) Memoirs of a Race Traitor is a good read, provided you prioritize POC’s voices and it is not the only antiracist reading you’re doing.