A review by pmhandley
Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing From White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts

4.0

To be clear to start: I am white, cis, straight, woman. I admit the intro of this book made me a little skeptical, mainly because I was not expecting to see words like "humxn" and "folx," and while the glossary was useful I wish it had included some history or theory behind why those terms are inherently more inclusive. But the fact is you get used to it quickly (and like Ricketts says, Google is free, and I am more than capable of looking up more information myself!) and as soon as I started the first chapter my doubts were all gone. Ricketts is very open and shares some of her most personal experiences, some of which I know had to be very painful to write about, to provide a very clear perspective on things I am never going to personally experience because of my own privileges. She supports everything with research and statistics and other experts too, so it's more than her personal experiences. It's never fun to examine your own flaws and think about times you have hurt other people by perpetuating white supremacy, but the book is useful in how it helps you get over yourself and actually improve instead of feeling guilty and calling it a day. I had some small issues - saying heterosexual people all have some form of transphobia ignores that trans people can be heterosexual, and I don't think saying "women+" instead of "womxn" addresses any of the criticisms on how "womxn" is not inclusive. (It still seems like it puts nonbinary/femme people in a "woman lite" category, and trans women are women, not some women-alt.) Then there was stuff that was just Not For Me, not any of the actual substance or prompts but I mean the suggested meditation and breathwork exercises, and I'm also not a very spiritual person. I have never been able to sit still ever, and asking me to meditate is like asking me to fly. But the actual thought exercises and prompts are useful and I benefited from them all the same, breathwork or not! I really loved the "wealth and hellness" chapter and the section on apologies, where Ricketts states "an apology without change is manipulation," which is just such a perfect and succinct analysis. At some point it seems like it became an expectation that someone must accept an apology and give forgiveness, and it was really refreshing to read pushback on that concept, and point out that that is not the point of apologizing about harm you have inflicted anyway. This book provided me with a lot of ways to be a better and more supportive friend and a better and more supportive coworker, and I saved a lot of notes to return to and practice again and again.