Read as part of CBR17 Bingo: borrowed. I borrowed this book from the library.
When I picked up this book, I admit I assumed it was written by a white person. The vibe I got was one of those “Here’s how to have tough talks around the Thanksgiving dinner table” pieces I see every year mostly from white people on how they are supposed to indulge their racist uncle’s FOX-inspired rant. I had no idea Brit Barron is a queer Black woman. That’s 100% my own privileged bs and I’ll own it.
I had to read this for my local library’s reading challenge: grabbing something from the 100s section. Most of those are self-help/Chicken Soup for the Soul type books that are not my thing. I grabbed this literally because it was so slim and read most of it in a day.
I appreciate Brit Barron’s earnestness in grappling with the Practice What You Preach aspect of it all. I can’t speak to being queer, Black, or a woman but I admire how she encourages the reader, regardless of their background, to focus on the humanity of others, to get off the internet more, to resist dogpiling and brigading, to generally try and live a happier, healthy life by appreciating people rather than seeing them as challenges.
She does not let systemic bigotry off scot free, in fact, I found her criticisms around this wrapped in her message effectively. Yet it’s also important to note it’s not written just for white folks, even if idiots like me assume that to be true.
It is a very Biden era book in a sense that there’s some relief Trump I is over. That adds a degree of pain to reading; though to be fair, Brit Barron is not doing a Mission Accomplished routine here. I just wish we lived in better times. Here’s a good start as to how we can.