Becoming a parent (which my wife and I did two years ago) does some strange and unexpected things to your brain. I’ve spent the entirety of my time on this earth identifying with the kid in every parent-child relationship. I’ve always seen myself as the kid. I had no other perspective from which to peer at the world. And then…..it shifted. Given those same parent-child situations, I now see it from the other side. This is such a simple shift in perspective, but there’s a […]
Hoodies Up
Best for: Readers who want to learn more about real-life incidents of racism and gun violence. In a nutshell: Ms. Fulton and Mr. Martin, Trayvon’s parents, tell the story of the murder of their son, from the weeks leading up to it through the verdict. Line that sticks with me: “And we’re gonna win because we have no other choice. We cannot allow a legal precedent to be established in a city that tells us that it is legal for a man to kill […]
Jodi Picoult’s racism book . . . I have thoughts.
I’ve decided not to rate this book because my thoughts are so conflicted about it, but I do want to say some things. This is a book about a black nurse being prohibited from treating the newborn son of a white supremacist, and when the baby dies, he accuses her of murdering his son. I’ve never read a Jodi Picoult book before, because her books have always seemed like they were Issue Books, designed to be manipulative in a way that emphasizes the subject matter […]
Ignorance Is Not an Option
What Does It Mean To Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo
Best for: White people interested in antiracism work (so, hopefully, all white people, but I’m not that naive). In a nutshell: Academic (and white person) Robin DiAngelo breaks down many of the problems white people have in confronting our own socialization in the racist reality we live in. Line that sticks with me: “Because of white social, economic, and political power within a white supremacist culture, whites are in the position to legitimize people of color’s assertions of racism. Yet whites are the least likely […]
Making a Complicated Topic Easier to Understand
Best for: Readers interested in learning more about the history of the women’s movement from a race and class perspective (it’s right there in the title). In a nutshell: Brilliant academic and activist Angela Y. Davis provides a thorough history of the women’s movement, with a focus on the contributions of Black women and men and a deep analysis of the ways that white women in particular failed to support the needs of their Black sisters. Line that sticks with me: “Yet there were those […]
The Good Immigrant – or how I realized how racist I’ve been all my life
I just realized I finished this review without saying anything about the book, so I’m back with a short summary. This book groups together 21 essays from minority ethnic people in Britain today, talking about how their ethnicity impacts their every day life. Some of them are famous – actors, comedians, journalists, bloggers -, none of them were known to me. The essays are raw and real, and paint an incredible picture I believe everyone needs to see. And they caused me to reflect deeply […]
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