Mixed Emotions

Having a hard time with this one. Maybe my expectations were off before starting. I’m coming into this book as a white guy hoping to reduce the chances that I’m perpetuating hardships to people of colour, or otherwise reaping benefits from my skin colour at the disadvantage of others. What I received right off the bat is the label from the author that because I’m white, I’m racist and supporting white supremacy. If I feel angered by that label, it’s my white fragility showing. The feeling that I'm coming away with is that to even refute anything in this book suggests that I support racism and am not capable of helping correctly. If a Caucasian person tries to help celebrate another culture, it’s cultural appropriation or exploitation. White cultures simultaneously promote Caucasian physical features as the ideal, but also steal physical features from other races determined to be beautiful such as darker skin via tanning, bigger lips / curves by aesthetic procedures etc. There is also a point blank statement that people of colour can’t be racist towards Caucasian individuals because they lack cultural power to exert force on caucasians. I’d agree that ‘western’ cultures see a disproportionate majority of positions of power occupied by caucasians, but if you were to look at many Asian, African or middle eastern countries, I think the roles would be reversed. There were a surprising number of generalizations based solely on race (generalizations both towards Caucasian and people of colour), which I can’t get behind, whether good or bad. It completely glazed over the nuances of individuals having the capacity to act as independent people. I found these blanket generalizations stunning in a book of this nature. If the author wanted to give a Caucasian reader the experience of being ‘damned if you do, damned if you dont’ based solely on race, mission accomplished. Even writing this critical review after listening to the book makes me feel that I’m doing things wrong or not understanding, simply by not giving this book undying adoration. I want to reinforce that I agree there is racism, prejudice and bias, based solely on skin color, which I want no part of, and want to help eradicate. I’ll continue to look for ways that I can learn, improve my ability to help out others to reduce suffering in the world and to help eliminate cultural norms which allow racism, but I can’t recommend this book to others on the same journey. Moving on to the book "White Fragility" and others, to see what I'm missing and what I can do better.

35 people found this helpful

Phenomenal!!! Be ready to WORK.

This book was phenomenal. If you go into it with the right intentions, this book will make you WORK, but it is incredibly important work. Get a blank journal, settle in, and prepare to look at yourself deeply and honestly. If you ARE honest, you're going to realize things that you do NOT like realizing. That's all part of it, but the good news is that no matter what you find out about yourself, there is plenty of information in this book to help you do better. Listen, put in the work, and keep doing it for the rest of your life. I know I will be.

3 people found this helpful

A truly dangerous baseless ideology, no solutions.

Realizing some people are writing negative reviews without having read the book just to slander it, let me begin by saying I did read this book. I re-llistened to many sections for understanding and took notes.

"White fragility is a white person taking the position of victim when in fact that white person has committed or participated in acts of racial harm."
The author goes on to say that white people can never be victims.

"You are complicit in a system of discrimination you are not aware of"
"Silence is violence"

The author from my understanding is a blogger, not a social scientist or any type of researcher. She has coined her own terms to describe these concepts she invented ike white fragility, wite silence etc.

"[There is] a deeply held social construct that there are biologically different races and that one race is superior tot he other."
There are no references or research to support these sweeping assumptions.

The beautiful thing about this circular logic, is that in expression anything other than full support, I myself am expressing "white fragility", and therefore anything I could write in attempt to create dialogue is automatically invalidated.

Saying that no one can argue with these ideas and terms completely closes off all avenues of communication and discussion.

The reason why i call these ideas dangerous is this. If white people are complicit in racism unconsciously, and if "silence is violence", and if not actively doing anything also makes you a racist, then these ideas are opening up the avenues to justify violence against any white person, anywhere at any time.

There is very little mention of it, but as you probably know there is research about implicit bias regarding race, but the research shows it is very weakly linked to actions.

One of the conclusions is that you should "amplify BIPOC voices regardless of message", this is a dangerous line of thinking that follows down the same road of the persecution of the kulaks in soviet russia.
The most essential thing we can do i keep open avenues of communication.

The notion that you can paint all these white people with the same brush, regardless of where they live or what their life experiences are, is entirely racist by its true definition.

There are no actual solution to these problems offered, let me offer some here:
Everyone should take personal responsibility for their own lives. Yes circumstances are different for everyone, there is always someone better off than you. But its up to us to determine how we feel about our situation and how we respond.
Treat others are you would like to be treated. If you look for a racist power structure everywhere you go, it will appear to you, but in reality consider it might just be a normal power structure.

But, I am just saying all this because I am a fragile, privileged racist.

1 person found this helpful

So eye-opening! Thankful I came across this book.

The writer/narrator has a gentle voice and is a pleasure to listen to, which is a blessing because each bite-sized daily segment challenged me far more than I expected! I highly recommend this book to ANYONE who is looking at purchasing it. Hard work to follow through, but it's life-changing and desperately needed.

1 person found this helpful

An Eyy Opener

a definite must read/listen. this is important for our Future as a human race.

1 person found this helpful

examining whiteness for the willing

This was a great work that had me examining and interrogating myself as a white woman. Thank you for some tough questions and reflections. My thanks to the author for this opportunity to delve deeper.

Very Idealistic

First off, I am an able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual, white male.

How does a person like me even attempt to write a review of this book? If I give it five stars, I’ll be told that I’m doing it for “ally optics” and hoping to get “ally cookies”. If I give any criticism at all I’ll be labelled a racist. If I do nothing, that’s giving into “white apathy”. No matter what I do, I’m wrong, because I’m white. But that’s not a generalization against me, also because I’m white.

I want to be clear: this book has merit. At the very least it asks important questions and hopefully leads to many conversations. I really hope many people read it in an attempt to challenge themselves to look outside their own bubble or worldview.
But if I’m allowed to be honest, the author suggests that there are only two extremes: either do nothing and be a white apathetic; or take action on an extremely precarious tightwire where almost every action you take will be wrong or at least criticized but BIPOC.

In conclusion, this book is focused on race inequality- but there are so many other types of inequality. Therefore, I recommend reading this book with a grain of salt. Love all people, help others where you can; but don’t make it about yourself. Do it to better humanity.

Helpful

Saad is a consistent guide to my personal journey with white supremacy. I return to and recommend this workbook to all friends and family members who are confused about their roll with anti racism and are looking to grow with love.

A MUST READ

Please read this book, especially if you are white. Saad provides a necessary education.

Very good book.

I am brown and this book was needed for me to understand the need to combat racism. I suggest you listen to this book with an open mind.