Though conservative readers may part ways with the author, even they may be interested in the cogent analysis she provides.
A philosophy professor attempts a cooler approach to divisive political questions.
In chapters with intriguing titles like "Can You Be Racist to a White Person?" "Is It Sexist To Say Men Are Trash?" and "Has Political Correctness Gone Too Far?” Shahvisi attempts not "to be ‘objective’ or ‘apolitical,’ if such a thing were even possible," but to "make my reasoning clear enough that those who disagree with me will at least see where we part ways." For example, the cases she examines to explore the possibility of reverse racism include Abigail Fisher, aka "Becky With the Bad Grades," who felt that her rejection by the University of Texas was racist because less qualified students of color were admitted; and Amy Cooper, the Central Park dog walker who became one of the original "Karens" when she called the police on a Black man who had asked her to leash her dog. The chapter also examines the possibility of sexism against men and ageism against baby boomers. In this case, as in just about all, Shahvisi finds that the real problem is capitalism. "While power and material resources continue to be distributed as they are, there can be no such thing as 'reverse-oppression.’ ” If steam is pouring from your ears right now, you probably aren't going to like her answer to the question, "Do All Lives Matter?" but the path to it is instructive. She identifies three different types of objections to the assertion that Black lives matter, calling them the color-blind response, the “whataboutery” response, and the white supremacist response, breaking each down to discover the assumptions it rests on. Particularly interesting chapters analyze "splaining" of all kinds and investigate the question of whether we should #BelieveWomen, especially considering the ironic statistic that 61% of women report lying. Why? “To get out of having unwanted sex.”
Though conservative readers may part ways with the author, even they may be interested in the cogent analysis she provides.Pub Date: July 18, 2023
ISBN: 9780143136835
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Penguin
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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