Well-informed, hard-hitting advice for antiracists.
How to fight racial injustice.
As a light-skinned woman of color, Gilliam, a former corporate attorney and diversity expert, has witnessed “a consistent, daily pattern” of transgressions by white people in their remarks and attitudes about race. “I see you, you don’t see me,” she writes, “and in not seeing me, you don’t see yourselves but reveal yourselves to me, and I see you even more.” These white people would bristle at the idea that they are racist; many are liberal Democrats or “wannabe wokes” who vigorously denounce white supremacy. Still, Gilliam asserts, they’re steeped in a racist culture that’s taught them racial stereotypes and fed their assumptions about people of color. “Real racism,” she’s discovered, “involves everyday white people who work with you, screen candidates at your job, live with you, walk dogs near your home, play with your kids, and sit at your holiday dinner table.” The author provides a practical manual for white people who are “floundering in cross-racial interactions and slipping when sharing views on people of color.” In seven sections that encompass 30 rules, the book presents situation-specific dos and don’ts on issues such as racial injustice, violence, cultural appropriation, microaggressions, and tokenism, with one overarching Race Rule: “Choose To Disrupt Racism Every Day.” Each section ends with questions for self-reflection, which Gilliam underscores as crucial for change. “Without self-reflection and personal accountability,” she writes, “few will see nor admit that through their actions and apathy they oppress, cause pain, and disadvantage people of color to maintain power and privilege.” Systemic advantages fuel white privilege, Gilliam argues, debunking the myth of the American dream, which she sees as elusive for people of color, while white people benefit from White Welfare: “society’s ultimate entitlement program for whites built on historic oppression, racial discrimination, and white-centered opportunity.”
Well-informed, hard-hitting advice for antiracists.Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781523004485
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.
An experimental, illustrated essay collection that questions neurotypical definitions of what is normal.
From a young age, writer and comedian Myers has been different. In addition to coping with obsessive compulsive disorder and panic attacks, she struggled to read basic social cues. During a round of seven minutes in heaven—a game in which two players spend seven minutes in a closet and are expected to kiss—Myers misread the romantic advances of her best friend and longtime crush, Marley. In Paris, she accidentally invited a sex worker to join her friends for “board games and beer,” thinking he was simply a random stranger who happened to be hitting on her. In community college, a stranger’s request for a pen spiraled her into a panic attack but resulted in a tentative friendship. When the author moved to Australia, she began taking notes on her colleagues in an effort to know them better. As the author says to her co-worker, Tabitha, “there are unspoken social contracts within a workplace that—by some miracle—everyone else already understands, and I don’t….When things Go Without Saying, they Never Get Said, and sometimes people need you to Say Those Things So They Understand What The Hell Is Going On.” At its best, Myers’ prose is vulnerable and humorous, capturing characterization in small but consequential life moments, and her illustrations beautifully complement the text. Unfortunately, the author’s tendency toward unnecessary capitalization and experimental forms is often unsuccessful, breaking the book’s otherwise steady rhythm.
A frank and funny but uneven essay collection about neurodiversity.Pub Date: Oct. 28, 2025
ISBN: 9780063381308
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
