A bracing, highly useful tool for any discussion of combating racism.
An activist program for confronting white privilege and dismantling white supremacy.
Building on a workbook downloaded by nearly 90,000 readers, multicultural writer Saad, born in Britain and now living in Doha, Qatar, delivers “a one of a kind personal antiracism tool” that is meant foremost to teach white readers how to recognize their privilege and “take ownership of their participation in the oppressive system of white supremacy.” Many readers will likely recoil, protesting that they’re not racist, are colorblind, have nothing but benevolent thoughts, and so forth. The author is ready for them: White supremacy, she writes, is not just a comprehensive system, but it also trains those who benefit most from it to “keep you asleep and unaware” of the power that whites hold relative to those of other races and ethnicities: “BIPOC,” as in, “Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.” Saad enumerates some of the features of that power: Pulled over for a traffic violation, a white motorist doesn’t usually have to fear for their life; any stylist can cut their hair; popular culture considers people who look like them to be representative; and so on. The author’s approach is at first confrontational and righteously indignant, but as she guides her readers—including BIPOCs who may for whatever reason benefit from systems of white privilege and supremacy—through a monthlong series of lessons, including self-critical journal prompts, one has the sense that her method is much like that of Marine Corps boot camp: Tear down in order to build up. A reader’s guilt may rise and crest, buttressed by sweeping damned-if-you-do-or-don’t condemnation for such things as “clinging to pink pussy hats, safety pins, and hashtags over doing the real work.” At the end, however, that reader is assured that even though they may be part of the problem, “you are simultaneously also a part of the answer.”
A bracing, highly useful tool for any discussion of combating racism.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72820-980-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Review Posted Online: Oct. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
More ugly family secrets are revealed here, though this confessional is tempered by moving memories of the authors’ experiences. Agnew (English/Georgia Southern Univ.) and Robideaux (Writing/Univ. of Missouri, Columbia) are, of course, daughters of alcoholic mothers whose childhoods were miasmas of abuse and humiliation. Estimates are that there are 11 million more women like them. The authors placed ads in local newspapers to ferret out some of them, and 200 of the women who responded filled out extensive questionnaires, while a few cooperated with lengthy telephone or personal interviews. The research and the authors’ personal experiences show that an alcoholic mother is a source of greater shame and humiliation than an alcoholic father: “a double standard endures as much for alcoholism as for sex.” More effort is made to keep the secret in the family, depriving the children of outside comfort and support. The first part of the book is devoted to painful anecdotes of drunken mothers at their best and at their worst, the second and third parts to the consequences of growing up with angry and bitter mothers who took their pain out on their children. The daughters— problems include alcoholism, drug abuse, and eating disorders, as well as ongoing difficulties with relationships with men (an attraction to “bad boys” is common), other women (if you can’t trust your mother, how can you trust a girlfriend?), and their own children (for instance, the urge to fill their own emptiness with a baby’s love). In closing, the book looks at feelings, frequently of relief, about the often terrible deaths of the alcoholic mothers as well as encouragement and advice on “building happy lives.” Most telling are the lengthy and poignant reminiscences of the two authors’set apart in italics throughout the book—about their individual childhoods and struggles as adults. Tragic tales with uplifting endings, best suited for other daughters of alcoholic mothers, who will welcome the company. (TV satellite tour)
Pub Date: March 18, 1998
ISBN: 0-671-01385-8
Page Count: 313
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1998
Life is unraveling on golf writer Dodson—his much-loved father has died (written about poignantly in Final Rounds, 1996), now his wife wants a divorce’so to blow a little clean air through his spiritual fuel lines, he heads west on a camping/fishing trip with his daughter. Dodson only gets to take one of his two kids—Maggie, “seven going on fifteen— while brother Jack spends the summer with his mother, denizens, all, of “the Brave New World of loving coparenting.— Dodson and Maggie loaded their 10-year-old truck with camping equipment, plenty of junk food, and their 14-year-old dog, Amos. It was to be a footloose journey—destination unknown, somewhere out West—with good fishing as their mantra (Maggie had recently become a fly-fishing adept), the campgrounds chosen by serendipity. But Dodson isn’t really a laid-back fellow: He’s wound tight as a clock; he is hyperattentive to his daughter; he is a fussbudget and a worry wart and a know-it-all. Betwixt hitting various fishing venues, Maggie hits Dad with all sorts of precocious question——Do you, like, believe in miracles?” “What’s a Ghost Dance?” “What’s a prude?——and Dodson dispenses bushels of concise, thoughtful, accessible answers, as if reading from an index card set of accumulated wisdom, never at a loss to explain or enlighten, always with the mot juste. It all feels rehearsed, dreamed up after the fact, and the spontaneity of the trip (which was to be its leitmotif), not to mention its credibility, goes to hell in a basket. Dodson writes that they had a fine time, took in lots of historical and contemporary pleasures, successfully turned plenty of philosophical turf, became ever more intimate. Readers will likely suspect the fluidness of it all, particularly under the trying circumstances.
Pub Date: May 4, 1998
ISBN: 0-553-10644-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1998
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