Though discussions about race are fraught with difficulties, Ms Oluo does not get bogged down by them. Her approach is like one of a spring--both like water bubbling up from a profound source and a resilient helical coil--because it is buoyed by lived experience while never forgetting her identity despite being pressed or pulled. She responds to well tread protestations against racism's omnipresence with courage, lucidity, and consistency.
Humans, regardless of race and class, are subject to hardships. While poor whites experiencing setbacks and difficulties have less resources than better-off people, impoverished people of colour have their hardships compounded further by racism, a pervasive, bewildering substrate in which people of colour are stuck. If only class inequality were addressed, poverty would not be tackled substantially for people of colour. Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality startles at first because it is so elegant you don't know where to begin to digest its beauty and effectiveness. It makes you think and think hard which is perhaps why some people reject this scholarly concept out of hand, dissing it as banal identity politics/tribalism.
Racism will not be significantly lessened if a crude definition is that it's just a few rotten apples. Such individuals aren't worth the time of day but that barrel is. Dismantling systematic racism is what needs to be done because then those carriers of the rot will not be able to infect everyone. A common refrain is oh stop with racism is everywhere, you making it worse by seeing something that is not there. I can't help quipping that response falls in the category of is that a pen in your pocket or are you just glad to see me. I would imagine that Mae West found the second reaction to be the more common. The person who is living the experience of being seen fairly consistently in a particular manner is the one to whom I defer.
There's much to learn from her book because she knows this topic from all angles. But for me, the standout lesson is whites confronting everyday racism doesn't make them heroes. It's just the bottom line. Get this book, digest it, and apply. Reread. Keep as reference. Buy copies for giving to others.
À la prochaine!
RELATED LINKS
How to pronounce the author's very beautiful name
So You Want To Talk About Race at Amazon
Ms Oluo at Twitter
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw at Twitter
OTHER BOOK REVIEWS
Book review / Inferior: The True Power Of Women And The Science That Shows It by Angela Saini
Book review / The Golden Thread : How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair
Book review / Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Warner Townsend
Book Review / Against Empathy by Paul Bloom
Book Review / The Tulip by Anna Pavord
Book Review / The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt by Robert I. Sutton
Book Review / Florike Egmond's An Eye For Detail: Images of Plants and Animals in Art and Science, 1500-1630
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| The author |
Humans, regardless of race and class, are subject to hardships. While poor whites experiencing setbacks and difficulties have less resources than better-off people, impoverished people of colour have their hardships compounded further by racism, a pervasive, bewildering substrate in which people of colour are stuck. If only class inequality were addressed, poverty would not be tackled substantially for people of colour. Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality startles at first because it is so elegant you don't know where to begin to digest its beauty and effectiveness. It makes you think and think hard which is perhaps why some people reject this scholarly concept out of hand, dissing it as banal identity politics/tribalism.
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| Kimberlé Crenshaw, lawyer, civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory |
Racism will not be significantly lessened if a crude definition is that it's just a few rotten apples. Such individuals aren't worth the time of day but that barrel is. Dismantling systematic racism is what needs to be done because then those carriers of the rot will not be able to infect everyone. A common refrain is oh stop with racism is everywhere, you making it worse by seeing something that is not there. I can't help quipping that response falls in the category of is that a pen in your pocket or are you just glad to see me. I would imagine that Mae West found the second reaction to be the more common. The person who is living the experience of being seen fairly consistently in a particular manner is the one to whom I defer.
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| Ijeoma Oluo with her children |
There's much to learn from her book because she knows this topic from all angles. But for me, the standout lesson is whites confronting everyday racism doesn't make them heroes. It's just the bottom line. Get this book, digest it, and apply. Reread. Keep as reference. Buy copies for giving to others.
À la prochaine!
RELATED LINKS
How to pronounce the author's very beautiful name
So You Want To Talk About Race at Amazon
Ms Oluo at Twitter
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw
Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw at Twitter
OTHER BOOK REVIEWS
Book review / Inferior: The True Power Of Women And The Science That Shows It by Angela Saini
Book review / The Golden Thread : How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St Clair
Book review / Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Warner Townsend
Book Review / Against Empathy by Paul Bloom
Book Review / The Tulip by Anna Pavord
Book Review / The Asshole Survival Guide: How to Deal with People Who Treat You Like Dirt by Robert I. Sutton
Book Review / Florike Egmond's An Eye For Detail: Images of Plants and Animals in Art and Science, 1500-1630
