Backlash

Short Thoughts: This is a short book that is doing a couple different things. First it introduces an essay that was originally in the NYT about racism “Dear White America” and uses the comparison of sexism to racism to talk about how racism (and sexism) are systemic and cultural and not primarily person/individual.

But that essay when it was published in 2015 generated a lot of hate mail, emails and voicemails. So the second chapter recounts the backlash. The third chapter dissection the backlash and places it in a context of how many respond to discussions of racism and the fourth chapter is a ‘where do we go from here chapter'.

There is a lot of strong language here. Minorities should be aware of a significant trigger warning. There is a lot of vile language and racist sentiment that is recounted here. But White people should understand that the language here is not gratuitous, it is the language that was actually sent to Yancy.

This is a book that I really needed to read, but it is also a book that I would not recommend unless you are somewhat familiar with discussions of racism and concepts like White fragility. Yancy is not playing around here. And I think if you are dipping your toe into the discussion of race in America, this might be a book that goes over your head.


Longer thoughts are on my blog at http://bookwi.se/backlash/