Book Reviews

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. By Robin Diangelo

I grew up outside of Detroit Michigan and was 11 years old when the riots happened and I have worked hard to question my view on race over the years. Living in Maine where 95% of the people identify as white, I seldom find my beliefs, attitudes, and values on race challenged.

This book challenged me.

Most of our American culture is run by whites. (from page 31)

• 10 richest Americans – 100% white
• US Congress – 90% white
• US Governors -96% white
• Top military advisors – 100% white
• People who decide which TV shows we see – 93% white
• People who decide what news is covered – 85% white
• People who decide which music is produced – 95% white

This means that policy, laws, and interpretation of these is from a predominantly white perspective which she calls ‘white supremacy’. When I hear that phrase I immediately think of the alt-right…not my views. But Robin has challenged me to be critical of my views and to not get defensive when my view, beliefs, attitudes, and values are challenged when it comes to race.

Parts of this book were hard to read because “that’s not me” kept creeping in, but she points out that that view often diverts the thinking and discussion away from racism when I really need to internalize my own thinking about race and “own my racism” because we (whites) all have racism inherent in our culture and until we deal with this it will always be a problem.

So challenge yourself and read this book. I have lots more thinking to do on this topic but I am much more aware of my cultural biases now.

Very provocative book. At times it was hard to come to grips with the savagery of slavery. The cruelty. The idea that people were property. I had a hard time with moving from the truth of the slavery story and the fiction of his underground railroad as being real. I had a hard time getting past that.

Unfortunately, I also started this book before I hiked the PCT in early August and then stopped reading it for about 3 weeks, and only now finishing weeks after I started. I feel like I lost something on this.

I would be curious to hear what others think.

Yes, I just read Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852. I had never read it before and while reading David McCullough’s book The Pioneers, he referenced that as Ohio was being developed (then called the Northwest Territories), they wrote their constitution to include that they would be slave-free state and he mentioned that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was a hugely influencing book on that topic.

This book was written at a time in our country when the discussions about slavery were rampant. Harriet Beecher Stowe listened to many stories from actual slaves and freed slaves and wove those true stories into her book. It is incredible that much of what is in this book was based on fact.

She was also able to really bring the different views of slavery into the book, from the slave owners and slaves to the people who lived in New England and New York. It is an eye-opening book filled with insight into how troubling and difficult the times were.

I found myself aghast at times to the terrible treatment that some plantation owners did to their slaves and to the view that these people were “property”. It makes me sad just thinking about this “scar” on our history.

If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. Read the final chapter first where it talks about how Harriet wrote this book based upon actual lives. Wow…

Never saw the movie but I want to now. Wow!

What an adventure Mark Whitney had being left on Mars after an accidentwith the rest of his crew who had to bolt thinking Mark was dead…he should have been but somehow survived.  Now what do you do when you realize that the next spaceship to Mars is coming in over a year…about 1500 kilometers away from where you are?  Well this botanist was very creative and would have made a great settler in the 1700’s.

I could not put this book down and hated for it to end. One problem after another that needed real creative engineering.

If you are looking for a good summer read, this is a great choice.