Me and White Supremacy

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (2020) The full title is: Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Both a book and a learning course, if you choose to approach it that way, to define what white supremacy is and how white privilege works, and how you, as a white person, are complicit—whether or not knowingly—and how you can work to make changes—both in the way you think and the way you act. And then how you can help educate others and keep making an effort to progress, as a lifelong thing. It’s also a good source of learning about related issues, like white fragility, white exceptionalism white apathy, white centering, cultural appropriation, and more. It took me longer to get through this book than I had anticipated because it takes a lot out of you, especially if you’re giving it a lot of thought, and if you are changing your own thinking—which can be painful, and emotional. I felt it worked for me (facilitated by the journal prompts at the end of each chapter) because I kept finding myself pushing back, mentally arguing, then accepting what she was saying, time and time again—back and forth, like a challenging relationship—but one in which you are ultimately enriched, because it’s built on love. I believe the book works well with its workbook structure, in that it introduces a subject, fills it out, then asks you how you feel, and your relationship with it, and the extent of your ongoing complicity—you raise questions to answer for yourself. Even if you are someone not inclined to proceed this way, it might be worth a try. I always find that my thinking about anything becomes clearer and more in depth through writing—I can go to other places than I had previously imagined, further than I had thought possible. It is about identifying your blind spots—which are frequent, overlapping, shifting, elusive. It’s been with us all our lives—so it’s necessary to have a real shift in our way of thinking in order to begin to help make changes.

5.11.23