I was intrigued by this title mentioned en passant in an Atlantic article, so I downloaded it from the library. Written by a female American white workplace diversity trainer who gives talks to institutions, company employees, and academics, this screed is a distressingly detailed damnation of the history of race relations, and the pervasive if mainly inadvertent ways that we white people maintain our place in the pecking order of societies around the world, but mainly focused on relations between whites to people of colour in the United States. No white person can escape from the collective responsibility for the continuing deeply-rooted racism. Race based on skin colour is a non-biologic construct that is nevertheless widely accepted.
The author distinguishes between the prejudices everyone has in their heads and discrimination based on actions. “People who claim not to be prejudiced are demonstrating a profound lack of self-awareness.”
Any white person will be uncomfortable with some of the assertions here but there is no escape. No excuses based on individual experiences are deemed legitimate, and even silence on the part of white folk when it comes to discussing racial issues is roundly condemned. The strident black advocate for reparations, Ta-Nehisi-Coates, is extensively quoted and accusations of using ‘the race card’ in debates are condemned. “… unequal power relations cannot be challenged if they are not acknowledged.”
Reading this very perceptive condemnation of white supremacy and privilege made this privileged white male uncomfortable, but perhaps that is the author’s intent. Every argument to justify my world outlook is answered convincingly. I never became acquainted with anyone of non-European, non-white origins until after high school, and was aware of their existence only in such settings as those portrayed by Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe or by missionaries returning from attempts to ‘civilize’ and convert black Africans. I have probably inadvertently insulted many nonwhites over my lifetime and plead guilty to disparaging the current political correctness movement. I have probably been far too willing to believe that some members of minority groups are looking for excuses to be aggrieved, although that characteristic is widespread irrespective of skin colour.
Humbling but thought-provoking, this book is an important addition to the voluminous literature about how we all relate to one another.
The Passionate Reader 