Due to the craziness of life, I have not been able to dive in on this book just yet. But I did page through and I can feel its energy. I am thankful for this resource.
This is a really important book. So often as white people we prioritise the white experience and perspective and insert ourselves and our opinions into discussions that aren't about us. Often we'd do better to listen and learn.
This book helps you learn to call yourself out, and frankly, helps you be better able to call others out too.
Calling Keyboard Flour Rangers*: This manual is Required Reading for anyone who has ever asked (or wanted to ask) a Black person 'why.'
"Why" they think/feel/believe/expect/experience/interpret [fill in the blank]. Or to "clarify." Or to "help you understand." Or "what they mean by...."
STOP. You know you are asking for unpaid emotional labor and you've already been asked (seriously, how many times?) to 'educate yourself.'
"Decentering Whiteness" is different from other great books and resources in that it invites us to go deeper with (deceptively) simple questions and thought exercises.
DO NOT PASS GO. Start here. This handbook is as 'accessible' as it gets for every neurotype. I liked starting at the beginning (which I do recommend), and from there you can just leave it sitting out and open it to any page, anytime, and marinate in a question or observation or admonition or two.
This book is a journal and a journey, not something you race through to get to an end. Some parts will make your cheer. Other parts, you might tuck your tail between your legs.
If we genuinely want to evolve, we need to look at our own lives/history/thoughts/crap/everything. Wherever you are on your own antiracism journey, this book will help you advance in the direction you say you want to go.
Just buy it, and commit to working through it before you even think about asking another Black person "why."
At the very least you'll be supporting a great thinker and creator. And at best.... you'll evolve into a better human.
*TM @UppityNegress
