Saturday, April 28, 2018

Things That Make White People Uncomfortable

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I received a free digital ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4 Stars

I have no other way to really sum up the book than this: every single person who has ever had the audacity to say #AllLivesMatter when that is clearly NOT the case in America needs to read this book. They won't, but they should. Let's clear something up right now: No one ever said #BlackLivesMatter MORE, we are saying #BlackLivesMatter also. So please spare me the #AllLivesMatter bullshit because until black lives do, that simply is not true.

Bennett touches on so many issues that are so hugely important right now and will remain so until we can find a way to come together and fix what is wrong with our country. I teach in a school that is predominantly African-American. I teach specifically in a Special Education class for students diagnosed with emotional disturbances. I have nine students and guess how many are African-American males.

I'll give you a second...

Six. SIX. Six, out of NINE.

And with this being my sixth year teaching in this setting, you can imagine how many little black boys have come through my room (though I must also make note that my students are with me for three years. I was a 4-6 room until our district moved 6th grade into the middle schools and last year I became a 3-5 room.) It absolutely terrifies me for these boys I know and care about so deeply, that someday some might be will be looked at the way Trayvon was, or Philando, or Eric, or Freddie, or any of the countless young men who have been murdered because their skin color was deemed dangerous. 

Bennett makes several good points about several related topics, including the NFL as a whole (and the idea that the league is roughly 70% black, yet the "owners" are 100% white), the n-word, his support not only of #BlackLivesMatter, but women's rights, LGBTQ rights, and so on. He also speaks specifically about Kaep and what a complete clusterfuck it is that he is not allowed to play in the NFL.

The book is written very much in a conversational style, and it would be easy to imagine yourself sitting down with Bennett and having a long chat about a whole host of issues we must resolve if we are going to survive as a nation.

Highly recommended.

2 comments:

  1. I hadn't seen this book before, but it looks like an important read, over here as well as over there

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    Replies
    1. Yes, very important. It's very conversational and I read it in a couple hours. I know some people will dismiss his ideas because of the language he sometimes uses, but I would not give that a second thought. Everything he says is right on. The whole time I was reading, I found myself nodding along or even saying "YES! Exactly!" out loud to myself.

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