Name: Marcy Pursell 's review of Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad
Item: Me and White Supremacy
Rating: 3
Author: Marcy Pursell

Layla F Saad

"Originally published as The me and white supremacy workbook in 2019"--Copyright page.

Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

Me and White Supremacy

Nancy O’Connor

Layla F. Saad

The New York Times and USA Today bestseller! This eye-opening book challenges you to do the essential work of unpacking your biases, and helps white people take action and dismantle the privilege within themselves so that you can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too. "Layla Saad is one of the most important and valuable teachers we have right now on the subject of white supremacy and racial injustice."—New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert Based on the viral Instagram challenge that captivated participants worldwide, Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey, complete with journal prompts, to do the necessary and vital work that can ultimately lead to improving race relations. Updated and expanded from the original workbook (downloaded by nearly 100,000 people), this critical text helps you take the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and further resources, giving you the language to understand racism, and to dismantle your own biases, whether you are using the book on your own, with a book club, or looking to start family activism in your own home. This book will walk you step-by-step through the work of examining: Examining your own white privilege What allyship really means Anti-blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation Changing the way that you view and respond to race How to continue the work to create social change Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. For readers of White Fragility, White Rage, So You Want To Talk About Race, The New Jim Crow, How to Be an Anti-Racist and more who are ready to closely examine their own beliefs and biases and do the work it will take to create social change. "Layla Saad moves her readers from their heads into their hearts, and ultimately, into their practice. We won't end white supremacy through an intellectual understanding alone; we must put that understanding into action."—Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller White Fragility

Marcy Pursell 

A good book if you're looking to follow journal prompts over the course of a month, but can be read faster or slower.

Difficult subject but interesting explanations and approach.

Matthew Serrano

Maddie

The fact that this functions more as a workbook than a "normal" book is the best part about it. The author created short chapters with accompanying questions that force you to contemplate how you've been complicit in white supremacy, and what you can do to become antiracist. Highly recommend!

Skye Sherman

I’m not really sure how to “rate” this book, because I feel like it’s not my place to have an “opinion” on it... but generally, I felt this was helpful insight to hear from the perspective of a BIPOC and I learned a lot. Much of this theory was new to me and I plan to keep chewing on it and discussing what I learned with others as I further my own anti-racism education.

Amanda Rocha

"The subtle and overt discrimination, marginalization, abuse, and killing of BIPOC in white dominated communities" is what needs to change.

The world is upside-down. The world is not well-arranged. It is not well-arranged, and therefore there is no way that we can be happy with it⁠—no way.

I borrowed this book because I thought it was very important. It is very, very important. I have had some very strange experiences, and I wonder what the world will look like for my own children, someday. I am white, but my children will be biracial. This world needs to change for them. My fiance's experience with racism is completely different from mine, and this world needs to change for him, too. I don't want them to be silenced, judged, drained. It is not okay to accept and it is not okay to reinforce. We need to break out of the manipulation and change the way we think.

White silence is violence. It is a subtle form of oppression that I need to be better at standing up against. Introversion is not an excuse to stay in my comfort zone. I do not need to be the loudest voice, but I must still use my voice. For myself, for the ones I love, and for the future.

The reviews criticize this work for not being enough, and I can understand that. But it is a good place to start. 

I am not black, but I see you. I am not black, but I hear you. I am not black, but I will mourn with you. I am not black, but I will fight for you. Black Lives Matter.

Flavia Louise

This book is extremely uncomfortable to read and work through and it takes a lot of emotional labor, so in a way it is hard to rate.

It definetely is important work and I think it is great as a tool for people with white privilege who want to explore the ways in which they are complicit in the system and should do better. 
The thing is that BIPOC or even just Black people are not a monolith and this book doesn't necesarily present it that way but it does make certain statements and pretends like that is the opjective truth even though there is great discussion about it in antiracist spaces.

So to wrap that up. The daily prompts were great for doing the work however I would have liked a more nuanced and detailed discussion of certain points made in the book.

Layla Saad

'An indispensable resource for white people who want to challenge white supremacy but don't know where to begin' Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller WHITE FRAGILITY 'It should be mandatory reading ... Buy the book, do the work and then push more copies into the hands of everyone you know' Emma Gannon 'Confrontational and much-needed' Stylist 'She is no-joke changing the world and, for what it's worth, the way I live my life.' Anne Hathaway ___________ Me and White Supremacy teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of colour, and in turn, help other white people do better, too. When Layla Saad began an Instagram challenge called #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, she never predicted it would spread as widely as it did. She encouraged people to own up and share their racist behaviors, big and small. She was looking for truth, and she got it. Thousands of people participated in the challenge, and over 90,000 people downloaded the Me and White Supremacy Workbook. The updated and expanded Me and White Supremacy takes the work deeper by adding more historical and cultural contexts, sharing moving stories and anecdotes, and including expanded definitions, examples, and and further resources. Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. The numbers show that readers are ready to do this work - let's give it to them.

A 28-Day Journey to Kickstart Your Life-long Anti-racism Work

Alex Hill 

I don’t rate nonfiction but this is for sure one I want to go back to 

Marina Riaza

wow. can even begin to say how this book changed me. I think I recommend it to everyone and I can't stress this enough. the things that I learnt here I can't unsee and I will work through these issues knowing what I know now.

This is a book that is a good starting point to someone who really just never got why racism is an issue in society. It does cover the topics well and it makes good points.

My main issue is that the journaling questions were vague, and while I didn't do it for 28 days, which might be the problem, who knows, I just found myself at a loss for examples at times. And the author acts like I definitely did have biases about, say, black children, which I don't doubt some people do, but I don't even like children in general. I don't interact with children, and I can't think of any time I had biases to even journal about it. She doesn't really address this issue of if a subject doesn't seem to generate examples.

And I don't think that means she failed to make any points or anything like that. The book is well written and she uses some examples to help people understand the problems the biases she's describing cause. It just felt like it would be better in a group setting. Like with a group leader who could help people work through the vagueness of some of those questions.

I don't know, I feel like I need to read some of the things she is citing and actually see what the research says. I think "How to be an Anti-racist" by Ibram X. Kendi was better for explaining the history of racism, and actually how some of the rhetoric in this book could still be continuing racism by calling it by different names. Maybe read this book and that book, maybe read every book you can find. It's a complex topic and this seems like a good starting point to promote more research.

Kelsey Holtaway

Absolutely phenomenal. This, as Saad states in the book, is a book you *do*. The work is tough but invaluable and I would recommend this to every single person who holds white privilege.

Alyssa Jacunski

What started as an Instagram challenge is now a book with context, prompts and a lot of deep thinking. Other than saying I learned a lot from this book, there isn't much here to review. I revisit the content of this book and what I've learned on a regular basis and know that I'll continue to revisit this for years to come.

Caitlin Berger

A non-negotiable must-read book. Actually answer the reflective prompts! This is the work we need to do.

Nancy O’Connor &
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

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Nancy O’Connor &Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad

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Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad