Fiction/Non Fiction: Non-Fiction
Themes: Racism & Colourism, Allyship & Coalition, Self-Learning.
Pages: 239
One sentence summary: The workbook to unravel your internalised racism and white supremacy.
Overview:
Saad's workbook guides you through 28 days of tasks to unravel and unpick the ways in which white people uphold white supremacy. Aimed at white people wanting to do the work and commit to their allyship journey, this journal will both define the ways in which white people cause trauma to others and then ask you to find times you’ve been complicit.
Aimed to challenge, it’s a thorough guide to working through the internalised racism that society and social constructs teach us. Each day starts with definitions of the topic, such as white fragility, colour blindness and losing your privilege, then continues to explain how it shows up in everyday life.
The book ends with a section on how to continue the work that was started in the book too, giving you guidance on the next steps of your journey.
Personal Thoughts:
This is a book I was late to the mark on, and I wish that I’d got to it sooner. But hindsight is a wonderful thing and it’s never too late to begin, so don’t hold back any longer.
There is so much to unpack in our whiteness, a lot more than meets the eye. By choosing to read this review you’re most likely already someone who acknowledges the injustices our racist society impedes onto others, so I already know that this book is for you. And I know that when you start reading it, you’ll understand why you started and why you need to continue.
Make no mistake, this won’t be an easy ride. It will require a lot of inward-looking work; you’ll have homework each day and you will feel it all. But knowing you have started on your journey to allyship is going to make it all worthwhile. You will be taking the first step and sometimes that’s the hardest.
“Allyship is not an identity but a practice” – Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy.
By breaking the concepts down into one per day, it feels like a very manageable portion and reduces that feeling of overwhelm that other courses or even books sometimes can give. Saad includes sections each day that explain how that concept can show up in everyday life which I thought was a clever touch to allow the reader to really see those instances and listen out for them next time.
Saad is a brilliant teacher through written word, and I feel like I have a small encyclopaedia on my bookshelf that I can keep coming back to. Her writing is engaging and it will feel like you have a friend supporting you throughout.
Would I read it again? Absolutely. This is one of those books that I’ll re-read each year and continue to refer back to.
Read this? Plan to read it? I'd love to know! Let me know in the comments below.
Available for purchase through my Bookshop.org affiliate link here.