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fannachristine's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.75
waynediane's review
5.0
I thought the book was concise, but covered in great detail the HANDS UP of Ferguson with a greater understanding of the militarization of Police. Also, the history of Hawaii and how Asians for so many years have been discriminated yet not obvious until the present.
foofers1622's review
5.0
Another book that needs to be required reading in school. A sobering look at what our country is turning into and hopefully we can find a way out of the madness.
tonioberto's review
5.0
Required reading for everyone. Somehow Chang manages to distill a breadth of background on racial divides and segregation in the US in a digestible, memorable, easy to read fashion. His examples are on point and his timing is impeccable. He unpacks a ton of truth in a way that will further open your eyes and inspire you to advocate. I was left with a page full of notes and open browser tabs thirsty for more. Thank you, Jeff! This is so necessary right now.
tani's review
4.0
Race is an issue that I'm working on educating myself more thoroughly in, given the issues of the times, and I think that this was a good choice in that quest. As a white girl who grew up in a small white town, race was something that I rarely had to think about as a child and young adult, which makes it very important for me to seek out information now. Thankfully, there are wonderful people like Jeff Chang out there to help me out.
This basically is a collection of standalone essays that are each loosely organized around the theme of race. Each essay has a lot of good information, although I did feel like it started stronger than it finished. The description mentions some of the topics covered, but for me, the most engrossing of the essays dealt with affirmative action, Ferguson, and Asian-American identity. (I don't have the book in front of me, so I can't tell you exactly which chapters those are, unfortunately, but it should be fairly self-evident.)
Of those three, I most appreciated the information on Ferguson. The affirmative action essay had good information, but it felt a bit like preaching to the choir for me, as I already agreed with what Chang was saying, and didn't really feel like I learned too much from it. Asian-American identity was honestly something I had never considered before, so that essay was very eye-opening, although I didn't love the perspective that it's written in. The perspective made me a bit confused about what was going on for a while, although that may just have been me being dense.
But the Ferguson essay was definitely the most eye-opening for me, much though I'm ashamed to admit it. I mean, this is an event that is very recent, and yet I didn't know anywhere near the level of detail that Chang presents. Prior to reading this, even though I knew it was a derailing tactic, I still couldn't help but think of riots in connection to Ferguson. So I'm very thankful to Chang for laying out events in such an easy-to-understand manner and with so much detail. I feel like I'm much more knowledgeable now, and knowledge is always a good thing in my book.
Of course, there are also other issues covered in the book, but these were the ones that stood out the most to me. I will comment that the the final chapter (epilogue) was the hardest for me to read, as it's pretty much an analysis of Beyonce's Lemonade, which I've neither seen nor listened to, so that was pretty much lost on me. But that's more about my lack of knowledge than anything else. Over all, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone else who, like me, is looking to become more educated in issues of social justice and race.
This basically is a collection of standalone essays that are each loosely organized around the theme of race. Each essay has a lot of good information, although I did feel like it started stronger than it finished. The description mentions some of the topics covered, but for me, the most engrossing of the essays dealt with affirmative action, Ferguson, and Asian-American identity. (I don't have the book in front of me, so I can't tell you exactly which chapters those are, unfortunately, but it should be fairly self-evident.)
Of those three, I most appreciated the information on Ferguson. The affirmative action essay had good information, but it felt a bit like preaching to the choir for me, as I already agreed with what Chang was saying, and didn't really feel like I learned too much from it. Asian-American identity was honestly something I had never considered before, so that essay was very eye-opening, although I didn't love the perspective that it's written in. The perspective made me a bit confused about what was going on for a while, although that may just have been me being dense.
But the Ferguson essay was definitely the most eye-opening for me, much though I'm ashamed to admit it. I mean, this is an event that is very recent, and yet I didn't know anywhere near the level of detail that Chang presents. Prior to reading this, even though I knew it was a derailing tactic, I still couldn't help but think of riots in connection to Ferguson. So I'm very thankful to Chang for laying out events in such an easy-to-understand manner and with so much detail. I feel like I'm much more knowledgeable now, and knowledge is always a good thing in my book.
Of course, there are also other issues covered in the book, but these were the ones that stood out the most to me. I will comment that the the final chapter (epilogue) was the hardest for me to read, as it's pretty much an analysis of Beyonce's Lemonade, which I've neither seen nor listened to, so that was pretty much lost on me. But that's more about my lack of knowledge than anything else. Over all, I really enjoyed this and would recommend it to anyone else who, like me, is looking to become more educated in issues of social justice and race.
oldsouls_lovebooks's review
4.0
4.75 stars. So good. My only issue, which isn't all that big of an issue as you can see by my rating, is it was a bit disjointed at times where he'd go back and forth between certain events in different years. Other than that, I really enjoyed this and can see myself re-reading it in the future.
A couple of things this collection of essays covers:
Diversity- its meaning and purpose but ultimate exploitation (continued exclusion while under the illusion of diversity)
Asian Americans- their "in-betweeness" as they are POC but are the most socially accepted by white America and often separate themselves from the "Others" either accidental or to obtain white privilege
White Flight- concentrated areas where white people have put down roots until POC move in, which then leads to mass exodus and allocation of money and resources. Or, as John Oliver once comically put it, "Funding tends to follow white people around the way white people follow the band Phish around." I don't know if that last part is true as I have never heard of Phish
#OscarsSoWhite#NotYourMule- a discussion on solidarity and how to be better at it. I'll just use a quote from the book. "...a misplaced anger about [Chris] Rock's omission, or, worse, an aggrandizing 'what about me' ethnic solipsism, an expression of non-black entitlement. As Kendall put it, 'Solidarity doesn't look like black people taking the risks & everyone else reaping the rewards'... reminded non-black people of color of the central role black protest and creative expression has played in moving us all toward cultural equity." My dad once told me that there is an old saying(apologies in advance about the "yellow" term but that's how the saying went):
If you're white, you're alright
If you're yellow, you're mellow
If you're brown, stick around
If you're black, get back
It depicts a hierarchy of race that continues to exist decades since this saying was first created and the song first sung. While black people have been fighting this fight for a long time it has helped move all of us forward, but a lot of the time black people still remain at the bottom of the totem pole of social acceptance and progress.
Systemic Racism- police brutality, education, housing discrimination which led to resegregation, etc.
Birth of a Movement- new activist groups and how they came to fruition
I especially liked the essay Vanilla Cities and their Chocolate Suburbs: On Resegregation, as Jeff Chang discusses gentrification among other factors that come into play. I liked it because I can relate to it, and I can relate to it because he uses the San Francisco Bay Area as his point of reference and I'm from the Bay Area so I've been seeing and experiencing these changes firsthand. An overall great; short read that might make you do what I did which is read 30 pages of the library book, realize you can't resist the temptation to use sticky notes, and immediately drive to the bookstore and buy your own copy.
A couple of things this collection of essays covers:
Diversity- its meaning and purpose but ultimate exploitation (continued exclusion while under the illusion of diversity)
Asian Americans- their "in-betweeness" as they are POC but are the most socially accepted by white America and often separate themselves from the "Others" either accidental or to obtain white privilege
White Flight- concentrated areas where white people have put down roots until POC move in, which then leads to mass exodus and allocation of money and resources. Or, as John Oliver once comically put it, "Funding tends to follow white people around the way white people follow the band Phish around." I don't know if that last part is true as I have never heard of Phish
#OscarsSoWhite#NotYourMule- a discussion on solidarity and how to be better at it. I'll just use a quote from the book. "...a misplaced anger about [Chris] Rock's omission, or, worse, an aggrandizing 'what about me' ethnic solipsism, an expression of non-black entitlement. As Kendall put it, 'Solidarity doesn't look like black people taking the risks & everyone else reaping the rewards'... reminded non-black people of color of the central role black protest and creative expression has played in moving us all toward cultural equity." My dad once told me that there is an old saying(apologies in advance about the "yellow" term but that's how the saying went):
If you're white, you're alright
If you're yellow, you're mellow
If you're brown, stick around
If you're black, get back
It depicts a hierarchy of race that continues to exist decades since this saying was first created and the song first sung. While black people have been fighting this fight for a long time it has helped move all of us forward, but a lot of the time black people still remain at the bottom of the totem pole of social acceptance and progress.
Systemic Racism- police brutality, education, housing discrimination which led to resegregation, etc.
Birth of a Movement- new activist groups and how they came to fruition
I especially liked the essay Vanilla Cities and their Chocolate Suburbs: On Resegregation, as Jeff Chang discusses gentrification among other factors that come into play. I liked it because I can relate to it, and I can relate to it because he uses the San Francisco Bay Area as his point of reference and I'm from the Bay Area so I've been seeing and experiencing these changes firsthand. An overall great; short read that might make you do what I did which is read 30 pages of the library book, realize you can't resist the temptation to use sticky notes, and immediately drive to the bookstore and buy your own copy.
lkthomas07's review
4.0
I listened to the audiobook of this, which isn’t my favorite with non fiction bc I can’t easily go back and look at names, quotes, and concepts I loved. This book clarified my understanding of Ferguson, diversity vs equality, and even Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Well done.
dave3798's review
Reservation just became available when I was in more of a fiction mood