Reviews

We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Racial Divide by Nic Stone, Tonya Bolden, Carol Anderson

goody_reads's review against another edition

fast-paced

4.0

This is a great fast read with very short chapters. I use it with my students. I only give it 4 stars because about half of the chapters are just too loaded with dry material like acronyms, names, and legislative speak. 

melfierro's review against another edition

5.0

This book is the young adult version of the White Rage title by the same author. One of these two should be required reading for everyone old enough. Expertly written, with research and sources to back up the information provided, it paints a very different picture of the United States than we were taught in school, and led to believe through politicians and the media. A heartbreaking account of the continued quest for black Americans to be treated as the equal citizens they have been by law for more than 150 years.

flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition

5.0

This is a must-read book outlining the history of race in the US. I annotated this book in it's entirety.
It covers SO MUCH content and delves very deep but is still super accessible to read for those folks who struggle with non-fiction or for younger readers.
This will stay on my shelf, and in my classroom, and will likely be referenced consistently.

nerdy_reader_9571's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Racial slurs

thenextgenlibrarian's review against another edition

5.0

So powerful and so much truth on these pages. We have a long way to go as a nation and as a white woman educating students I need to be more aware as well. #weneeddiversebooks #projectlit

pattydsf's review against another edition

4.0

”The trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black achievement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem; rather, it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspiration, and with demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation, to give up. A formidable array of policy assaults and legal contortions has consistently punished black resilience, black resolve.”

I didn’t realize that this is the young adult version of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide when I started reading. I am actually glad that I read this version, because I am not sure I could have read the adult edition. I know in my brain that what Anderson says is true, that many white people are enraged by black ambition, but to read that history, page by page, from Reconstruction until now is sickening. Why would anyone be against another person’s success?

I will admit that I have a long way to go before I am an antiracist, but actively attempting to thwart another person’s ambition seems unchristian and immoral to me. It feels like we are back at the pie analogy. If you achieve what you want and need then I get less. Wrong. There is more than enough for everyone.

I highly recommend this book. It is written succinctly with plenty of corroboration of the facts presented. I suspect that White Rage is also excellent, but I am sure it is a tougher read.

se_wigget's review against another edition

5.0

 

Picking the book up to begin reading it, I finally noticed this is a YA version of White Rage, which I already read... but that's okay. It's worth reading this version, too, and it's been a while since I read the adult version. 

 

I think the title White Rage is more appropriate, since the book is largely about how white people get enraged in reaction to black success. 

 

This needs to be required reading in all U. S. high schools--along with A People's History of the United States. Admittedly, it's profoundly disturbing to read about lynchings and such, but I think that's what it takes to get it through white people's heads. 

 

I got this book for a book discussion group inspired by the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment. We read books on suffragists... followed by books on civil rights (including voting rights and voter suppression). 

 

If Andrew Jackson were alive today, he'd wear a MAGA hat. This shitcountry doesn't change, and I'm ashamed of being white (but not ashamed of being Celtic and Ashkenazi, though officially both are white). 

 

"Black gains, it was assumed, could come only only at white people's expense." WTF. Freedom isn't like a pie, assholes; you don't slice it up and run out of slices. This bizarre belief in scarcity so common in this country of narcissists and sociopaths is really fucking old and makes no fucking sense. Fucking look up the word "interconnected" in a dictionary, assholes. I was utterly baffled when one of my most evil relatives, Aunt Asshole--who made many overtly racist comments--spouting bizarre homophobic drivel that included something about "taking away my way of life." What the fuck?!? Just because, horrors, not everyone is heteronormative doesn't have any fucking thing to do with taking away your narcissistic bigot way of life. Evil, stupid, and insane--those words popped into my head countless times before I went No-Contact with most relatives. 

Okay, I didn't know I was going to make such a long rant--better post this on my blog. 

 

"In addition to blocking access to the polls, the GOP [Gross Old Parasites] disillusioned voters by making the very function of government so distasteful that only the most diehard idealists or craven partisans would even bother to vote." 

--We Are Not Yet Equal, by Carol Anderson 

 

It's whiplash alternating reading history books like this... and reading news about systemic racism and violence against black people happening today. Last week white supremacists shot a black jogger to death, and today a white cop killed a black man. Things need to change drastically. 

thenextgenlib's review against another edition

5.0

So powerful and so much truth on these pages. We have a long way to go as a nation and as a white woman educating students I need to be more aware as well. #weneeddiversebooks #projectlit

johanna_b's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed this one and was able to learn a lot from it! For a young reader's adaptation though, it was very difficult to understand as the language used was very heavy-handed and there were so many different organizations brought up that by the end I couldn't keep track of the acronyms anymore. Because of this, I'm not sure it's one I would recommend to young people, but overall I'm glad that I read it! Happy Reading :)

lindzieh's review against another edition

3.0

Enjoyed the content of the book. Learned some things I didn’t know. As some others have said the way it was written was very juvenile but this was the intended audience. My lower rating is just for how it was written not for the content presented. I found what she said informative and may springboard many to read more on this topic.