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brownreads's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
*As a disclaimer, I am a Queer Black AroAce Trans person & I have read the entirety of this book
The reason why I decided to rate it a one is because of a sentence in the book where the main character (Trey) says that their first interactions with another person is “Purely Asexual”.
Please read page 67 of My Government means to Kill me. The sentence in question is “The guy in question was Harrison Coleman and I would classify our first encounter as purely Asexual”
Although there is a disclaimer near the beginning of the book that states that the use of the derogatory language [please refer to the quote on page 13 of My government means to kill me] is used to show Trey and his peers worldviews during 80s, the examples stated are queer slang not a sexuality. The reason why I think that the word Asexual is misused is because some Ace people are indifferent to sex & them being part of the Ace community is valid. It is extremely harmful to misuse a sexuality that barely gets any representation in Pop culture and Queer culture. This can lead to people that don't know enough about Asexuality to misuse it even more. From Black Queer person to Black Queer person, I expected more from this author because this was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 and I was excited to read about a young black queer person like me on their journey through self discovery. I do not know the author personally but I think that he had the right intentions with the wrong execution. Despite this I think it's important to hold him accountable for this. I understand that the disclaimer should be enough of a reason to excuse this misuse of Asexuality & I want to say that you are entitled to your own opinion. I was debating on whether to post my review or not because I really do wish the best for this author because it's nice to see a black queer author get the hype they deserve, but I knew that it is important to tell people especially my fellow Asexuals about this.
The reason why I decided to rate it a one is because of a sentence in the book where the main character (Trey) says that their first interactions with another person is “Purely Asexual”.
Please read page 67 of My Government means to Kill me. The sentence in question is “The guy in question was Harrison Coleman and I would classify our first encounter as purely Asexual”
Although there is a disclaimer near the beginning of the book that states that the use of the derogatory language [please refer to the quote on page 13 of My government means to kill me] is used to show Trey and his peers worldviews during 80s, the examples stated are queer slang not a sexuality. The reason why I think that the word Asexual is misused is because some Ace people are indifferent to sex & them being part of the Ace community is valid. It is extremely harmful to misuse a sexuality that barely gets any representation in Pop culture and Queer culture. This can lead to people that don't know enough about Asexuality to misuse it even more. From Black Queer person to Black Queer person, I expected more from this author because this was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 and I was excited to read about a young black queer person like me on their journey through self discovery. I do not know the author personally but I think that he had the right intentions with the wrong execution. Despite this I think it's important to hold him accountable for this. I understand that the disclaimer should be enough of a reason to excuse this misuse of Asexuality & I want to say that you are entitled to your own opinion. I was debating on whether to post my review or not because I really do wish the best for this author because it's nice to see a black queer author get the hype they deserve, but I knew that it is important to tell people especially my fellow Asexuals about this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Homophobia, Violence, and Racial slurs
The reason why I started that there is acephobia is because someone can easily be acephobic with out them realizing it & it is important for readers to know about this before reading this book.
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