silodear's review
2.0
In 2007, this book amazed me. It helped that it was given to me by a dear friend shortly before she died. In the spirit of keeping my former self (in all my baby-rad glory) alive, I'm not going to delete my review below. But know that I don't feel so great about this book these days and that I think Colin does a great job of summing up why.
"This book is great and, in my opinion, should be required reading for any dominant-culture enmeshed or newly "normative"-critical white person in this country. Inga sets a good example by examining the ways in which she is complicit in the racist, imperialist society in which many of us live. This book is about taking responsibility and owning ones mistakes.
Though I have some critiques of this book, on the whole I thought it was well done. Examination of ones own prvilege and fucked-upness is, in my opinion, always a lovely idea."
"This book is great and, in my opinion, should be required reading for any dominant-culture enmeshed or newly "normative"-critical white person in this country. Inga sets a good example by examining the ways in which she is complicit in the racist, imperialist society in which many of us live. This book is about taking responsibility and owning ones mistakes.
Though I have some critiques of this book, on the whole I thought it was well done. Examination of ones own prvilege and fucked-upness is, in my opinion, always a lovely idea."
melaninny's review
3.0
I've thought a lot about what to say about this book.
I discovered Inga Muscio because of Cunt, which was a hugely inspiring book that, while I'm not sure I could recommend it to everyone, I was really happy to have read. When I wanted to read up on white supremacy, I found Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil and I thought, since I was familiar with Muscio and liked her, that it would be a good place to start.
This book mostly suffers because she never decided who her audience is.
If her audience was bigoted, mired white people who need some sort of insight, the tone would drive them off pretty much immediately.
If her intended audience was self-conscious white people who are vaguely aware of the problems around them but who want a more nuanced insight in book-form, this really doesn't cut it. Most of this book is an introduction to institutionalized racism. She brings up a lot of important issues, but doesn't delve very deeply into them. I consider myself uneducated on this topic, but still knew most of the history that she goes into. In fact, I can't help but feel like it would have been more productive to read "A People's History" instead. Toward the beginning of Autobiography, Muscio even gives a list of authors, then says, (paraphrasing) "if you didn't recognize any of these names, you are part of the problem." She then never elaborates or discusses why they are important. I get it, I'm supposed to look them up, but seriously? Why does she think I bought the book?
If her audience was the already hyper-educated on the topic, then why write the book at all? She shares no real new information, and it would just come off as gratuitous.
There were sections that I genuinely appreciated. Her section on police violence was well-considered and held up very well to the issues going on today, ten years after the book was published.
It's not that everything in the book is bad or not worth reading, it just comes off as half baked sometimes.
Muscio's writing shines especially when she writes her personal anecdotes, which is part of what made Cunt resonate so much with me. Her anecdotes here, though, seem awkward and contrived. She writes about insignificant moments in her life that she adds significance too--the time she was buying things at a drug store and the white cashier was acting suspicious of three teens who walked in, she assumes, because of their race. The problem with anecdotes like this is that they are pure conjecture on her part. She can't know what that cashier was thinking, and indeed, she didn't ask. That doesn't make for a powerful story. The rest of her anecdotes are secondhand tales she's heard via her friends, so those don't really have much weight to them, either. In fact, this book would have been amazing had she done something like interview those friends or invite them to write segments for her book, instead of sharing them in watered-down form through her own filter as a white woman.
In fact, the last 50 pages of Autobiography was the most gripping, and I have a feeling it was because she was back on her home turf of gender and generalized liberal thought told via her own personal stories. This book made me think more about veganism than it did my own role in white supremacist racism. Which doesn't mean I'm absolved, it just means I have to take my education elsewhere.
I discovered Inga Muscio because of Cunt, which was a hugely inspiring book that, while I'm not sure I could recommend it to everyone, I was really happy to have read. When I wanted to read up on white supremacy, I found Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil and I thought, since I was familiar with Muscio and liked her, that it would be a good place to start.
This book mostly suffers because she never decided who her audience is.
If her audience was bigoted, mired white people who need some sort of insight, the tone would drive them off pretty much immediately.
If her intended audience was self-conscious white people who are vaguely aware of the problems around them but who want a more nuanced insight in book-form, this really doesn't cut it. Most of this book is an introduction to institutionalized racism. She brings up a lot of important issues, but doesn't delve very deeply into them. I consider myself uneducated on this topic, but still knew most of the history that she goes into. In fact, I can't help but feel like it would have been more productive to read "A People's History" instead. Toward the beginning of Autobiography, Muscio even gives a list of authors, then says, (paraphrasing) "if you didn't recognize any of these names, you are part of the problem." She then never elaborates or discusses why they are important. I get it, I'm supposed to look them up, but seriously? Why does she think I bought the book?
If her audience was the already hyper-educated on the topic, then why write the book at all? She shares no real new information, and it would just come off as gratuitous.
There were sections that I genuinely appreciated. Her section on police violence was well-considered and held up very well to the issues going on today, ten years after the book was published.
It's not that everything in the book is bad or not worth reading, it just comes off as half baked sometimes.
Muscio's writing shines especially when she writes her personal anecdotes, which is part of what made Cunt resonate so much with me. Her anecdotes here, though, seem awkward and contrived. She writes about insignificant moments in her life that she adds significance too--the time she was buying things at a drug store and the white cashier was acting suspicious of three teens who walked in, she assumes, because of their race. The problem with anecdotes like this is that they are pure conjecture on her part. She can't know what that cashier was thinking, and indeed, she didn't ask. That doesn't make for a powerful story. The rest of her anecdotes are secondhand tales she's heard via her friends, so those don't really have much weight to them, either. In fact, this book would have been amazing had she done something like interview those friends or invite them to write segments for her book, instead of sharing them in watered-down form through her own filter as a white woman.
In fact, the last 50 pages of Autobiography was the most gripping, and I have a feeling it was because she was back on her home turf of gender and generalized liberal thought told via her own personal stories. This book made me think more about veganism than it did my own role in white supremacist racism. Which doesn't mean I'm absolved, it just means I have to take my education elsewhere.
ashwine's review
4.0
I learned a lot from this book. It included information about the imperialism of the US that I haven't found in other sources. Musico doesn't back down from the topic and is blunt and often confronts the reader directly and forces them to examine their own contributions to racism and imperialism. While I didn't see eye-to-eye with absolutely everything she discusses, it gave me new insight and helped me to challenge my own defensiveness.
choirqueer's review against another edition
4.0
This is an important book. It took me through every imaginable emotion about the world in which we live. I was worried I would come away feeling beaten down and hopeless, but by the end of the book I felt the strength the author draws from to channel the rage that fuels this book.
There are certainly things I wish she had done differently. I'm not on board at all with her use of "retard(ed)" or her weak justification (in the glossary, where she claims there is no other term in English that accomplishes what this word does, something which is almost never true of the ever-expansive English language and certainly isn't true in this case). I was frustrated by the limited and underresearched representation of people with disabilities -- other reviewers have articulated this point well -- and by her continual use of gender-binaristic language like "brothers and sisters" and "women, children, and men" even in the section where she says she is explicitly trying to name people of other genders. Also, she cites the Daily Mail (a UK tabloid) in one place as if it were a legitimate news source, which is disappointing because I know a LOT of the information she includes in this book is accurate and well-sourced, and so to include a Daily Mail excerpt alongside all the legitimate sources undermines the reliability of her research.
Overall, my feelings about this book are similar to my feelings about her most recent book, Rose, so I'll just quote from my review of that book: "I love how the author does not shy away from truth, but pulls the reader into deep recognition of the things that happen in the world from which we'd rather look away. It was difficult to read some of the things she needed to share, but until we live in a world where those things don't happen, I'm glad that there are people like Inga Muscio who have the courage to scream and shout about them."
There are certainly things I wish she had done differently. I'm not on board at all with her use of "retard(ed)" or her weak justification (in the glossary, where she claims there is no other term in English that accomplishes what this word does, something which is almost never true of the ever-expansive English language and certainly isn't true in this case). I was frustrated by the limited and underresearched representation of people with disabilities -- other reviewers have articulated this point well -- and by her continual use of gender-binaristic language like "brothers and sisters" and "women, children, and men" even in the section where she says she is explicitly trying to name people of other genders. Also, she cites the Daily Mail (a UK tabloid) in one place as if it were a legitimate news source, which is disappointing because I know a LOT of the information she includes in this book is accurate and well-sourced, and so to include a Daily Mail excerpt alongside all the legitimate sources undermines the reliability of her research.
Overall, my feelings about this book are similar to my feelings about her most recent book, Rose, so I'll just quote from my review of that book: "I love how the author does not shy away from truth, but pulls the reader into deep recognition of the things that happen in the world from which we'd rather look away. It was difficult to read some of the things she needed to share, but until we live in a world where those things don't happen, I'm glad that there are people like Inga Muscio who have the courage to scream and shout about them."
amorg2013's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
gandalf42's review against another edition
1.0
Skip this book. If you are tempted to buy it, head to the bibliography and read those books. Like the author I am white, progressive, and queer. Unlike the author, I don't need to self-congratulate about how fucken awesome I am because I recognize how shitty the world is to everyone.
This book deviates every chance possible from the main thesis so the author can congratulate herself on how far she has come.
Please, please read the actual works of the people that this author has designated herself speaker of. One Audre Lorde essay is priceless compared to this book.
p.s. I loved Cunt, the author's other book. But this is just the over her head and doesn't want to get it bullshit writing.
This book deviates every chance possible from the main thesis so the author can congratulate herself on how far she has come.
Please, please read the actual works of the people that this author has designated herself speaker of. One Audre Lorde essay is priceless compared to this book.
p.s. I loved Cunt, the author's other book. But this is just the over her head and doesn't want to get it bullshit writing.
kcourts's review against another edition
5.0
this book has me all fired up! IM does an awesome job of making you take all the things you think you know (and are okay with) and pointing out how sick they really are. why do we, as a country, celebrate people like Columbus? Why does the default of most comments we make imply whiteness unless we specifically state otherwise? Why do people willing sit through hours of tv a day which amounts to not much more than indoctrination in all the things those in power want us to believe? It's unpatriotic to question anything about the way our country operates, despite the serious atrocities, foreign and domestic, that are committed day in and day out under the leadership of the same sorts of people that have always been in power (and they aren't minorities or women). i'd really love to find some more recent commentary (this book is from 2005) by IM regarding her thoughts on the Obama era. I fear that things haven't really changed that much, but i'd love to hear her (much more thoroughly researched) take on the situation. don't take my ridiculously simple and condensed opinion on this, read the book!
veganemelda's review
5.0
Quite possibly my 2nd second favorite book ever... I have two copies, one to loan out. Not everyone can get into her writing style, but I think it's way worth it. The title says it all: a white girl trying to break through the bullshit.
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