Reviews tagging 'Racism'
Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in the United States by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva
5 reviews
gellyreads's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.5
I felt like this was a bit repetitive, but fairly clear. I don’t know that I agree with the idea that the racism is unintentional, but I also am not sure I understood this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Classism, and Racism
peachani's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
lokkish's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Racial slurs
emfass's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
1.25
I read this book with a small group of work peers. Some important things are said in here, but most of it fell short. I don't feel fully equipped to outline all of the things that felt off, as this is very much an academic sociology book, and other reviewers have done that in a much more thorough and insightful way.
The studies Bonilla-Silva cites and discussing were run in the 90s, and a lot of it felt wildly outdated. (NOT the concept of colorblind racism, of course, that is very much still alive and well and I am not arguing that in the least.) The examples he discusses felt specifically selected to prove his point - I didn't feel that we were getting a full picture. (Also felt like his sample sizes were kind of small?? I don't know a ton about statistics and data-gathering, but even to me something seemed lacking in this arena.)
Chapter to chapter, the structure and presentation of anecdotes was incredibly repetitive, and I didn't feel like I was getting new information.
In the fifth edition, there has been inserted a giant chapter about Obama's presidency and the election of Donald Trump (I believe this edition was published right around when Trump took office). This chapter felt wildly inconsistent with the rest of the book, as it more excoriated Obama's presidency than addressed racial colorblindness, and I wish he had published it separately instead of inserting it into this book.
Overall I didn't get anything out of this book that many other books on anti-racism and racial justice have given me, and would have DNF-ed if I wasn't accountable to the peers with whom I was reading it.
The studies Bonilla-Silva cites and discussing were run in the 90s, and a lot of it felt wildly outdated. (NOT the concept of colorblind racism, of course, that is very much still alive and well and I am not arguing that in the least.) The examples he discusses felt specifically selected to prove his point - I didn't feel that we were getting a full picture. (Also felt like his sample sizes were kind of small?? I don't know a ton about statistics and data-gathering, but even to me something seemed lacking in this arena.)
Chapter to chapter, the structure and presentation of anecdotes was incredibly repetitive, and I didn't feel like I was getting new information.
In the fifth edition, there has been inserted a giant chapter about Obama's presidency and the election of Donald Trump (I believe this edition was published right around when Trump took office). This chapter felt wildly inconsistent with the rest of the book, as it more excoriated Obama's presidency than addressed racial colorblindness, and I wish he had published it separately instead of inserting it into this book.
Overall I didn't get anything out of this book that many other books on anti-racism and racial justice have given me, and would have DNF-ed if I wasn't accountable to the peers with whom I was reading it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
More...