annieb123's review against another edition
4.0
Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.
Memoir of a Race Traitor is a lyrically written brutally honest book which is part memoir, part playbook strategy for her fight against racism and homophobia written by Mab Segrest. Originally published in 1994, this reformat and re-release, out 24th Sept 2019 by The New Press, is 319 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats (other editions available in other formats).
This was a difficult book for me to read. The prose itself in most of the book is fairly academic and dry, but additionally, I found myself reading and reflecting on the often truly horrific things the author was describing (both historical and recent) and feeling a gut-churning sense of shame and anger and impotent rage. I am afraid and angry, especially in the context of the current political climate, and it feels futile. She wrote the original text 25 years ago, 1994, and here we are again (and not for the first time, either).
Although I found it very difficult to read, I do feel that this is an important book. It's fascinating to see how she draws forth and exposes the intersections of both racism and homophobic politics and the solidifying of power and resources by those who are in control and unwilling to level the playing field or allow anyone who isn't them (largely white male and conservative) to have a voice.
This would be a superlative choice for a reading list for gender studies, American history, and many other related subjects. It is violent and some parts are horrific. My personal experience with the book is anger and sadness that the hundreds of years of violence and hatred represent in lost and wasted effort. Why the hell can't people get along?
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
Memoir of a Race Traitor is a lyrically written brutally honest book which is part memoir, part playbook strategy for her fight against racism and homophobia written by Mab Segrest. Originally published in 1994, this reformat and re-release, out 24th Sept 2019 by The New Press, is 319 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats (other editions available in other formats).
This was a difficult book for me to read. The prose itself in most of the book is fairly academic and dry, but additionally, I found myself reading and reflecting on the often truly horrific things the author was describing (both historical and recent) and feeling a gut-churning sense of shame and anger and impotent rage. I am afraid and angry, especially in the context of the current political climate, and it feels futile. She wrote the original text 25 years ago, 1994, and here we are again (and not for the first time, either).
Although I found it very difficult to read, I do feel that this is an important book. It's fascinating to see how she draws forth and exposes the intersections of both racism and homophobic politics and the solidifying of power and resources by those who are in control and unwilling to level the playing field or allow anyone who isn't them (largely white male and conservative) to have a voice.
This would be a superlative choice for a reading list for gender studies, American history, and many other related subjects. It is violent and some parts are horrific. My personal experience with the book is anger and sadness that the hundreds of years of violence and hatred represent in lost and wasted effort. Why the hell can't people get along?
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
thelucyjones's review against another edition
4.0
The rereleased edition of this book (2019) includes three parts: Mab Segrest’s memoir, a series of essays titled “On Being White and Other Lies,” and the transcript of a keynote speech delivered in 1993 at a National Gay and Lesbian Task Force conference in Durham.
I appreciated the second two parts of this book about as much as the memoir itself, and found the ideas and writing just as, if not more, compelling. Mab’s story and life, activist and personal, were interesting to me as a white woman living in North Carolina. While I appreciated the depth of detail about her organizing days in the 80s against white supremacist groups in NC, I was also at times bogged down by the details. I’m glad to know the stories and events that she relayed here, but I think I expected the personal reflection to outweigh the fact and detail, which it did not. Despite that, I have a lot of respect for Mab Segrest, and am glad I picked up this book!
I appreciated the second two parts of this book about as much as the memoir itself, and found the ideas and writing just as, if not more, compelling. Mab’s story and life, activist and personal, were interesting to me as a white woman living in North Carolina. While I appreciated the depth of detail about her organizing days in the 80s against white supremacist groups in NC, I was also at times bogged down by the details. I’m glad to know the stories and events that she relayed here, but I think I expected the personal reflection to outweigh the fact and detail, which it did not. Despite that, I have a lot of respect for Mab Segrest, and am glad I picked up this book!
ostrowk's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written, haunting memoir of a white lesbian in the south who confronts the legacy of her family as she organizes against the KKK. Super impressive intersectional politics.
kelroka's review against another edition
4.0
Sadly still so, so relevant. Worth a re-read for the new introduction & afterward.
outtoexist's review against another edition
4.0
This was beautifully written in flashes, and confusing for most of it. I was hoping she'd explore more of the intersection between her whiteness & her queerness and how that takes up space in the fight against racism (which is something I'm desperately trying to understand). Even though this wasn't that, it was an incredible telling of an often-hidden period of time. I was brought to tears multiple times by Joyce Sinclair's story and the very concept of her four year old daughter who would be so young today.
bexhobson's review against another edition
5.0
Invigorating.
"It is my belief that racism shapes all political movements in the United States, for better and for worse, but because white people so seldom talk about how we are affected by racism, we don't understand how to counter it."
"What I mean is a less lonely society, where we think collectively about resources for the common good, rather than struggling individually against each other for material and psychic health."
"If we could decide who could not come into our church, then it was just a building that belonged to us, not God."
"Leah affirmed my instincts to build not just coalitions, but movements grounded in relationships. .. The result was friendships that come among people who catalyze changes in each other. Our work carried a lot of risk, but the risk gave us occasions to develop substantial trust."
"Individuals project onto others the characteristics they cannot accept in themselves, then control, punish or eradicate the objects of those projections. Our identities, structured as they are on what we hate, resist or fear, are disturbingly unstable."
"There is a lot to be done, but how we go about it is also important. Because all we have ever had is each other."
"It is the failure to feel the communal bonds between humans, I think, and the punishment that undoubtedly came to those Europeans who did, that allowed the "community of the lie" to grow so genocidally in the soil of the "New World."
"White democracy, it seems, gets built on the backs of people of color, a fact that gives white people a very different subjective experience of U.S. democracy than many people of color."
"It is my belief that racism shapes all political movements in the United States, for better and for worse, but because white people so seldom talk about how we are affected by racism, we don't understand how to counter it."
"What I mean is a less lonely society, where we think collectively about resources for the common good, rather than struggling individually against each other for material and psychic health."
"If we could decide who could not come into our church, then it was just a building that belonged to us, not God."
"Leah affirmed my instincts to build not just coalitions, but movements grounded in relationships. .. The result was friendships that come among people who catalyze changes in each other. Our work carried a lot of risk, but the risk gave us occasions to develop substantial trust."
"Individuals project onto others the characteristics they cannot accept in themselves, then control, punish or eradicate the objects of those projections. Our identities, structured as they are on what we hate, resist or fear, are disturbingly unstable."
"There is a lot to be done, but how we go about it is also important. Because all we have ever had is each other."
"It is the failure to feel the communal bonds between humans, I think, and the punishment that undoubtedly came to those Europeans who did, that allowed the "community of the lie" to grow so genocidally in the soil of the "New World."
"White democracy, it seems, gets built on the backs of people of color, a fact that gives white people a very different subjective experience of U.S. democracy than many people of color."
mad_taylh's review against another edition
4.0
"'I don't see how you do the things you do,' she told me.
'What choice is there?' I wondered."
'What choice is there?' I wondered."
bbpettry's review against another edition
3.0
This book is written like a story that might be told on a porch to a friend whose dropped by to catch up. It's intimate, winding & harrowing, leafing out into emotional and intellectual tangents as Segrest recounts her years as an activist against white supremacist violence. She comes from a generation of queer people I am so different from, and it was interesting to compare. There are a few things that ring really loud and true in the book: It is the responsibility of anti racist white folks to put themselves between white supremacists and marginalized people. Activists absolutely must take care of themselves and each other.
After the memoir part of the book is a more academic piece that is, even at its age, worth the price of the book. Among other things, it makes the connection between white supremacy and capitalism.
After the memoir part of the book is a more academic piece that is, even at its age, worth the price of the book. Among other things, it makes the connection between white supremacy and capitalism.