A review by aidahdefilippo
See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love by Valarie Kaur
5.0
It feels corny and exaggerated to say that one book changed my outlook on life. And somehow, Valarie Kaur did it.
Kaur uses a mix of the traditional storytelling of memoirists and, even more interesting, an unmasked map of the philosophy that has guided her life's work. Reading her book as more than an autobiography is essential - instead, read it as a call to action with Kaur's life as the evidence to back it up.
I couldn't say I agree with everything she writes, or even that I could implement in my own life that parts that I do agree with. But to look at the world and its many, many people with ecstatic wonder is worth trying. To look in the faces of people you hate, don't understand, or simply haven't met yet and "see no stranger" is worth trying.
Kaur doesn't delve into the fact that there are, in fact, pure monsters out there - monsters who wield unimaginable, destructive amounts of power. But she does encourage people to consider that the world is not full of monsters. It's a compelling and inspiring argument that I, myself, needed to hear.
It's easy to endorse this kind of empathy for your opponents, and then fall into complacency. Kaur doesn't suggest that we should accept hateful viewpoints or try to coexist with them. Instead, it's a strategy for survival, for anyone who wants to make change. It's a roadmap for how to bring people into a movement - not to meaninglessly "reach across the aisle", but to turn an opponent into an accomplice.
Kaur uses a mix of the traditional storytelling of memoirists and, even more interesting, an unmasked map of the philosophy that has guided her life's work. Reading her book as more than an autobiography is essential - instead, read it as a call to action with Kaur's life as the evidence to back it up.
I couldn't say I agree with everything she writes, or even that I could implement in my own life that parts that I do agree with. But to look at the world and its many, many people with ecstatic wonder is worth trying. To look in the faces of people you hate, don't understand, or simply haven't met yet and "see no stranger" is worth trying.
Kaur doesn't delve into the fact that there are, in fact, pure monsters out there - monsters who wield unimaginable, destructive amounts of power. But she does encourage people to consider that the world is not full of monsters. It's a compelling and inspiring argument that I, myself, needed to hear.
It's easy to endorse this kind of empathy for your opponents, and then fall into complacency. Kaur doesn't suggest that we should accept hateful viewpoints or try to coexist with them. Instead, it's a strategy for survival, for anyone who wants to make change. It's a roadmap for how to bring people into a movement - not to meaninglessly "reach across the aisle", but to turn an opponent into an accomplice.