Scan barcode
A review by katsbooks
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota by Sun Yung Shin
5.0
"The law may say Jim Crow is dead... but if it is, then it's having a long and vigorous afterlife." pg. 205
"...if you fail to value a people's stories, you fail to value them." pg. 209
"Collectively, we can learn to tell a story that includes all our stories... fashion a mosaic-like group portrait from those stories that we all can agree truly does resemble people like us." pg. 212
Don't have time to read the whole work? Here were my favorite selections:
Fighting the Oppressive Whiteness by Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
Dark Trees in the Landscape of Love by Kao Kalia Yang
The Price We Pay by Andrea Jenkins
People Like Us by David Lawrence Grant
The essays in this anthology should be required reading for all Minnesotans. The contributors come from across the BIPOC spectrum and despite their differences, they all had experiences of being "othered" in some way by the people in the place they call home. Some talked about how Minnesota Nice is not always so nice and despite that moniker and our reputation as a fairly liberal state, we are ranked among the worst states when it comes to the racial achievement gaps. These essays explore some of the reasons Minnesota can be a difficult place for BIPOC to live. Despite being published more than four years ago now, it also sheds light, for me, on why Minneapolis was a powder keg for the recent racial uprisings. I was also struck by how unique and different each and every story was. While each spoke about race and their experiences with race in Minnesota, each contributor had a distinctive voice and perspective. Even as someone who often reads about issues of race and attempts to diversify my reading to include all kinds of representation, it was a reminder to me that stories are important, BIPOC are more than their stories of oppression and discrimination and, no matter how "white" Minnesota feels, I don't have to look far to find them.
"...if you fail to value a people's stories, you fail to value them." pg. 209
"Collectively, we can learn to tell a story that includes all our stories... fashion a mosaic-like group portrait from those stories that we all can agree truly does resemble people like us." pg. 212
Don't have time to read the whole work? Here were my favorite selections:
Fighting the Oppressive Whiteness by Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria
Dark Trees in the Landscape of Love by Kao Kalia Yang
The Price We Pay by Andrea Jenkins
People Like Us by David Lawrence Grant
The essays in this anthology should be required reading for all Minnesotans. The contributors come from across the BIPOC spectrum and despite their differences, they all had experiences of being "othered" in some way by the people in the place they call home. Some talked about how Minnesota Nice is not always so nice and despite that moniker and our reputation as a fairly liberal state, we are ranked among the worst states when it comes to the racial achievement gaps. These essays explore some of the reasons Minnesota can be a difficult place for BIPOC to live. Despite being published more than four years ago now, it also sheds light, for me, on why Minneapolis was a powder keg for the recent racial uprisings. I was also struck by how unique and different each and every story was. While each spoke about race and their experiences with race in Minnesota, each contributor had a distinctive voice and perspective. Even as someone who often reads about issues of race and attempts to diversify my reading to include all kinds of representation, it was a reminder to me that stories are important, BIPOC are more than their stories of oppression and discrimination and, no matter how "white" Minnesota feels, I don't have to look far to find them.