The New Jim Crow was a dry read. Kind of hard to get through at points. Alexander is brilliant and very articulate, but I felt like she was deliberately driving home the same points, making it a little tedious at times.
Nevertheless, it was a comprehensive overview of contemporary racial inequality facing our country. To be honest, I am still very much on the ‘learning’ side of this issue, and this book gave me a good perspective of the whys and hows of America’s colorblindness. Very helpful for me.
Towards the end of the book though, I was feeling a little weary - she took very strong positions on what is not helpful, how current civil rights activists are missing the bigger picture, and even the era of a black president may actually be more harmful for the end goal.
But, I was pleasantly surprised by her conclusion: it is either all of us or it is none of us (the white man, included). Alexander quoted James Baldwin, “we cannot be free until they are free”. This brings it full circle to where I’ve been left wondering, but lately, convinced - after reading all these books about different issues of brokenness - that it is all a spiritual issue. As long as we make our fight for or against a specific concern, the long game is lost. But. If we realize our humanity is the commonality between us all, then maybe we can move forward together. (Insert God here).
No comments:
Post a Comment