Me and White Supremacy

Layla covers the basics incisively, spelling out the beliefs, behaviours, and dynamics of white supremacy. The prompts get a bit repetitive and may not necessarily reinforce the challenge of each day's focus but they do call on self-excavation.

I appreciated that Layla's definitions were not detached and neutral and that she didn't by default present racist ideas in the phrasing of irony.

Maybe it's because I'm over-saturated on anti-racist literature at the moment, but I didn't read much here I hadn't read before, and the reflective journaling prompts felt pretty repetitive. That being said, it was still a good experience to work through the book and actually write out the responses to the prompts, as it made me face some uncomfortable truths about myself; we'll each struggle with different parts of our anti racist journeys, and after journaling through this book I realized, for me, it's mostly white silence. I struggle to call people in/out, whether they are strangers or friends or coworkers. I somehow feel like that's not my place, or just wish to avoid conflict and discomfort. I struggle to find a balance between wanting to be supportive of, and elevate, black voices/artists, and to do what I can to publicly reflect on my white privilege, white supremacy in society etc while not wanting to be performative. And tbh I have not found a balance, but I'm striving towards it and am committing to challenging my racist dialogues, in and outside my head, every day.

Summary: Journaling based exploration of racism. 

When discussing racism, a lot of pushback is focused on titles and approaches. And while I think there are some problems with this, it is important to get something that people will hear in the early stages. If a person cannot hear a voice or book or movie, it is unlikely to help them.

Many object to Robin DiAngelo's book White Fragility because of the title and approach. Several people have recommended Me and White Supremacy as an alternative. So I read it with an eye toward the book to recommend to people that are early into the understanding of racial issues. For the most part, I agree that this is likely a better book for most people, but not everyone. First, the title still has ‘white supremacy' in it. Generally, I tend to use ‘white superiority' instead of ‘white supremacy,' but the underlying meaning I agree with.

Me and White Supremacy is a 28 study, largely based around journaling questions. Layla Saad first tried the material out on her Instagram followers. And my recommendation is all about whether you are the type of person who will seriously take the questions. If you will not write out answers, or at the very least, think about them, then you will not find any value in the book. But if you engage with the questions and really think about your answers, then I think this is a beneficial book in laying out terms and ideas for anti-racism.

Layla Saad is a helpful voice. She is Black, but also a Muslim woman that lives in the Middle East. She approaches race as something that includes the US but is not rooted solely in US historical slavery and Jim Crow eras. It is also short, the readings would most often take five minutes or less, and then thought-provoking questions may take another 10-20 minutes. But short does not mean fluffy. These are clear, concise, but very direct chapters. There is not a lot of fluff or coddling, and I think that is also good.

I listened to this mostly on audio, and while that format works fine, you cannot reflect on the questions easily unless you have it linked to a kindle edition. And regardless of your consumption method, you want a pad of paper beside you as you read.