'26 February - theme: Black History Month
The Science of Racism by Keon West
"I personally would much rather live in a world in which every White man wanted to lynch me, but none of them had the power to do it, than a world in which no White men wanted to lynch me, but every single one of them had the power to do it."
Considering I picked this for Black History Month it doesn't contain much history. Maybe February would be better named Black Lives Matter Month - at least for my reading causes.
I hate to start a review with a problem but here it is: the title. Keon West is a literal expert on the subject of racism but he is British; maybe although he is an expert in reading meta-analyses of research conducted in the states, he hasn't actually spent much time on the ground in the Southern States. I was honestly worried someone would see me (a white woman) reading this in public and think I was reading some pro-racism book! A book postulating to some racist ****'s the science of what makes white people better. Because that stuff exists! And some people believe it. Wtf! I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had that worry in England so maybe West didn't even consider it? Either way, I chose for this to be an at home book.
On a similar note - why do books about the second world war and the holocaust have swastikas on them - suddenly a perfectly rational history book is now an at home book too.
This book was interesting but a bit dry as you can imagine. The author really did try to inject as much humor as he could and he kept his tone light, but with so much data being referenced it was tricky. The findings of all the studies he referenced were interesting and I turned into that annoying person who kept popping up with random factoids for a few weeks. Thankfully for everyone around me I didn't retain too much of the details.
My basic takeaways from this book: Everyone is racist, even if they don't think they are. Systemic racism is everywhere and it sucks. Britain is racist too - no, it's not just the USA. If you want to be less racist hang out with people who have a different skin color to you in a setting where you are equals.
That last point seemed like a good excuse to spend a morning at our local cars and coffee meetup - the most mixed demographically (not just racially) thing near me that I could think of.