Mark

https://www.goodreads.com/markhill

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Mark is Currently Reading

Mark is currently reading

Foundations of Flavor: The Noma Guide to Fermentation

by René Redzepi

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Dec 01, 2025 04:33PM

Mark is currently reading

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color

by Ruby Hamad

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Reading for the 2nd time

read in May 2022

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Mark said: " I really wanted to rate this higher- in short, my issues were that, although I 100% agreed with the politics and the author's perspective, I 1. wished the author had gone further in the things that made her book distinctive, and 2. wished the book wa I really wanted to rate this higher- in short, my issues were that, although I 100% agreed with the politics and the author's perspective, I 1. wished the author had gone further in the things that made her book distinctive, and 2. wished the book was a little more narrative than it turned out being.

The longer version is, this topic is something that is really important, and far far far less discussed than it should be - the pivotal role played by white women in the creation, the maintenance, and the continued existence of white supremacy, systematic racism and the like, and the way that has played out for people of different backgrounds (immigrants, indigenous people, queer people, people of different ethnicities etc.).

One part I really liked was the discussion of countries other than the US- this might just be me, but almost all the books I see about race in the English speaking world are only about America, usually the racism African American people have experienced (and continue to experience), which, while I don't want to take away anything from their experiences, and their voices being heard, I really appreciate reading about different contexts and histories, potentially to see to similarities in struggles around the world. I don't live in the US, for what it's worth.

The first disappointment was that I really wished the author had taken the things that make the book distinctive, and gone much further - be much more international, explore white women/white feminism's role in even greater detail

The second disappointment is hard to describe - I guess if I were to put it glibly, it'd be that the book comes across to me, in it's strange emotionally detached vibe, and the way the conversations (at least from what I remember) only happen over computer, as if it was written by someone who spent lockdown entirely on Twitter. Not entirely sure why this is the case- it could be a lack of structure- anecdotes and examples are sprayed about in a way that made it quite hard to know what was going on, or really develop any kind of relationship with anyone or anything.

Another disappointment (connected to the one above) was (unless I'm forgetting) I didn't see any caveats around things, to take into account the intersectionality of the stories she discusses. As much as I appreciate the decentreing of whiteness and maleness in her book, it's obviously written by someone with high cultural capital, a PhD, and probably decent amount of wealth, and one would imagine the audience would be of a similar background. I think it's important to bring attention to the often ignored role of higher education, cultural capital, and wealth in intersectionality, and it's extremely disappointing to see the author not address this. I mean, there's an anecdote about a woman who works in corporate finance for goodness sake. This is what I meant by the sense in which it's written by someone who spends a significant amount of time on Twitter- it's high cultural capital agitprop for other people who have high cultural capital. Worthwhile cause, some worthwhile stuff, but yeah :/

Rating ★☆☆☆☆ - Not recommended - not awful, but not something I would read again ...more "

Sep 22, 2023 02:13AM · see review

Mark is currently reading

Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking

by Julia Bascom

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Feb 27, 2023 04:23AM

See all 115 books that Mark is reading…

Mark’s Quotes

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

tags: love

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