''Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor'' is a book by

Layla Saad Layla Saad is a British social-media figure and author. After starting an Instagram trend #MeAndWhiteSupremacy, she developed her work into the digital ''Me and White Supremacy Workbook''. It was published in 2020 as the book ''Me and White Supr ...

published on January 28, 2020. Structured as a 28-day guide targeted at white readers, the book aims to aid readers in identifying the impact of white privilege and

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White su ...

over their lives. It contains quotations, terminology definitions and question prompts. It received positive critical reception, entering many bestseller lists in June 2020 after a surge in popularity in the wake of the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's n ...

and subsequent protests.

Background

In 2017, Saad wrote a blog post "I Need to Talk to Spiritual White Women About White Supremacy". In 2018, Saad started an

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

challenge under the

hashtag A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (also known as pound or octothorpe) sign, ''#''. On social media, hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated ...

#MeAndWhiteSupremacy, which encouraged people to consider their relation to

for 28 days. Following this, she wrote the digital ''Me and White Supremacy Workbook'', which was downloaded by 100,000 people over the course of six months. This was developed into the 2020 book ''Me and White Supremacy''. In May 2019, Quercus Books acquired the U.K. rights to the book, initially subtitled ''A 28-day Journey to Kickstart Your Life-Long Anti-Racism Work''. As of 2019, a young readers' edition to the book is planned.

Synopsis

The book opens with a foreword by American academic and author Robin DiAngelo. Structured as a 28-day guide divided into four weeks and targeted at white readers, the book aims to aid readers in identifying the impact of white privilege and

over their lives. It contains quotations, terminology definitions and writing prompts. The first week, "The Basics", discusses concepts such as white fragility and

tone policing A tone argument (also called tone policing) is a type of ad hominem aimed at the tone of an argument instead of its factual or logical content. Ignoring the truth or falsity of a statement, a tone argument instead focuses on the emotion with which ...

. The second, "Anti-Blackness, Racial Stereotypes and Cultural Appropriation", covers the titular subjects in addition to color blindness. The third, "Allyship", is about individual action and attitudes that white people can adopt. The last, "Power, Relationships and Commitments", continues this subject and poses questions about structural change.

Reception

The book reached number 10 on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list on February 16, 2020, in the category Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction. The book received renewed attention following the May 2020

and subsequent protests, with a surge in sales of books about race. The book reached number six on the ''New York Times'' Hardcover Nonfiction list on June 11, 2020. It was listed fifth in ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

''s Best-Selling Books List of June 10, and on the Hardcover Nonfiction list of ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' on June 9. On the audiobook sales website Audible, the book was sixth in non-fiction sales for the week ending June 5.

Critical reception

Enobong Tommelleo of '' Booklist'' gave the book a starred review, lauding it as "an insightful and necessary contribution to the work of combating racism". Another starred review by Michelle Anya Anjirbag of '' Shelf Awareness'' praised it as providing "insightful and helpful advice". Emily Bowles of ''

Library Journal ''Library Journal'' is an American trade publication for librarians. It was founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey. It reports news about the library world, emphasizing public libraries, and offers feature articles about aspects of professional prac ...

'' recommended it as "required reading for people ready to acknowledge their behaviors". Bowles said it would "equip scholars, activists, and allies with real tools to promote systemic change". ''

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

'' described the book as a "bracing, highly useful tool for any discussion of combating racism". Carl Logan of '' Midwest Book Review'' called it "mandatory reading for anyone having to deal with the social injustice arising from racism and bigotry". Melissa Phruksachart at the '' Boston Review'' positions the book alongside other contemporary 'white liberalism' literature, both praising and critiquing Saad's book. She writes: "Like any self-help guide practiced privately or in communion with others, from the Bible to ''The Power of Now'', your mileage may vary."

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website

Presentation by Saad on ''Me and White Supremacy'', February 5, 2020

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

2020 non-fiction books Sourcebooks books Anti-racism Books about race and ethnicity Non-fiction books about racism White supremacy Quercus (publisher) books