I was able to listen to an audio book version read by the author. So even before I started this book I researched the author. I think this is important to understand how their background can influence what they write. I was disturbed to find out that all three degrees of his were focused on African American topics. Any time someone focuses so narrowly with their education you should be leery of anything they say. Yes, they are a specialist in only that subject, but they can’t see the forest fire due to one small tree ablaze. Even with all of his disclaimers, this book is very raciest. If a white author wrote the same things except about blacks they would be outed from academia and popular view. In anthropology and psychology it is very important for researchers not to project their experiences, feelings, or conceptions on others they study. This is a very base principle in cultural studies. Most of the popular writers right now do not have a background in formal cultural studies and are unaware of how they are projecting themselves on others. All of these books have the same point, if you ‘look’ a certain way you are expected to be raciest (even though he tries to claim that this is not the case). He does not really expand into what other groups have experienced and that makes the view of this book very narrow and biased in itself.
One of the sections that made me the angriest was where he talked about people not identifying as white to avoid the issue. So what are people of mixed identities supposed to do? This is a topic that most people avoid even though we are becoming a more blended society. People of more than one background are being forced to be invisible and silent. Where are their voices? According to Kendi if they do not identify with their white background then those people are in denial. No Kendi, they are being denied to establish who they are and you are projecting your expectations on them. All writers on race/racism need to stop projecting people’s identities on them. This is the problem with our society and books like this just make it worse. Only read this book if you want to know how to be racist and look at the world in biased ways.
For more on projection:
https://www.britannica.com/science/projection-psychology
Recommended Journals:
Ames, D. R. 2004. “Strategies for social inference: A similarity contingency model of projection and stereotyping in attribute prevalence estimates”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 573–585. https://doi.org/10.
Cho, J. C., & Knowles, E. D. 2013. “I’m like you and you’re like me: Social projection and self-stereotyping both help explain self–other correspondence”. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104, 444–456. https://doi. org/10.1037/a0031017
Clement, R. W., & Krueger, J. (2002). Social categorization moderates social projection. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 219–231. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2001.1503
Mor,
Shira, Cladia Toma, Martin Schweinsberg, and Daniel Ames. 2019. “Pathways to
Intercultural Accuracy: Social Projection Processes and Core Cultural Values.” European Journal of Social Psychology 49
(1): 47-62. Doi: 10.1002/ejsp.2387.
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