I pre-ordered Garrett's book. It arrived last week and, I’ll confess, it’s still sitting in its box on my dining room table. Part of the why is that I’m working three jobs, raising two kids and managing a house alone. But the other part is that I know it will be confronting and I want the space and time to be confronted.
Which a very convenient way to avoid the actual confrontation, I’m realizing. Because there’s never sufficient time to confront your own complicity in oppressive systems unobstructed. What would that take? Well, Whiteness has been constructing and fortifying itself for several hundred years now…
So, I’m gonna open that box when I get home and get it started. All we can do is begin.
I am excited to read this book. I have put an immense amount of effort into evolving myself, but I don't really have that White community to check in with because folks just don't talk about Whiteness except to use whatever the latest buzz words are. What I do see are my friends who are people of color, Indigenous, Black - increasingly frustrated with White people, especially allies, for not recognizing so, so much.
"Currently, as far as bookstores and libraries are concerned, The Right Kind of White is classified as an “African American studies” book."
This is so telling!! Nothing more succinctly describing what it means to be the default. Seems to speak of a kind of fear or taboo or even blindness about examining Whiteness - we can study Women or African American culture or Queer history, but Whiteness needs no further inquiry as it is the baseline. All other identities are an Other layer atop the blank slate and that blank slate is hetero- male Whiteness.
I got to hear Garrett talk about the book, and the process, last night. It's worth going if he comes to your town.
I bought the book, and read about a third of it so far. It's been interesting to reflect on how we're the same and how we're different, how our journeys are the same and how they're different, and I'm very much looking forward to finishing this one.
Been sitting with my thoughts on this delightful interview a little while now and one thing that really resonates with me is the idea of opting out of competition with our neighbors. Not constantly comparing yourself to other (lesser) white folks who haven't figured it out yet. I think this is really pervasive, not just in our liberal, progressive politics on race but also in parenting and education and whether we recycle and if we eat free-range meat.
I remember my mother constantly yelling over her shoulder at us kids in the backseat - "This isn't a competition. There won't be any prizes." And that was true about who had been more wronged during the Incident At McDonald's, but it's also true about who has made more progress towards disentangling herself from our racist, patriarchal bullsh*t. It's good we're all moving in the same direction. No one's getting a trophy for getting there first and the "if you're not first, you're LAST" mentality is actively harming the cause.
Anyway, great work, looking forward to the book sitting in my "to read" pile for months and months until I devour it in a single sitting one day when the weather is rotten (self-awareness here, lol).
Hi friends of Lyz! I just wanted to say thanks for welcoming me and the book into this community space. It's been such a joy to read your comments. If you all have any further questions I may be slow (I'm on spring break with my kids) but happy to give 'em a go.
Heartwarming to see author<>editor praise and respect flow in each direction. Garrett salutes his Simon & Schuster senior editor ("It was such a gift to work with Yahdon" Israel), who posts warm words at Threads about the first-time author:
"He does the work of reckoning with his own whiteness, and his do-gooder disposition, in order to build a bridge he previously burnt between himself and other white people he felt he was better than.
"When I first got my job [in 2021], I expressed wanting to work with a white writer who could write about whiteness in an affirming way without the politics of exclusion, a white writer who could confront his own guilt and shame without looking for absolution or praise. Though many people expressed their interest in seeing a book like this, they equally shared that they didn’t believe a book like this could exist. Now one does."
--> Fun fact from that thread: Garrett's book was "originally acquired under the name 'Race of Strangers.'"
This interview got me to order Garrett's book. I'm sure it will challenge some of my beliefs. A good thing.
That said, I object to mentioning Kendi and Wilkerson in the same sentence. Isabel Wilkerson is a brilliant historian, and her book Caste was intellectually serious. Kendi, I view as a huckster. I don't think of him as a serious thinker.
I am almost as excited to listen to the audiobook for the content as I am to finally put a voice to the name I’ve been reading in the Discord all this time!
Thanks so much for telling the uninformed about Garrett Bucks, Lyz! First book written by a straight White man I've ordered in ages. That sad and probably unjust fact alone is worth some introspection. 'We' over 'me'.
I pre-ordered Garrett's book. It arrived last week and, I’ll confess, it’s still sitting in its box on my dining room table. Part of the why is that I’m working three jobs, raising two kids and managing a house alone. But the other part is that I know it will be confronting and I want the space and time to be confronted.
Which a very convenient way to avoid the actual confrontation, I’m realizing. Because there’s never sufficient time to confront your own complicity in oppressive systems unobstructed. What would that take? Well, Whiteness has been constructing and fortifying itself for several hundred years now…
So, I’m gonna open that box when I get home and get it started. All we can do is begin.
I am excited to read this book. I have put an immense amount of effort into evolving myself, but I don't really have that White community to check in with because folks just don't talk about Whiteness except to use whatever the latest buzz words are. What I do see are my friends who are people of color, Indigenous, Black - increasingly frustrated with White people, especially allies, for not recognizing so, so much.
Love this! Choosing we over me makes a bigger difference for sure. Looking forward to reading the book.
"Currently, as far as bookstores and libraries are concerned, The Right Kind of White is classified as an “African American studies” book."
This is so telling!! Nothing more succinctly describing what it means to be the default. Seems to speak of a kind of fear or taboo or even blindness about examining Whiteness - we can study Women or African American culture or Queer history, but Whiteness needs no further inquiry as it is the baseline. All other identities are an Other layer atop the blank slate and that blank slate is hetero- male Whiteness.
Asked my library to buy it!
I got to hear Garrett talk about the book, and the process, last night. It's worth going if he comes to your town.
I bought the book, and read about a third of it so far. It's been interesting to reflect on how we're the same and how we're different, how our journeys are the same and how they're different, and I'm very much looking forward to finishing this one.
Sounds like the next book to read after I finish 'Nice White Ladies'!
wow. can't wait to read this book. heading to the library site right this minute!!!
Been sitting with my thoughts on this delightful interview a little while now and one thing that really resonates with me is the idea of opting out of competition with our neighbors. Not constantly comparing yourself to other (lesser) white folks who haven't figured it out yet. I think this is really pervasive, not just in our liberal, progressive politics on race but also in parenting and education and whether we recycle and if we eat free-range meat.
I remember my mother constantly yelling over her shoulder at us kids in the backseat - "This isn't a competition. There won't be any prizes." And that was true about who had been more wronged during the Incident At McDonald's, but it's also true about who has made more progress towards disentangling herself from our racist, patriarchal bullsh*t. It's good we're all moving in the same direction. No one's getting a trophy for getting there first and the "if you're not first, you're LAST" mentality is actively harming the cause.
Anyway, great work, looking forward to the book sitting in my "to read" pile for months and months until I devour it in a single sitting one day when the weather is rotten (self-awareness here, lol).
Hi friends of Lyz! I just wanted to say thanks for welcoming me and the book into this community space. It's been such a joy to read your comments. If you all have any further questions I may be slow (I'm on spring break with my kids) but happy to give 'em a go.
Heartwarming to see author<>editor praise and respect flow in each direction. Garrett salutes his Simon & Schuster senior editor ("It was such a gift to work with Yahdon" Israel), who posts warm words at Threads about the first-time author:
"He does the work of reckoning with his own whiteness, and his do-gooder disposition, in order to build a bridge he previously burnt between himself and other white people he felt he was better than.
"When I first got my job [in 2021], I expressed wanting to work with a white writer who could write about whiteness in an affirming way without the politics of exclusion, a white writer who could confront his own guilt and shame without looking for absolution or praise. Though many people expressed their interest in seeing a book like this, they equally shared that they didn’t believe a book like this could exist. Now one does."
--> Fun fact from that thread: Garrett's book was "originally acquired under the name 'Race of Strangers.'"
This interview got me to order Garrett's book. I'm sure it will challenge some of my beliefs. A good thing.
That said, I object to mentioning Kendi and Wilkerson in the same sentence. Isabel Wilkerson is a brilliant historian, and her book Caste was intellectually serious. Kendi, I view as a huckster. I don't think of him as a serious thinker.
I am almost as excited to listen to the audiobook for the content as I am to finally put a voice to the name I’ve been reading in the Discord all this time!
Thanks so much for telling the uninformed about Garrett Bucks, Lyz! First book written by a straight White man I've ordered in ages. That sad and probably unjust fact alone is worth some introspection. 'We' over 'me'.
Beautiful interview. Thank you.
The kind of open-hearted, open-minded, self-inquiry described in this interview is powerful. Bravo.