Current Reading

This blog is primarily for me to blog my responses to books that I'm reading. Sometimes I blog about other stuff too, though.

Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond.

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Friday, September 10, 2021

Black Skin, White Masks: Intro

 I read the intro. I don't have a lot of time, but I do want to summarize it. Basically, he argues that it is unhealthy to be a person defined by a race, either via pride or shame regarding that race, and it is similarly unhealthy to be a person seeking to masquerade culturally as another race. It is healthy to be simply a person who eschews racial identification.

So he says that black men and white men are unhealthy, but men are fine. Since this was a book written in French in the 1950's, there may be nuances missing in the translation, things that don't carry over well to how we speak about race in 2021. And the gendered language is even more complicated, given the differences between the 1950's and 2020's, and also the differences between French and English. Take it for what it's worth.

Do not take him as someone deliberately obtuse about race and color. He makes it clear that the book will discuss how living as a subject of colonialism screws people up. He sees racism as real and a problem, and will address it unapologetically.

Let's see how the book unfolds.

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