White Tears/Brown Scars - Ruby Hamad
There is no way on earth that my review is going to give this book proper justice - it is a brilliant, deeply researched, extremely well-written, and important book that I would recommend to everyone.
White Tears/Brown Scars is an absolutely necessary read. Ruby Hamad has created a detailed overview of white supremacy through the ages, and how white women have not only benefited from this system of dominance, but also actively engaged in it (as much as we pretend that we have not, we all have). The author weaves together historical and current facts, events, and also personal experiences from a variety of different women of color that she has interviewed. The content is highly readable, but it makes for a very uncomfortable read (even if you have read anti-racist work before). Necessarily uncomfortable. The book focuses on how the white woman and white feminism have created and enforced division all over the world and continue to do so today. The author focuses on several areas in the world, such as the US, Australia, western Europe, the Middle East, and South Africa and Zimbabwe, which I found to be very eye-opening and helpful.
I took so many notes, highlighted so many quotes, and have a lot of thinking to do. This is an essential read for any white woman who is intent on destroying the divisions created by white supremacy and white feminism, and doing the real work of listening, absorbing, admitting to our inability to say we are wrong, and actually learning to stand with women of color rather than just pretending to. We have so much work to do.
I really appreciated how the author discusses the history of Aborginal women in Australia, as well as Arab women in the world. These are important perspectives, and I feel like I learnt a lot of new information that I need to unpack and unlearn. (Even the whole concert of “Middle East” and why we still refer to a large area of different countries, cultures, languages and dialects, and people by that name). I also really appreciated how Ruby Hamad details certain events that are specific to the US, explaining how they also directly affect the world in general (for example US presidential elections). There is an excellent discussion of the 2016 elections in the US in the second half of the book where the author focuses on how alienating it was for Arab women (amongst other women of color) when Clinton was channelled as the change the world needed, and any criticism of her was categorized as sexism or wanting Trump to win. I was personally never “with her” because she reminded me too much of Margaret Thatcher (and all that that implies), but I would still have voted for her if I were able to vote in this country. White, liberal feminism really still does a great job of stomping out any criticism that may hinder what white, liberal feminism wants, and this usually involves shaming anyone who is not white to toe the line so to speak, without actually listening to their experience and needs.
In the conclusion Ruby Hamad poses some very important questions to white women, and asks that we start answering them. We have helped perpetuate stereotypes over the ages (from the Jezebel to the Angry Black Woman and so many more), we have remained happy with the status quo as we benefit from it, and we have also actively engaged in perpetrating dominance over others in the name of feminism/religion/racial divides and so on. And when confronted with this we often break down in tears with the intention of removing ourselves from the conversation without actively making any changes to the way we act. We have a choice to make, and we have to be accountable for our past, present, and our future.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.