Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness (Ordinary Terrible Things)

by Anastasia Higginbotham

Hardcover, 2018

Status

Available

Call number

305.8009

Collection

Publication

Dottir Press (2018), 64 pages

Description

"A white child sees a news report of a white police officer shooting and killing a person with brown skin who had their hands up. "We don't see color," the child's mother says, but the child senses a deeper truth. An afternoon in the library uncovers the reality of white supremacy in America. The child connects to the opportunity and their responsibility to dismantle white supremacy-for the sake of their own liberation out of ignorance and injustice"--Provided by author's website. "A necessary children's book about whiteness, white supremacy, and resistance. Important, accessible, needed."--

User reviews

LibraryThing member Shannon.Allen
The theme is one I was all in for and parts of the book had me nodding my head in agreement and saying "Yes, white people! Tell your kids about these things and start thinking about what it's like for people who look different than you do!" The book in it's entirety, though, just felt lacking. It
Show More
kept feeling like it would get close to making a great point about what racism is or describing some situation so a child would understand it, but then the implied news story or incident would fall flat because of lack of explanation. The book is about how parents can keep kids in the dark about racism and terrible things happening because of it in the world today so they need to speak up and demand to be let in on the conversation, yet this book is hiding many things.

Honestly, I wouldn't read this again. I had to fill in so many gaps while reading with my kids that I would've been better off if I just came up with the content myself based on the pics in the book or, idk...um...TALK TO MY KIDS AS THINGS HAPPEN, as well as having ongoing conversations to combat systemic and individual racism. Shouldn't we all be doing this? Shouldn't we help our children to understand what is happening and why when they see or hear bad things? Shouldn't shutting racism down start with white people making sure we aren't creating racists and also trying our hardest to shut down those white supremacist KKK f*ck*rs who already waste too much air and space on this planet?
Show Less

Physical description

64 p.; 8.7 x 8.6 inches

ISBN

1948340003 / 9781948340007
Page: 0.3118 seconds