by Patrisse Khan-Cullors
This is about working on building up emotional intelligence, including how to apologize, as a prerequisite for abolitionist organising
Category archives: notes
Sprache und Sein
by Kübra Gümüşay
Das erste Kapitel ist das stärkste, weil es persönlicher ist. Das ist auch tatsächlich mit der Linguistik verbunden. Die Museumsmetapher in Kapitel drei ist ellenlang. Der Rest besteht hauptsächlich aus handzahme Übersetzungen von Ideen aus englischsprachigen Texten.
Sitopia: How Food Can Save the World
by Carolyn Steel
DNF 8%
She invokves fucking Malthus in chapter 1, extending the idea that reproduction rates and the ‘lack of infrastrucutre’ are responsible for hunger and food waste in the Global South, deflecting blame from neo/colonialist capture, wealth extraction, and exploitation. She has some puzzle pieces with decent stats … Read more
Djinn City
Saad Z. Hossain
A sensitivity reader could transform a fair amount. It’s otherwise enveloping and droll.
Beneath the Rising
by Premee Mohamed
Flows well enough at the start but as soon as the stakes are set it becomes something like when you humour a friend who wants to recount an incoherent dream they had the night before. Lasting impressions are of unfunny banter, both connection and conflict that don’t ring … Read more
Eure Heimat ist unser Albtraum
by Fatma Aydemir (Editor)
Der Aufsatz von Otoo war der einprägsamste mit einem guten Lesefluss. Antirassistische Aufsätze auf Französisch und auf Deutsch jedoch geben öfters den Eindruck, dass sie weniger stringent sind. Dazu befinden sich die Bewegungen noch in der Anfangsphase und werden von gesellschaftlichen und politischen Kräften mit einem gewaltigen … Read more
In The End, It Was All About Love
by Musa Okwonga
Righteous Migrants: The poetic mythologizing is punctuatedly endearing while also infrequently connecting. My decade aligned most with “Today, Berlin Punches You In The Stomach” although the acts of racist aggression weren’t its most disturbing facet. Berlin is a self-righteous busybody gleeful to run you over to teach you … Read more
Lost in Work: Escaping Capitalism
by Amelia Horgan
Well intentioned but not damning nor transformative. There’s a flash of technosolutionism and ‘A taxonomy of slacking off’ in chapter 7 is embarrassing. Paraphrased: Some people take up smoking so they can take smoke breaks. Another thing you could do is learn a rare skill so your boss … Read more
Boy Parts
by Eliza Clark
That broad church reinscribes racist, misogynist, ableist thought, while the pettiness appears authentic to the author. It is wry and vivid, too.
Migrations
by Charlotte McConaghy
** spoiler alert **
The Futures of Feminism
by Valerie Bryson
In the introduction, after talking about trans rights, the overrepresentation of wealthy white women, and anticapitalism, she promotes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emma Watson, and Sheryl Sandberg. Despite arguing for coalitions and solidarity in difference, Bryson gives immoderate space to anti-trans fearmongering in chapter 4. There’s a school report … Read more
Moi les hommes, je les déteste
by Pauline Harmange
Terne. Un chapitre entier est consacré à expliquer pourquoi le sexisme inversé n’existe pas. Le livre ne répond pas aux attentes du titre. Pour un texte résonnant, je lirais à la place un chapitre de Mona Eltahawy, « Violence ».
Sorcières : La puissance invaincue des femmes
by Mona Chollet
L’auteure semble très fan du féminisme américain des années 1970. C’est presque en partie une biographie de Gloria Steinem qui est mentionnée 21 fois. Une autre partie est le récit complet d’intrigues tirées de livres, de séries télévisées, de films, d’articles du HuffPost. Sans surprise, elle ne comprend … Read more
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa
by Walter Rodney
DNF 12%
Excruciatingly of another era. Starts from false premises, does not question that man must dominate nature and that progress follows a single inexorable path from hunting communalism to slave-owning states to feudalism to capitalism to socialism. Permanent growth and producing for an anonymous market remain the … Read more
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
by Julia Serano
On cissexism:
The most common myth used to justify this cissexual privilege is the idea that cissexuals inherit the right to call themselves female or male by virtue of being born into that particular sex. In other words, cissexuals view their gender entitlement as a birthright. This is … Read more
La pensée blanche
by Lilian Thuram
C’est toujours une véritable révélation de trouver des livres antiracistes en français. Néanmoins cet ouvrage suit inévitablement la ligne française et les arguments sont parfois présentés sur la pointe des pieds. Il mentionne par exemple l’idée que c’est blessant d’exclure implicitement les blancs des espaces décoloniaux, même lorsque … Read more
Aphro-ism: Essays on Pop Culture, Feminism, and Black Veganism from Two Sisters
by Aph Ko, Syl Ko
Illuminating
Libérées !
by Titiou Lecoq
Le spectre d’une chaussette errante s’étand sur la moitié du livre pour insister lourdement l’inégalité de la répartition du travail ménager. Il y a aussi un chapitre qui explique pourquoi les femmes portent des sacs à main et un autre sur l’esthétique uniformisée par Instagram.
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire
by Akala
Trenchant
Undoing Border Imperialism
by Harsha Walia
Walia synthesises swirling frameworks of social justice, shares practical aspects of activism, and calls on us to overgrow the logics of capitalism and colonialism.
Border imperialism is structured by, first, the free flow of Western capital and plunder which creates mass displacements, while simultaneously securing Western borders against … Read more