A mostly well-argued, deeply felt treatise on the links among language, racism, and redemption.
A Black writer argues that the American inability to face the nation’s racist past is directly related to a lack of vocabulary to describe the violence of White supremacy.
Pitner, the founder of the Sustainable Culture Lab, begins his cogent analysis by introducing the word ethnocide, a term created by Polish Jewish refugee Raphael Lemkin, who immigrated to the U.S. to escape the horrors of World War II. Unlike genocide, which Lemkin also coined, ethnocide describes the practice of erasing “a people’s culture while keeping the people,” a term the author says perfectly describes American slavery. Pitner argues that naming this violence not only gives us the tools to properly digest the atrocities wrought upon Black bodies throughout history, but also to face what must be done to repair American society. To complement the concept of ethnocide, the author presents a few other terms that may be unfamiliar to readers, including polderen, a Dutch word that “articulates the importance of equality and an attachment to place when forging culture,” and poshlyi, a Russian word for vulgarity, which Pitner uses to articulate the damage wrought by Donald Trump and his administration. The author ends the book by discussing naissance and ethnogenesis, both of which he uses to describe the generation of new, more equitable cultural practices that he hopes can redefine the U.S. At its best, this heavily researched book shimmers with creativity and intelligence, expertly balancing realism, optimism, and honesty. At times, though, it can be difficult to keep track of the barrage of terminology, especially since a new word is introduced almost every chapter. Additionally, Pitner draws almost exclusively from White, male, European philosophers; one of the few exceptions is Gandhi, whose problematic attitudes regarding race make him a curious choice for a book that celebrates Black resilience.
A mostly well-argued, deeply felt treatise on the links among language, racism, and redemption.Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64009-484-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Counterpoint
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
For Howard Zinn, long-time civil rights and anti-war activist, history and ideology have a lot in common. Since he thinks that everything is in someone's interest, the historian—Zinn posits—has to figure out whose interests he or she is defining/defending/reconstructing (hence one of his previous books, The Politics of History). Zinn has no doubts about where he stands in this "people's history": "it is a history disrespectful of governments and respectful of people's movements of resistance." So what we get here, instead of the usual survey of wars, presidents, and institutions, is a survey of the usual rebellions, strikes, and protest movements. Zinn starts out by depicting the arrival of Columbus in North America from the standpoint of the Indians (which amounts to their standpoint as constructed from the observations of the Europeans); and, after easily establishing the cultural disharmony that ensued, he goes on to the importation of slaves into the colonies. Add the laborers and indentured servants that followed, plus women and later immigrants, and you have Zinn's amorphous constituency. To hear Zinn tell it, all anyone did in America at any time was to oppress or be oppressed; and so he obscures as much as his hated mainstream historical foes do—only in Zinn's case there is that absurd presumption that virtually everything that came to pass was the work of ruling-class planning: this amounts to one great indictment for conspiracy. Despite surface similarities, this is not a social history, since we get no sense of the fabric of life. Instead of negating the one-sided histories he detests, Zinn has merely reversed the image; the distortion remains.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1979
ISBN: 0061965588
Page Count: 772
Publisher: Harper & Row
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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