An engaging reexamination of 21st century philanthropy.
Mitzen discusses the implications of racial privilege and the importance of giving back in this nonfiction work.
With more than $250 million in annual revenue, The Fingerpaint Group, a marketing firm founded by the author, made him and his wife, Lisa, “wealthier than we ever dreamed.” Indeed, when he sold the company in his early 50s, he declared that they would “never have to work again.” Inspired by the example of Andrew Carnegie, who invested vast sums of his wealth into communities across the nation in the early 20th century, the Mitzens soon thereafter founded the nonprofit Business for Good (BFG) to use their “business-building skills to help others.” This book, the author’s second work centered on the intersection of business and charity, is written “for wealthy white people” and includes anecdotes from BFG as a guide for other would-be philanthropists. Openly admitting that he and his wife “had no idea” what they were getting into, a central theme of the book is the author’s coming to terms with his own racial privilege. While careful not to “shame or guilt” successful white readers (“You worked hard for your wealth; enjoy it”), Mitzen acknowledges that white men have “a leg up on everyone.” The same “laws and customs” that created an environment for white entrepreneurs to thrive, he notes, are part of the very same system that closes doors to others. With a keen sense of the history and legacy of racism in America, the book also contextualizes economic inequalities, describing, for example, how Black wealth in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was stolen in the 1921 massacre. Written in an authentic, conversational style that leans heavily into four-letter swear words, this is a solid introduction to systemic racism for skeptical, affluent white readers. The book provides ample examples (accompanied by photographs) of how BFG combined business acumen with solution–driven approaches that extended well beyond simply “writing checks to worthy nonprofits and watching passively.”
An engaging reexamination of 21st century philanthropy.Pub Date: May 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781544540993
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Lioncrest Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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