Books wot I have read lately
Oct. 29th, 2009 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
highlyeccentricJust finished reading Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Lips and Other Parts, ed. Ayana Bird and Akiba Solomon.
Composed of personal essays and interviews with famous and not-so-famous black women, the book is set at an easier reading level than most of the things I read (remember - I read big fat academic books for *fun*), but the content is not all easy-going.
The advantage of a compilation is that it allows you to pick up on repeated themes and common experiences, without fostering the illusion that every single black woman has the same experience. Quite a lot of the things which flew past me at high speed during and after Racefail make more sense now. Hair was a recurring theme: for every four or five women reporting strife with curl relaxers and hatred of their natural hair, there were one or two protesting that they can do whatever they damn well please with their hair, it oughtn't to be a reflection of their intelligence or attitude to race, and one or two complaining that their *naturally* straight or wavy hair isolated them as not "black enough". Likewise, skin shade and country of residence and class background.
Call me lazy, but I found this book an easier way to start expanding the boundaries of my ignorance than the frenzied waters of Racefail. I can't accidentally anger, annoy, hurt, or bore a book if I misunderstand it, or have the temerity to think I did understand it, or accidentally express my appreciation of its words in the wrong way. A book can't get offended if I don't understand it, and I can't ask a book for explanations. In short, what I picked up from Racefail was "go away and educate yourself before you come near this conversation". Mostly, I just went away. I didn't have the *time* to invest in following the conversation, or in the fast-moving comms like Racism_101. I meant to start reading more non-white person's fiction, following K's sterling example - but I find fiction nigh impossible to read these days. Then this book fell across my path, and it was there, it was non-fiction, it was on topics that I'm kind of fixated on at the moment (gender, sexuality, body image), and I figured it was as good a place to start as any.
I think I learnt something about race and race dynamics. I'm not sure. Is it faily to say that what struck me most in these stories was the non-race specific parts? The parts about sexuality, about the way attitudes to sex and gender and intelligence and proper behaviour are formed and ingrained into you. Some of the really navel-gazy posts I put up a couple of weeks ago were prompted by things I'd read in this book. Ayana Bird pointed out that there's a difference between knowing about *sex* and knowing about *sexuality*, and that explained a lot to me - like her, I had very good information on the one, and none at all on the other.
I hope that, while many of these articles made me think about myself, they also taught me something. I guess I'll know they have if, next time I see something race-related, I can interpret it in the context of something I read here.
Speaking of compilations of personal essays, Leah Purcell's Black Chicks Talking is *excellent*. I read it in year eleven, I think for the indigenous unit in religious studies. I can't remember much of the actual content now, but I do remember that I read pretty much straight through and found it fascinating and educational.
Composed of personal essays and interviews with famous and not-so-famous black women, the book is set at an easier reading level than most of the things I read (remember - I read big fat academic books for *fun*), but the content is not all easy-going.
The advantage of a compilation is that it allows you to pick up on repeated themes and common experiences, without fostering the illusion that every single black woman has the same experience. Quite a lot of the things which flew past me at high speed during and after Racefail make more sense now. Hair was a recurring theme: for every four or five women reporting strife with curl relaxers and hatred of their natural hair, there were one or two protesting that they can do whatever they damn well please with their hair, it oughtn't to be a reflection of their intelligence or attitude to race, and one or two complaining that their *naturally* straight or wavy hair isolated them as not "black enough". Likewise, skin shade and country of residence and class background.
Call me lazy, but I found this book an easier way to start expanding the boundaries of my ignorance than the frenzied waters of Racefail. I can't accidentally anger, annoy, hurt, or bore a book if I misunderstand it, or have the temerity to think I did understand it, or accidentally express my appreciation of its words in the wrong way. A book can't get offended if I don't understand it, and I can't ask a book for explanations. In short, what I picked up from Racefail was "go away and educate yourself before you come near this conversation". Mostly, I just went away. I didn't have the *time* to invest in following the conversation, or in the fast-moving comms like Racism_101. I meant to start reading more non-white person's fiction, following K's sterling example - but I find fiction nigh impossible to read these days. Then this book fell across my path, and it was there, it was non-fiction, it was on topics that I'm kind of fixated on at the moment (gender, sexuality, body image), and I figured it was as good a place to start as any.
I think I learnt something about race and race dynamics. I'm not sure. Is it faily to say that what struck me most in these stories was the non-race specific parts? The parts about sexuality, about the way attitudes to sex and gender and intelligence and proper behaviour are formed and ingrained into you. Some of the really navel-gazy posts I put up a couple of weeks ago were prompted by things I'd read in this book. Ayana Bird pointed out that there's a difference between knowing about *sex* and knowing about *sexuality*, and that explained a lot to me - like her, I had very good information on the one, and none at all on the other.
I hope that, while many of these articles made me think about myself, they also taught me something. I guess I'll know they have if, next time I see something race-related, I can interpret it in the context of something I read here.
Speaking of compilations of personal essays, Leah Purcell's Black Chicks Talking is *excellent*. I read it in year eleven, I think for the indigenous unit in religious studies. I can't remember much of the actual content now, but I do remember that I read pretty much straight through and found it fascinating and educational.