Book Review By: Stephanie LampIn White like Me it’s kind of hard to see Tim Wises’ main point for writing about this specific topic. He writes about numerous experiences he has gone through and explains why he feels so strongly about being an anti-racist man, but never flat out says “this is my main point.” So if I had to give the main point for White like Me I would say it’s to inform us, the reader how racism is still and always will be a big deal. Wise wants us to not forget the fact that racism is such a horrible thing; he wants us to try and change that through the little things we can do.
Wise starts his book explaining his life a bit, talking about his family and the schools he went to. He doesn’t really start giving specific occasions that he has gone through until the last few chapters of the book. In the first chapters he mostly states his opinion on racism. How he loathes it, and wishes things could be different, criticizing whites all along the way. How horrible white people are and how right when their born they already have a automatic privilege into this world.
I chose this book thinking it was something completely different then what it was. I assumed that this story would be about a man who grew up in a royal or upper class family, and how he saw himself have more privileges then other races around him. White like Me turned out to be the exact opposite of my assumption of this book. He wasn’t a poor man but definitely wasn’t royalty. To be completely honest I don’t think I would have chosen this particular story if I knew it was going to be the way it was. White like Me wasn’t a horrible story, once you read into it more. I would explain it as a difficult read. Wise tends to be very repetitive in this, as a was reading the first few chapters he was pretty much saying what he had said in the first chapter, just worded differently, or added something else here and there.
I think Wise covered the material he wanted to cover perfectly, was it interesting while reading his material? No! to be completely honest I don’t like the way Wise wrote this book. I think he could have caught more interest from the reader if he used more
experiences and stories of times when he had seen first hand racism going on. Those are facts people can’t argue with facts, they can on the other hand argue with opinion. I think that’s why he’s criticized so much for writing this book. Not only is he looking down on his own race, but he’s constantly stating his opinion on that matter. Wise I’m sure is a very wonderful man, and I respect him for all the great things he’s doing by bringing awareness to young adults and teens about racism. I just think he could have written this book a lot differently.
After hearing about this book and reading this review I can tell that this was not an enjoyable book to read. Although I do feel that Wise has something important to say in his writing. I think he was trying establish the point that one must work and try not to be raciest and it is important for us to recognize the problem society faces with race. I'm curious to know more about this book after what I have heard and even though both reviewers of this book have claimed in uninteresting I feel I will be picking up a copy of it to read myself.
ReplyDeleteTo me it doesn't even sound like you read through the entire book. You also described it as a story, it is more of a reflective autobiography in which he analyzes many common experiences for privileged whites in which he sees race playing a key role. You might give it another read and reconsider what you've said here.
ReplyDelete