REVIEW: Good White Racist?

Seeing ourselves as others see us

SIX STARS.

This is the book that every white Evangelical should read. It is direct,
clear, honest, funny, and entirely human while also embracing the love and
divine calling of Jesus in our lives to effect change in our world as we bring
the healing and the forgiveness and the restoration of God.

A lot of white people are looking to understand why it is that “suddenly”
there is so much uproar and so many discussions about white people, white
Evangelicals, and the white church. This is a good book to help walk through
this, but even more it is a book that will help us white people look at
ourselves more clearly and with fewer filters to smooth out our wrinkles and
hide our flaws.

It’s not necessarily an easy book to read, although it is written with a
clear, bracing, compassionate style. It will be hard to read because it is like
having someone sit you down and say, “As your friend, I need to tell you
something about myself that I also see in you, and it’s something that’s
bringing harm to people.”

This book will not change you, of course, because no book can do that. BUT
if you read the book and feel any sense of empathy, compassion, or community with the Beloved Community, to use the phrase that Dr. King popularized, you will find some useful tools to unpack what it is about us white people that we can remain so unknowing about how we are acting to the rest of the world, and offer some great ways to take action, at many levels of ability, to make changes in ourselves and in the world that has become so scarred, broken, and hopeless.

When I read works by people like Kerry Connelly, I am inspired and a little wistful that I wish I could be this direct, open, and honest about myself and the world I inhabit. But — I’m not waiting for that moment; instead, I’m taking what I learned and I’m going to apply it.

From the publisher:

“A no-nonsense call to action for all those willing to confront their complicity, Good White Racist? promises ‘This is going to be hard, and you are going to be…