One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad is a bold, raw reckoning with Western ideals, their promises, and their failures. Written with passion and urgency, this book captures El Akkad’s profound disillusionment with a system that he feels has betrayed its promises, especially toward Black, brown, and Indigenous people. This disillusionment is something many Westerners may struggle to grasp fully, but El Akkad’s perspective is valuable for understanding the worldviews of those often marginalized or overlooked.

Reading this book felt intense, almost like being reprimanded by someone who has seen too much suffering and betrayal to stay silent. While El Akkad’s anger is at times overwhelming, his fury is born of experience, loss, and hard truths that demand to be acknowledged. As a white Midwestern man, I found myself grappling with some of his points, often feeling unable to fully relate but knowing his perspective is crucial and rooted in realities I may never fully experience or understand.

Though I don’t connect with his experiences directly, the book touched me on a fundamental level: as a human, I could empathize with his pain and frustration. And while I wouldn’t put my family or their well-being on the line for any ideology, I do believe this book serves as a powerful opportunity to listen to voices we seldom hear in mainstream narratives. This isn’t a book that seeks comfort or acceptance—it’s a challenge to see the cracks in Western ideals and the real impact of their shortcomings.

For anyone ready to confront these uncomfortable truths, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is worth the read. It’s thought-provoking and important, a true book for our time.