White Tears/Brown Scars

Thank you to Catapult Press for the review copy!

Ruby Hamad had a moment of panic when an article she wrote for The Guardian went viral. The article was about white women's tears and how they are often used as a weapon in white feminism against people of color. She shut down her Twitter account briefly out of fear of being attacked. She brought her account back online in order to stand behind her work.

In this, her first book, Hamad expands on the ideas from her essay and talks about white feminism and how it impacts women of color. Hamad herself is Arab so has some personal experience being on the "outside" of some aspects of white feminism. The book is well-researched with lots of cases across different ethnicities. the book is eye-opening and important for women to read, particularly white women, so they can understand how some actions that they may perceive as being helpful to women are not in fact helpful to all women.

White Tears/Brown Scars is a book that white women need to read. It's not the job of BIPOC women to teach white women about the harm they cause, but we are lucky that authors like Ruby Hamad create books like this one so learning can happen.

It is a book that grapples with how the patriarchy weaponizes white women, and how white women have perpetuated campaigns of oppression.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts are my own.

“Whiteness can and does exist even in the absence of white people.”

I really hope this quote stayed in the final copy because this hit hard. I’ve been expanding my reading material to more sociological topics, including BIPOC feminism like this title. The author does not keep to an American focus, but instead expands a look at the consequences of white feminism on a global scale. The author, who I believe wrote from Australia, makes significant observances on how white women, through the “gift of civilization,” participated in irreparably damaging the lives of Aboriginal Australians and their children.

The author doesn’t so much as blame these women, but accuses the indication that white women are the damsels that are the kind face in opposition to the sternness of their male counterparts. This is a must read for anyone looking to understand current (see: ongoing but now accepted to notice) issues, both in the United States and across the globe.

An urgent and necessary read for everyone. Delving into the history of various feminist movements and how they often center around white women to the exclusion of women of color, Hamad writes a provocative book that seeks to examine where we've been and where we can go. Mixing in personal experiences, anecdotes from her own life as well as acquaintances that have shared, alongside research and historical information This is an informative and important exploration into how we can reform feminism for now and in the future.

It takes me a little longer to read non-fiction books as I tend to read only about a chapter at a time to digest what I've read. This was an outstanding read in my opinion. While written more towards women of color, it's a book that white women should read. There were some lines that really spoke to me, the following as a sample “White women can oscillate between their gender and their race, between being the oppressed and the oppressor. Women of color are never permitted to exist outside of these constraints: we are both women and people of color and we are always seen and treated as such.” WOW

This book was very good. I annotated a majority of the book. Hamad touches many cultures of women and how history and time have viewed them compared to the white woman. I appreciate the inclusion of the bibliography and notes at the end in order for allies to continue to pursue self-education and further research.