Reflection on "Me and White Supremacy" by Layla F Saad

In recent weeks, I made a commitment to dedicating more time to learning how to become a better ally to BIPOC, and how I can best practice anti-racism in my daily life.  I want to start this post by saying I am in no way trying to centre myself here and make myself look like a “good” white ally, but I think this book is incredibly important and I want to use my small platform to highlight it to my readers as an essential tool for our education. Myself and some friends started a book circle in which we share anti-racist education books and books by BIPOC, and the one I started with was Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F Saad. This is not so much a review, as I don’t feel it is beneficial to rate the book out of 10; rather it is a reflection on what I learnt from it and how I will use the book going forward.

This was by no means an easy book to read and work through. It is formatted into 28 days worth of lessons, each of which comes with several journaling prompts which force you to look deep inside yourself and confront any feelings and thoughts you may have which have contributed to the existence of white supremacy and racism. I’ll be honest, I went into this book thinking that I had in no way contributed to the problem, that I was a great ally, and that reading this book was only going to highlight that to me. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Me and White Supremacy made me reflect on every aspect of my character. It made me recognise that even though I hadn’t realised it, I had in some way contributed to the problem. Just because it’s subconscious, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause harm. I realised that we all internalise thoughts and feelings from the world around us, a world which is built on white supremacy, and so almost inevitably we have had our part to play in the oppression of BIPOC. It was difficult to recognise this about myself, but it fast became clear that just because a person doesn’t say racist things or engage in racist actions, simply by remaining silent in situations of injustice because it could make things “awkward” if you said something, or by not actively trying to uplift BIPOC, you are upholding your white privilege and therefore are contributing to the problem.

Reading this book has strengthened my commitment to being a good ally to BIPOC, and I intend to make it a priority of mine to help dismantle the systems of oppression which have been in place for too long already. Racism is a problem for white people to eradicate, and it’s high time we accepted that and did our part to help BIPOC and to move towards a more equal society. I am committed to never allowing a situation of injustice to pass without calling it out for what it is, and I am dedicated to continuing my education, and to anyone else who is ready to start doing the work, there is no better starting place than this book. Buy it here.