Why Does Everything Have To Be About Race? (Adult nonfiction)

     I remember a brief shining evening in 2008. I was one of campaign volunteers going door to door, calling lists of strangers, subsisting on whatever was in the kitchen--a nutritionist's nightmare--to get Obama elected. We were standing around election night, quite fatigued, watching the election results trickle in. Then the electric moment when we learned that America had elected its first president of color. Surely things are going to be better...

     ...except it so didn't happen. There were some changes, both for the better and the worse, but a post racial nation never emerged from the mire of American politics...

     ...but there was now pressure to act like it had. Sure things were bad in the past, the narrative goes, but we've just elected a Black president. Therefore, we're in post racial nirvana. So get with the program and stop kvetching already. Some people actually believed it...

     ...but others with a vested interest,  in status quo maintenance, like a certain president,  pushed the story with a vengeance.

     If, like me, you're really angry at all this bullshit being served up as gospel truth you're going to really appreciate Keith Boykin's Why Does Everything Have To Be About Race? Boykin clearly delineates twenty-five reasons in five categories that it has to be.

     In his first category, Erasing Black History, he explains why "Critical race theory is not indoctrinating kids to be 'woke'". It's aabout the misunderstood concept that has conservatives like Florida's Ron DeSantis banning books, white washing curriculum, and legislating what can and can't be discussed in classrooms.   

     In his second, Centering white victimhood, in White Americans still benefit from the legacy of slavery, he delineates all the ways in which the imbalances that started with the institution of involuntary servitude have been perpetuated and magnified through the centuries. 

     In his third, Denying Black Oppression, he gives all the reasons why complying with the police is not sufficient to protect Blacks. Why Black parents have to have the talk with their kids while white parents can blithely assure their sons and daughters that Mr. Policeman is their friend. 

     In his fourth, myths of Black inferiority, he shatters the illusion, fostered by the welfare queen stereotype, that more Blacks than whites are on welfare.

     In his fifth, Rebranding Racism he analyzes why countering Black Lives Matter with All Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter is just plain wrong.  

     And he deftly dissects twenty other areas of racial misinformation currently making the rounds. If you want resources to counter the racist bullshit you're probably encountering Why Does Everything Have To Be About Race is a for sure must read. 

On a purrrsonal note, today was the successful second day of the blood drive. I don't know the numbers yet, but we got good donors and excellent volunteers. The mood was upbeat. Nobody fainted either day. What more could one ask for? Before the drive I hit the Orono Thrift Shop. Mostly for Christmas 🎄 gifts. But I'm keeping the cat Christmas mug I found for myself.

Oh, yeah, the great reveal I promised yesterday. I will be able to get my third cat tattoo before Christmas break. I can hardly wait  

A great big shout out goes out to everyone who contributed to making the blood drive a great success and the super volunteers who run Orono Thrift Shop.

Jules Hathaway 

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