Jim Fulner reviewed Racial Sobriety by Clarence Earl Williams
2 stars
Although two decades old it is as if it was taken from today's headlines. returnreturnRacial Sobriety is written by a Catholic priest from Detroit who is of African American decent. It has a wonderful premise, take the 12 steps of AA and apply it to the problem of white supremacy, both for ourselves as individuals and our society as a whole. Once I saw it on the shelf of my church library I knew I had to read it, not only for myself but because I was sure my friend Mikester would love it. Mikester may or may not love it, I'm not sure, but I did not. I started reading it in January and even though it is less than 200 pages long, didn't finish it until August. returnreturnThe book talks about Recovery From Racism®. The fact someone bothered registering a trade mark for such must mean someone thinks …
Although two decades old it is as if it was taken from today's headlines. returnreturnRacial Sobriety is written by a Catholic priest from Detroit who is of African American decent. It has a wonderful premise, take the 12 steps of AA and apply it to the problem of white supremacy, both for ourselves as individuals and our society as a whole. Once I saw it on the shelf of my church library I knew I had to read it, not only for myself but because I was sure my friend Mikester would love it. Mikester may or may not love it, I'm not sure, but I did not. I started reading it in January and even though it is less than 200 pages long, didn't finish it until August. returnreturnThe book talks about Recovery From Racism®. The fact someone bothered registering a trade mark for such must mean someone thinks they will make money off of it. Presumably Fr. Williams, but maybe its the publisher? (The institute for Recovery from Racism's website mentioned in the book, ifrfr.org goes to a not found result so whoever was trying to probably didn't make any money) That little circle R almost makes me want to vomit. We also don't travel through the whole twelve steps. I'm not really sure what the point was other to have a form of reference? returnreturnIt's not all bad, there are good points about how white supremacy effects all of us, even those who think they aren't racist. I did appreciate the use of the 20 year old term "heterosexualism" rather than the inaccurate current term "homophobia", though I suspect my friends would say I prefer the term because I am homophobic. I don't think I am but I digress.