✨Book Review✨White Like Her by Gail Lukasik I read this book for my bookclub, and would not have picked this book up on my own. I know I can be somewhat nit-picky about books and how they are written, but this one in particular grated on my nerves. From the first chapter I was in dislike, not with the actual story of Gail Lukasik learning about her family, but of the way in which she wrote about this journey she took herself on. I understood why and how she felt the need to learn more about her ancestry, but I felt like she wrote this from a white woman’s gaze who wanted people to take sympathy in her naivety about her not knowing anything about her mixed heritage. To me, the book was empty. Other than writing a book about the journey she went on to find out her mother’s race, the rest of the book was empty filler and uninteresting. Her point of view sounded like she was teaching white people about something she just learned, but in fact has been here for hundreds of generations. “Passing” is nothing new in the Black community. It does come with great trepidation, especially if one is caught trying to “pass,” but it can also come with great rewards for being able to step over the color line and not look back. It can also be isolating and harrowing, living your life in fear of being found out, but also never able to really be yourself… always pretending. I felt like this book was a behind-the-scenes view of what she went through to write her book and also learn about her mixed race heritage from the Genealogy Roadshow. I also felt like this book was a bore and did not uplift the Black community at all with her learning of how rich her ancestry actually is, she sounded very ashamed in many ways to find out she has some Black ancestry in her heritage. Even after she learns she has some Black heritage, she’s very careful to share how small the percentage actually is, to be sure to other white people, that it’s nothing crazy, it’s only a drop, so I’m still safe and white, and … and… and… (Continued in comments) #mrdrc21 #librarybook #whitelikeher https://www.instagram.com/maddblackreads/p/CYCj1lFPwzL/?utm_medium=tumblr
