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Inclou el nom: Eli Saslow

Crèdit de la imatge: Journalist Eli Saslow at the 2018 Texas Book Festival in Austin, Texas, United States. By Larry D. Moore - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74049596

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Best Food Writing 2014 (2014) — Col·laborador — 54 exemplars

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I was hoping that this book would be an inspiring read. Being that it is written about a man who was brought up at basically ground zero of the white nationalist movement, I thought it would perhaps be rousing to hear how he came to reject this hateful rhetoric and want to fight for equality and human decency. However, it is actually an extremely alarming read. One is left feeling that we are losing the fight against this horrible movement but I think that is the purpose of the book. To let us know how society is being manipulated by white nationalists who are now in positions of power and that we cannot just stand by and not act. A lot of their rhetoric has been "sanitized" for public consumption and with it not being stated so blatantly, it is sadly being adopted as an acceptable belief. The book is well written and doesn't really malign Derek Black's family. I think the only assumption made here is that the reader and writer believe white nationalism is wrong and equality is our rightful goal. There is a lot of sympathy for a son walking away from a family who loves him dearly and supported him throughout his life in many ways. Unfortunately, some of those ways were to raise him with a gospel of hatred and groom him to take over the white nationalist movement. The book does kind of leave you hanging but that is because it is not a memoir of a past life as this is happening now and is our current societal plight. I would like to think that he will get to write a part two for the second half of his life where he gets to look back happily at how we managed to turn this all around and overcame a difficult time.… (més)
 
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JediBookLover | Hi ha 22 ressenyes més | Oct 29, 2022 |
Heartbreaking. Infuriating. Nauseating. Depressing. Unless, of course, you're someone who would never read this, and then it's a hoax, a scam, hyperbole. I demote this one notch for just one reason. It doesn't cover the stories that account for the Omicron mental shift, in which the pro-vaxxers show how much they have failed to grasp many of the fundamentals about the pandemic.
 
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larryerick | Oct 21, 2022 |
I've often wondered what it takes to change the mind and heart of a racist. I've believed it takes a personal experience with a Person of Color or of another nationality, where they discover that their blanket hatred is unfounded. But that may have been a bit naive. In today's culture of White Nationalism, racism comes at you with a half-smile. It's insidious because they aren't wearing the klan robes and swastikas. They are often polite to those who don't look like them, and say they believe in equality. However, it's primarily a means to an end. Somewhere along the line, white nationalists decided they had to go more mainstream to keep their twisted movement alive.

This is the story of a young man who was a part of that movement. He hosted a radio show for Stormfront, which was co-founded by his father. He was the godson of David Duke. Yep, that David Duke. He ended up going to a liberal college where he befriended Jewish people, immigrants, and African-Americans. But it still didn't quite help him turn a corner. I won't give away what finally led to his decision to renounce his beliefs, risk losing his family, who raised him to believe that whites were superior and at risk of 'genocide'. This book is well worth the read to find out.

It's also a testament to the widely held belief that Donald Trump is a walking dog whistle for this movement. He may not be a white nationalist himself, though many believe he is. But the facts are here, in his own words: he tries desperately to connect to those who share this hateful ideology, and in fact, leaders of the white nationalist movement acknowledge that Trump is perfecting what their playbook has been endorsing for years. He, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, and others like them are feeding the conflict and fanning the fires of racial division for their own purposes - ratings, fame, power - but in doing so, they are enabling the highest spike in hate crimes and hate groups in years. They are giving a voice and platform to those who have, for so many years, lived in the shadows.

Of course, the book also takes into account that the election of America's first African-American president heightened the intensity of the movement as well. They truly believed he was going to start a race war, and they loved Trump's narrative that he was secretly a Kenyan-born Muslim.

This is a book about what happens when you are raised on hatred and fear, and then have the intellectual curiosity and openness to explore the other side of your long-held beliefs. What happens when you ask questions, research hard facts, and learn your history. This young man's journey is captivating, troubling, and inspiring.
… (més)
 
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TommyHousworth | Hi ha 22 ressenyes més | Feb 5, 2022 |

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