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A review by bashsbooks
The Klansman's Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism by R. Derek Black
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.5
As one might expect from a book titled The Klansman's Son, this is an intense read. Black is meticulous in outlining his youth as well as the tenets of white nationalism, giving the reader as much context as possible for understanding how their life was, and how they have changed and grown into who they are today. The amount of work they've done in unlearning their family's beliefs and getting directly involved in combating those beliefs is, frankly, hard for me to fathom even after hearing them explain it. They're clearly very conscious and thoughtful, as their phrasings seemed deliberate without coming across as disingenuous. As someone with a conservative family that I've tried to break from and speak out against (though my family is nowhere near as prolific or right-wing as Black's), I related to much of the shame, guilt, and avoidance that they discussed, and I found their experiences to be inspiring to help me move beyond my past within those beliefs and toward a more inclusive and antibigoted future.
Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Mass/school shootings, and Colonisation
Minor: Child death and Pandemic/Epidemic
-Death threats & threats of violence, including against children