Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness is picture book released in 2008, written and illustrated by Anastasia HIgginbotham. The book is about racism and racial justice, inviting white children and parents to become curious about racism, accept that it’s real, and cultivate justice.
Plot
Not My Idea: A Book about Whiteness follows an elementary-age kid as she asks her mother inquiries about the new homicide of an unarmed black person by a white cop. However, in this book, the white mother offers false platitudes ("Our family is thoughtful to everybody. We don't see color"), refuses to take part in genuine discourse with her little girl, and even locks the car door when they pass through a predominantly black neighborhood.
At this point, the book's storyteller steps in to clarify that “skin color makes a difference in how the world sees you and in how you see the world.” As the pages turn, we watch the white young lady start to see her reality once more: the manner in which the store security guard watches out for the dark child and scarcely sees the white child, the manner in which her auntie gets some distance from racial injustice on the TV, the manner in which history is loaded up with white individuals "who have carried out incredible violations against black people for a very long time" and furthermore with“people who love justice” and "have been retaliating".”[1]
Anti-racism value
This book takes on the subject of white advantage in a way that that makes the subject available to children. The book recounts the narrative of a white kid seeing news about a police shooting on the TV while their mom attempts to occupy them and reveals to them that they are protected. Yet, that isn't what the kid is worried about, they need to know why they are treated differently in stores than black kids and how this occurred. The book wrestles with how white kids and grown-ups can do to combat racism and get involved in social justice. It pushes children to stand up, even to their own family who are expressing bigoted thoughts. It discusses the idea of "not seeing race" and afterward plainly clarifies why that isn't accurate.[2]
In the back of the book are a few activity pages that disclose to the reader how one can be white without marking onto Whiteness, and how to start taking part in anti-racist work ourselves. Not My Idea is an inconceivably important book, one that we should all be using as a catalyst for anti-racist education.[3]
References
- ↑ Schwehn, Kaethe (2020). Talking to white kids about what whiteness means. Retrieved on December 31, 2020.
- ↑ Tasha (2020). REVIEW: NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS BY ANASTASIA HIGGINBOTHAM. Retrieved on December 31, 2020.
- ↑ NOT MY IDEA: A BOOK ABOUT WHITENESS. Retrieved on December 31, 2020.