White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color Paperback – October 6, 2020

Wonderfully written and thought provoking. The author showcased the oppression of various women of color. I learned so much about other women of color through reading this book. White Feminism is very real and the author backed it up with historical facts

Truth about how women of color are treated every day in the so-called “developed world.”An excellent read and should be required reading for anyone who truly wants to have an inclusive community.

This book does such a great job of exposing how white women leverage their privilege and power to keep white supremacy in place. I especially appreciated a more global perspective of how white women's behavior affects women of color (no matter how white they may seem or look) around the world. The author does a great job of unpacking many of the harmful and limiting stereotypes women of color are categorized by and that information and understanding is incredibly useful in countering those tropes within myself and in the world at large. This book pulls no punches and does not sugarcoat anything to cater to anyone's white fragility. Because of that, I found this book very valuable in understanding a perspective outside my own and came to realize more how my behavior as a white women can do irreparable harm to women of color. White women need to choose a different way. Highly recommend.

This book should be required reading in schools all over the world. I'm not sure how to sit and soak in everything I've learnt and the new frameworks through which I can process my experiences, but I'm gonna try. Absolutely need to do a reread in the future.

This book explains white women's tears and how they use their tears as a mechanism of defense, a retreat to safety, and ultimately, a tactic for silencing and controlling women of color. The author provides various explanations and real life occurrences to validate and support this fact (ex. The Angry Black Woman, “Karen,” “BBQ Becky”). The book has a ton of history about the initial suffering of women of color amid colonization. She also explains how white women where co-conspirators in colonizing races of color and how they were not “pure” angels as they’d like us to believe, not then and not now. Today, white women use their tears and their privilege to oppress women of color all while portraying that they are for all women (white feminism). She touches on how colonized women were not considered “women” as evident in being the “inferior” race and not being able to own their bodies having being forcibly raped and abused. White women were the standard and representation of a “woman” and white men were the representation of what was considered a “man.” How can women of color even be apart of a movement for all women (feminist movement) when colored women are not viewed as women to begin with? I personally enjoyed reading this book. I rate it a 4/5 simply because I felt the author became rather repetitive and redundant as she too often drove the same point home. It was almost as if I was rereading the same page again with a little added information or instances.

This book does a phenomenal job of looking at white women’s role in the persistence of white supremacy. Instead of placing the blame solely on white men, the author details where white women have been the backbone and driving force behind some aspects of racism. This is accomplished through the use of anecdotes and research. The book was enlightening as well as emotionally difficult to read. But, if we want to change the way the world is, we all need to be willing to look at and acknowledge the hard things, what is not working and what is toxic. We all need to be willing to change.

What a powerful and thought-provoking book! I would recommend that all women read it. I remember being asked if I was FIRST a black person or a woman back in the late 1960's when both the Civil Rights and Women's Movements were in their prime. It seems that I made the "right" choice: I have been able to minimize the scars - I guess that I've always known!

Ruby's honest approach to the systemic racism in existence today and white woman's contributions to it are exactly what we as a culture need to hear. So many of us (white people) are raised to believe that the struggles of nonwhite people are over, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Ruby does a wonderful job painting a vivid picture of the struggles encountered by women (and men) of color, something of which- in my opinion- white people, especially women, desperately need to be made aware.