The Right Kind of White, Garrett Bucks
The Right Kind of White, Garrett Bucks
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The Right Kind of White
A Memoir

Author: Garrett Bucks

Narrator: Garrett Bucks

Unabridged: 5 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/19/2024


Synopsis

A “deeply revealing and vulnerable memoir” (Kate Schatz, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Do the Work) that earnestly reckons with whiteness and explores how understanding one’s own white identity can create the racial accountability needed in the national discourse.

As the product of progressive parents and a liberal upbringing, Garrett Bucks prided himself on the pursuit of being a “good white person.”

The kind of white person who treats their privilege as a responsibility and not a burden; the kind of white person who people of color see as the peak example of racial allyship; the kind of white person who other white people might model their own aspirations of being “better” after.

But it’s Buck’s obsession with “goodness” that prevents him from building meaningful relationships, particularly those who look like him. The Right Kind of White charts Buck’s intellectual and emotional odyssey in his pursuit of this ideal whiteness, the price of its admission, and the work he’s doing to bridge the divide from those he once sought distance from.

About Garrett Bucks

Garrett Bucks is the founder of The Barnraisers Project, which has trained nearly one thousand participants to organize majority-white communities for racial and social justice. He is also the author of the popular newsletter The White Pages. Originally from Montana, he lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with his wife and two children. The Right Kind of White is his first book.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Erin on March 24, 2024

I’m very critical of memoirs because I think they can be hard to write successfully. Sometimes the writer focuses too much on one aspect of their life or maybe it’s not told in a cohesive way. But my biggest pet peeve about memoirs is that not everyone’s life warrants one. This is where I landed wit......more

Goodreads review by Kristin on February 14, 2024

This was such a fantastic read! My expectation going in was that Bucks was going to tell the reader how to be the right kind of white - how to become an ally against racism. Instead, Bucks takes us on a journey of examining our own identities in such an honest and vulnerable way. The vulnerability,......more

Goodreads review by Erica on June 21, 2024

I follow Garrett’s Substack and have liked that, and the promise of this book had me convinced I’d love it, but it was so so so much arbitrary life stuff and not nearly enough focus or dissection or discovery of the title subject. It felt like an afterthought of just telling the story of an average......more

Goodreads review by Amber on April 16, 2024

It takes courage to write an unflinching memoir like this, but I'm glad Bucks did as his story offers much to reflect on as we examine our own lives. This book is a must read for anyone who identifies as liberal and White. Bucks asks us to consider how we perform our commitment to antiracism (and by......more

Goodreads review by Ashley on March 04, 2024

I so admire and applaud the author's rigorous honesty in this book. His confessions made me think a lot about my own reasonings and challenged me to be more truthful about my intentions and desires when I show up as an ally, when I champion progressive causes, and when I decide to speak out. As some......more