Booknote: Surrender, White People!

D.L. Hughley and Doug Moe, Surrender, White People!: Our Unconditional Terms For Peace. New York: William Morrow, 2020. ISBN: 9780062953704. 

Genre: nonfiction
Subgenre: humor, race relations
Format: e-book galley
Source: NetGalley

I recently finished D.L. Hughley's latest book. This is their plan to get some racial peace and reconciliation in the United States. Here is what Hughley means in a nutshell:

"Peace and reconciliation will only happen, I believe, when white people surrender their unjust privileges and their delusions of 'supremacy.' Look your history in the face, put aside all your visions of superiority, open up your institutions so they benefit everyone in this nation, and join the rest of us as equals. That's what I mean by surrender" (9). 

That's a seriously tall order, but Hughley perseveres and presents a peace treaty to show it can be done. In six articles of surrender, Hughley details the plan with a blend of serious, evidence support argument and humor. A strength of the book is in the evidence presented. The author looks to history and current events to illustrate his points. Much of that history is left out of mainstream (read here mainly white) history books. By the way, that also illustrates the need for blacks and whites to align the history books, which is Article II of the surrender terms. I will note that I have taken courses in African American history, at the graduate school level even. I thought I was relatively well read and informed. I found myself learning some new things and wondering why I was not taught those things in those courses. If nothing else, this book has encouraged me to go out, do a bit more research, and read some more. I hope this book does that for others as well.

Like his previous book, How Not To Get Shot (link to my review), this book is a relatively easy read. It is not some academic treatise on race or such. Language is straightforward and accessible, which is another strength of the book. Some people might complain other books on race are too abstract or have too much academic theory. They cannot use that excuse here. This is an accessible and easy to read text. It raises points of discussion that may not be easy to talk about but are necessary to discuss. To be honest, and I said this about his previous book, perhaps this is the kind of book to read in some campus book groups instead of yet another dry academic treatise that no one outside of academia really reads. Hughley succeeds in taking a complex and sensitive topic and making it clear and accessible for all readers. I know not many white people want to read on race, but if you get to hand them one book to read this may be it.

Overall, I think this is essential reading. I highly recommend it for libraries to include along other books on the topic. I do wish he offered a list of references or suggested further readings, but otherwise this is a very good book. Well worth reading.

5 out of 5 stars.

* * * * * 

Additional reading notes:

The book is arranged as follows:

• Introduction: Surrender, White People!
• The Terms of Our Peace Treaty
• Article I: White People Shall Consider Reparations
• Article II: History Books Shall Be Aligned
• Article III: We Shall Endeavor to Understand Each Other
• Article IV: We Shall Deal with the White Supremacy Problem
• Article V: We Shall Be Un-oppressed
• Article VI: We are Part of America
• Conclusion'

When whites whine why is everything about race, you can start with this reply:

"Everything's about race, because in America, it's always been about race here. The places we could work and live, the places we could eat, the places we could go to school" (9). 

Why it was not enough to just free the slaves:

"You gave us the right not to be slaves anymore, but then you changed the vagrancy laws, the housing laws, and the voting laws to make it almost impossible for us to really be free. All these changes were just designed to keep us slaves. You reincarnated the incarceration" (11).

No, poor whites are not like the rich white, and they need to break out of that illusion:

"Poor white people are under the illusion that they're like the rich white people they see on TV, but they're not. With no jobs, no support system, they can't deal with the fact that they aren't getting what they were promised from the American Dream. They are supposed to be in charge, respected and revered. Instead, they're ignored and forgotten. That strain, that disconnect, is making them do drugs, commit suicide, and drink themselves to death" (64).

The above reminds me of this quote:

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as  temporarily embarrassed millionaires"  --Ronald Wright, A short history of progress.

Hughley's problem with write supremacy, aside from their racist fuckery:

"My white supremacy problem is it ain't truth in advertising. Stephen Miller? Steve Bannon? Mitch McConnell? Have you see these motherfuckers? You wanna continue the white race? Well, you've gotta be able to get laid. Damn, the white supremacists these days look like shit. Nobody looks at Bannon and thinks, That's a supreme specimen of humanity" (75).

Why whites recently and suddenly have a problem with America:

"The reason white people now have a problem with America is because it looks different than they thought it did. They are just now really getting to know America, and they don't like here. We've always known her" (120). 

Not just Blacks. Latinos, Asians, and other non-white and/or oppressed minorities have always known her.

* * * * * 

Book qualifies for these 2020 Reading Challenges:

#ArcApocalypse