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A review by graveyardpansy
Not "A Nation of Immigrants": Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, and a History of Erasure and Exclusion by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
3.0
3.5 ⭐️ — i agree with the overall thesis, but this book didn’t reveal anything new to me personally and it did feel a little disorganized.
my main frustration is the author calling settler-colonial logic a “deep psychosis.” invoking mental illness to describe bigotry is! not! it! i will never accept people defaulting to ableist language as a way of describing right-wing views. it isn’t accurate, it isn’t kind, and it certainly isn’t revolutionary.
i also wasn’t expecting the book to start off by deconstructing Hamilton. everything i’ve ever heard abt that musical has been against my will and i understand it’s used to discuss how many USAmercians view history but i just…. i personally struggle to care at all about hamilton. I know it sucks, i’ve always known it sucks, i’m tired of it.
i read the audiobook, and this is just personal preference, but i strongly dislike when narrators do impressions of the people they quote. that happens a LOT in this book.
the book is also repetitive at times, i.e. the idea of arrivants was introduced and defined twice, which felt unnecessary.
if you don’t understand the depth of the USA’s settler-colonial nature, this may be a good starting point, but it just wasn’t for me.
my main frustration is the author calling settler-colonial logic a “deep psychosis.” invoking mental illness to describe bigotry is! not! it! i will never accept people defaulting to ableist language as a way of describing right-wing views. it isn’t accurate, it isn’t kind, and it certainly isn’t revolutionary.
i also wasn’t expecting the book to start off by deconstructing Hamilton. everything i’ve ever heard abt that musical has been against my will and i understand it’s used to discuss how many USAmercians view history but i just…. i personally struggle to care at all about hamilton. I know it sucks, i’ve always known it sucks, i’m tired of it.
i read the audiobook, and this is just personal preference, but i strongly dislike when narrators do impressions of the people they quote. that happens a LOT in this book.
the book is also repetitive at times, i.e. the idea of arrivants was introduced and defined twice, which felt unnecessary.
if you don’t understand the depth of the USA’s settler-colonial nature, this may be a good starting point, but it just wasn’t for me.