#Non-fiction White Too Long
- Author: Robert P. Jones
- Title: White Too Long
- Published: 2020 July 7 chapters, 320 pages
- List of Challenges 2020
- Monthly reading plan
- My list of books about black lives
- Score: 5 ++++++
- #20BooksOfSummer20
Introduction:
- Drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience,
- Robert P. Jones delivers an examination of the
- relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy.
What is white supremacy?
It is not hooded men running around burning crosses.
It is a set of practices informed by the belief that
white people are valued more than others.
White Too Long is about R. Jones’s journey of gradual personal awakenings
to these realities.
What is on the line in the election 2020…in simple terms?
People are worried(white Christianity) about
— the changing face of America
— longing for a time when white Protestantism was the undisputed cultural power.
What is the current situation 2020 in a nutshell?
There are “…ripples signaling a deeper current.”
….racism, Anti-semitism, Islamophobia and tribalism politics.
Like water rushing through a failing dam…this energy represents
the cumulative claims for justice that have been held back
by the sheer dominance of white Christian America.
What is the core message?
This book…
— ILLUSTRATES how the white christian beliefs and practices
are dependent on the UNACKNOWLEDGED African American presence.
— DOCUMENTS the centuries-long commitment to white supremacy within White Christianity
— CALLS FOR an honest reckoning with this complicated-painful-shameful past.
Moment of humor….had to laugh!
Page 101
“…Jesus had to be white.
No proper white christian would let a brown man into their hearts
….or submit themselves to be a disciple of a swarthy Semite.”
GOOD INSIGHT: last paragraph at the end of chapter 3
see page 105!! (..read the book!)
Chapter 4: I learned about
— the pseudo-historical negationist ideology “Lost Cause” (course in basic white supremacy 101)
— UDC (United Daughters of the Confederacy)
— they placed 780 Confederate statues/plaques/Tiffany stained glass windows in churches in local communities (….100 removed in 2015 after massacre in Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church and many more removed after George Floyd’s murder on 25 May 2020)
— history, design and deeper symbolism of the Confederate flag
— support for slavery, white supremacy and new meanings for its use today (21st century)
— I was clueless about this powerful symbol!
Strong point: up-to-date (…including G. Floyd’s murder, Trump’s assimilation with a white supremacy base)
Strong point: golden opportunity for the reader to confront a violent and unflattering past in US history
Weak point…IMO: discussion about the historical role prominent white Christians (Rev. Basil Manly Sr. chapter 3), churches and seminaries had in creating and sustaining white supremacy. It was a part of the book that did not interest me. Advice? …skim through these pages but don’t give up on the book. It gets better!
Strong point: Chapter 5
R. Jones dares to approach some very delicate questions!!
How prevalent are racist and white supremacist attitudes among white Christians today? Interesting and complex statistics are explained at a level that every reader can grasp. You’ll be surprised by the results!
Strong point: Chapter 6
Robert Jones takes the reader on a visit to inspiring new museums and memorials.
If I lived closer to Mississippi and Alabama I would love to visit
The Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Macon Mississippi
The National Memorial for Peace And Justice, and
The Legacy Museum both in Montgomery Alabama (see Google for more info)
Strong point: Chapter 7
The author ends the book with a very good analysis about responsibility, repair.
He uses the Bible reference of the curse of Cain to indicate
who really bears the responsibility for reckoning the past.
Page 231: ‘good quote’
“The challenge for white Americans today
…especially white Christians is whether
and how we are going to answer the questions:
“Where is your brother?”
“What have you done?”
Trivia: title “White Too Long”
This is a reference to James Baldwin’s New York Times Op-Ed
The Price May Be Too High February 2, 1969
Baldwin says:
“ …this country’s white population impressed me….
they have been white, if I may put it so, too long;
they have been marked to white supremacy too long….”
Conclusion:
This book is absolutely stunning
…in its honesty, analysis and writing skills of Robert Jones
I happened to watch CNN interview with Christine Amanpour and Mr. Jones.
I was swept away by the author’s blunt assessment of white supremacy
which is based on his stellar theological credentials:
PhD in Religion from Emory College
MDiv from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
I’ve read several “tell-all” books this year about Trump and his Administration.
But this book towers above them all….
White Too Long speaks to the problems
we are facing now with all this racial injustice in our headlines these days!
Forget Trump…he supports white supremacy, you and I both know that.
Educate yourselves….as to what we all can do to cure this cancer eating away
…at our Society.
NancyElin.blog 
So many great insights here, thanks for sharing! That Jesus quote is cracking me up 🤣
It blows my mind how many southerners proudly display the confederate flag without understanding what it means.
Once when I was living in Vienna I was so surprised to see it hung in the window of an apartment building. I can only assume that they didn’t understand its meaning either…
White supremacy was not taught in my high-school…I wonder why?
It is a shameful past and present in US history.
…this book was an eye-opener…everyone should read it!
We had a completely insufficient education in it as well. The entire civil rights era was such a quick study, then when I later started to try and educate myself I couldn’t believe how much they’d just glossed over. It’s so wrong! Good to hear this one is so good.
In high school there was more emphasis on the Greeks and Romans…then civil rights movement. I too educated myself through reading (….and recommend everyone do that!). McPherson’s “Battle Cry of Fredom” (civil war), D. Blights’s bio (2018) of Frederick Douglass, R. White’s bio (2016) American Ulysses: Life of U. S. Grant….are among some of my favorites. When it comes to WW II The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich ( ..listened to audio book during weeks of morning walks) is EXCELLENT!! It is a classic of the 1960s but should not be missed! Which books do you recommend that made a major impact on your knowledge of history…US or World?
I agree, we have to educate ourselves on so many of these topics. I’m making note of all of those to check out, thanks for such an interesting list!! I think the only one I’d heard a lot about is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, which I never got to during my big WWII reading phase of a couple years but it sounds like a must-read at some point. Thanks for reminding me of it. Actually I think my US history reading isn’t my strongest area so I really should check out the others soon too.
One book that made a major impact on me regarding US history was Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Again here the education we received about Native Americans in school wasn’t even the smallest corner of the whole picture. This book was so eye-opening and heartbreaking, but really an excellent and important read.
I’m racking my brain trying to think what has had the most impact on me from world history, and I guess the first thing that comes to mind, odd choice though it may be, it’s really stuck with me, is Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin. It was so well written and illuminating about this troubled region.
Great to have this discussion with a fellow non-fiction affecinado. I will definitely read the 2 books you mentioned. I known nothing about the Native Americans…..their struggles in US. I just saw a show on the Histroy channel about LBJ and 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Act…and how he got the white supremacist southern senators to join him in a majority vote. ….then I have to think after all these years there is STILL so much inequality. Shocked to see tense tv coverage of Louisville KY ….before KY Derby…now the BLM group is out dressed in black, masked and carrying AR-15 across their chests. This powder keg is ready to blow….!
Bury My Heart is absolutely the best book for learning something about the Native history in the US. It was so eye opening. Very upsetting but an excellent book. LBJ is an interesting character too, there’s a great book called God Save Texas by Lawrence Wright that covered a bit of his background and I realized I knew nothing about this era or the oddities in politics at the time. He was quite a strange bird too. You might like that book, I thought I would never be interested enough to read an entire book about Texas but I love the journalist who wrote it and have loved every one of his books I’ve read, and it ended up being one of my favorites the year I read it.
Great to be able to share so many recommendations with you!! You always have so many good ones.
I can second how eye-opening Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Nancy. Examining our shared history through the eyes of the ‘other’ is important in confronting our unconscious & conscious white supremacy.
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe does a similar thing for Aboriginal history in Australia.
I started Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (audio book) yesterday.
Dark Emu and been semi on my TBR…haven’t decided yet. Is the writing very good or not?
Today I’m finishing ” Donald J. Trump v The United States” by New York Times journalist M. Schmidt. Writing is excellent…it describes the first months of DJ’s administration and how the Muller Investigation started. The book reads like a political thriller ….as did “All The President’s Men” (Woodward/Bernstien) did in the 1970s. I’d recommend Schmidt’s book just to get a real feel for the erratic DJ and those inside the White House who were trying to stop him from ‘blowing up the country” (…not literally, but you get the message!)
Not sure I could read a whole book about Trump, Nancy. The news is more than enough!!
Mr books & I have been talking All the Presidents men again recently. He’s not sure he ever watched the movie. We watched The Post a few weeks ago & thought it would be a good companion piece.