White Tears/Brown Scars

How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color

By: Ruby Hamad

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

Called "powerful and provocative" by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, author of the New York Times bestselling How to be an Antiracist, this explosive book of history and cultural criticism reveals how white feminism has been used as a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women, and women of color.

Taking us from the slave era, when white women fought in court to keep "ownership" of their slaves, through the centuries of colonialism, when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics, to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars tells a charged story of white women's active participation in campaigns of oppression. It offers a long overdue validation of the experiences of women of color.

Discussing subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and 19th century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad undertakes a new investigation of gender and race. She shows how the division between innocent white women and racialized, sexualized women of color was created, and why this division is crucial to confront.

Along the way, there are revelatory responses to questions like: Why are white men not troubled by sexual assault on women? (See Christine Blasey Ford.) With rigor and precision, Hamad builds a powerful argument about the legacy of white superiority that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight.

Expertly narrated and important book

Highly recommend. I appreciated the narrator’s skill and clear voice. The lessons in this book are important.

Nice balance of passion and research.

I enjoyed this book and I will make the interests of my other brown sisters my own. Specifically protecting the Earth.

Amazing

Thank you for this book. It is a must read for all white women everywhere.

A must read for all White Women

Excellent read and breakdown of colonial history and its influence on how we view and interact with Brown women. Will be loaning to all my friends to read and will hear echoes of Ruby’s words daily going forward.

Everyone should read and listen carefully

This was an incredibly insightful book about feelings, behaviors, and action with definite patterns rooted in discrimination and racism. A must ready, especially for those in positions of power or hoping to get there.