Claudia Rankine is a living legend and we do not deserve her for all she does to breach the rifts of Black and white America. By turns vulnerable, soul-baring, and awakening — Just Us is a seminal masterpiece that pries deeply into the underbelly of white supremacy, white fragility, and the measures by which Black Americans must take to preserve themselves in its wake. I would follow Rankine to the edge of the world.

Throughout this year I've read or listened to many different books on race, relationship, history, biases but this book had a bigger impact on me than all those others. The inside cover of the book jacket states, that the author invites us into a necessary conversation about whiteness in America, and indeed that is exactly what the book provided. A black woman married to a white man, with friends from both races, I found her viewpoint unique. She questions reactions, even her own to various expe...

Brilliant and breathtaking.  Claudia Rankine has earned her place on my favourite authors list. This book is powerful and poetic and intelligent and raw. How I loved it! Just Us: An American Conversation is a collection of essays and images exploring racism and white supremacy. It is meditative. Ms. Rankine reflects on conversations with others, unravelling the hidden, sometimes unconscious, racism implicit in people's words and actions. This is a book that prompts you to look openly and honestl...

read and read again - Rankine’s one of the best writers working today

"Among white people, black people are allowed to talk about their precarious lives, but they are not allowed to implicate the present company...to create discomfort by pointing out the facts is seen as socially unacceptable. Let's get over ourselves, it's structural not personal...."In Just Us, Claudia Rankine pokes into areas of discomfort surrounding issues of race - in airplane lines and dinner parties, friendships and theater audiences, meet the teacher night and discussions on hair color. S...

I am white. The author of this book is black. I acknowledge my whiteness. And I do not revel in it. Black people in this country since its inception have gotten the short end of the stick. And I am willing to acknowledge that I share some of the blame. Unless I missed it, I don’t know exactly what Claudia Rankine wants me to do. I think she wants me to cringe – to feel uncomfortable - when reading the following passage…and not to run away from it. • Normally, I would never say a particular white...

This is one heavy book, both literally and figuratively. Literally, the hardcover is filled with heavier pages that feel like they have the same kind of acid-free coating you see in glossy brochures. Figuratively, the subject matter is relentlessly focused on white privilege or if you prefer "the culture of whiteness" or if you prefer racism.Interestingly, while billed as essays and poems, it's pretty much entirely essays, many of them about conversations and experiences Rankine has had where th...

Claudia Rankine incorporates poetry, illustrations, and multitudes of backup footnotes in this "Conversation" primarily about racial divide and white privilege. It should be read in text form since the book itself is lush, beautifully presented which makes its content all that the more wrenching. Having read Isabel Wilkerson's Caste recently, I was struck by similarities in content, experiences by these two gifted, award winning, advanced-degree-holding women, who are judged during everyday expe...

Interesting book. Different in tone from her previous work but also not. She has conversations with quite people about racism with a range of results.

Claudia Rankine has taken the discussion of race up a notch with her book Just Us: An American Conversation. This was not an instruction manual, but real life conversations and the stream of consciousness and thoughts that occur during such conversations and afterwards, when pondering those conversations. If I were to compare books that discuss how we interact about race; this one would be my favorite!! Rankine has a way of making the reader comfortable in her hands. It is a pondering of convers...

Resisting the urge to spend my entire savings purchasing a copy of this book to hand to every man, woman, non-binary persons, and child I encounter in the street. What a rush! I laughed, I sighed, and I felt immeasurably lucky to have been gifted Rankine’s insight and intelligence. I need this book, we need this book, now and forever and ever.

What I know is that an inchoate desire for a future other than the one that seems to be forming our days brings me to a seat around any table, to lean forward, to hear, to respond, to await response from any other. This is loose and unstructured in form and almost feels like Rankine is just chatting with the reader (well, except for the inserted data, academic footnotes and references that support her conversation) - and one of the things I like about it is that it's not prescriptive; it does

“If you’re looking for justice, that’s just what you’ll find—just us.”—Richard PryorRankine continues the conversation about racism and white privilege that she began with her book, Citizen: An American Lyric (National Book Award Finalist for Poetry in 2014). She recounts interactions she had when traveling first-class that are similar to what Wilkerson remarked upon in her book Caste. She shares the results of a variety of conversations with friends, and acquaintances that cover a 4-year-old be...

4 🔍🔎🔍🔎"Some of the frustration and exhaustion I felt in that moment had to do with how repetitive the calls for white people to look at ourselves, to step up, to move off our comfortable asses, etc., are."I would add myself to the list of white people who can sympathize or identify with that quote.Much has been asked and demanded of all lives the past year and I for one am a bit worn out. Still, I wanted to say something about this book.Claudia Rankine asks many questions in the pages—of herself...

Still mulling over this one. Definitely not what I thought it’d be. Rankine’s words and questions are thought-provoking as always...Full review to come.

Rankine reflects upon "whiteness in America" with intellectual rigor, a poetic sensibility and warmth and honesty. I felt like a trusted friend invited by Rankine to join her in conversation. More than other books I've read this year on racism, this one hit me on a very visceral and personal level. I listened to the audio, which I loved, and also referred to the print book, a beautiful volume with heavy coated paper and color photos and notes on the facing pages. This book was my gift to myself

A really interesting take on personal essays regarding race-- this memoir/essay collection is one that should definitely be read in physical form rather than as an ebook or audio, as the experience of images and sidebars incorporated into the text is an important part of the overall project of the book.

I’ve loved Rankine’s previous books, Citizen & Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, but this one left me underwhelmed. The focus on microaggressions over systemic analysis goes against my own inclinations (as an INFJ type I’m drawn towards big picture patterns). It’s very liberal in its minimal political analysis—that’s a dead end. The liberal college campus/university educated language & focus is parochial. Although in one section Rankine addresses her own blind spots, she doesn’t locate these in the class

Claudia Rankine returns with Just Us - which urges us all to begin dialogue with one another to explore the issues of white supremacy, race and white privilege. As everyday white supremacy becomes increasingly vocalized with no clear answers at hand, how best might we approach one another? Claudia Rankine, without telling us what to do, urges us to begin the discussions that might open pathways through this divisive and stuck moment in American history. Just Us is an invitation to discover what

An apt title for an almost conversational book - Rankine drifts between topics but in an intentional manner, with skill and ease - this is a thought-provoking and timely read on race and anti-racism in contemporary America. A medley of poetry, academic research and more anecdotal conversations Rankine has with friends and contemporaries, I found this accessible and stimulating and would recommend it to others looking for a unique book on race.Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Press UK (Allen Lane)...