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Big Little White Lies

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As a white man, Big Little White Lies, at first, made me feel extremely uncomfortable. In this small, yet intense book, I felt picked on, interrogated, accused, and angry. Then I thought that this is how African Americans must feel all of the time. Although there are things I don't agree on with her, she made me feel how racism makes me unconscious on the impact of my whiteness. As heated as I was reading it the first time, I found a lot of things about myself that she said as being true. I realize that even a liberal man like myself can be a contributor to racism in the same large scope as a proud and blatant racist. She mentions how racism isn't as harsh anymore as KKK sheets and burning crosses, instead its more refined, or what she calls white people as being "sophisticated racists." I found it interesting that she placed all "non-Black people of color" as white. By doing this, she gained my respect because she doesn't spare anyone from racial scrutiny, especially her own ethnic group, Arab Americans. She draws the conclusion that children of slaves and children of immigrants-which is essentially everyone else- do not share the same experiences,thus,the same outcome. I found myself arguing with this book. As long as you can get past being offended, this book is exiting, passionate, stimulating ,and highly recommended reading.

Throughout history dominant races and cultures have imposed their will, way of life, moral and aesthetic standards and even their genes on the conquered and the weaker element in their new territories. Racism is as old as humanity, although it might've been called by a different name. Man's pathological narcissism and quest to become god has engendered in part modern racism. It is fears of the new, fears of the unknown that produce in people fears of other humans that are not familiar to them. Racism helps people regain a sense of pseudo-control over their uncontrollable lives.
Every dominant race and culture has appointed itself as the supreme one, and the rest had to follow. In contrast to the bible, the meek shall not inherit the earth, but shall perish like an insignificant bacillus. Racism like human destructiveness is part of the human character.
Racism is also a great political tool to create divisions among the masses in order to dominate them, in addition, down grading people to sub-human levels justifies their eradication. Ironically, racial purity is a pure myth that has been engendered and propagated by shrewd political leaders and elites to advance their political agenda. Humanity has been interbreeding for centuries and the idea that one race is purer or superior to another is ludicrous, but works well politically. Let's not forget the recent single origin hypothesis which states that anatomically all modern humans evolved in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. The illusion of belonging to a superior group helps compensate for the person who feels like a bacillus, and in lieu the group membership leads him to feel like a giant by appealing to his or her narcissistic prejudices. Group narcissism is key factor in racism. It is fueled and perpetuated by politicians. Racism and fear go hand in hand. Fear is a primitive feeling that incapacitates and renders people impotent. It is a natural response for self-preservation. By connecting fear to racism and artificially inducing it in people, weakens the masses, manufactures consent, and makes racism a mechanism of pseudo-self-preservation. Unfortunately, racism is here to stay! It will only cease to exist when humanity self-annihilate and totally perish!
Chehade has written a delightful book about racism based on her own perceptions and experiences. Her book is thought provoking, sensitive, intelligent, and interesting.
Chehade has done a great deed in openly discussing a critical issue like racism that has engulfed every society. She confronts our denial about its existence, and urges us for self-awareness and for change.
Chehade is livid about the condition and the hypocrisy of the human race. She addresses the political issues that has plagued and maintained the status quo of racism. Her essay is idealistic, uplifting as well as frightening, because it exposes the dark side of humanity.
She also discusses the identity crisis that immigrants face by latching to whiteness and distancing from blackness. However, this survival process which Chehade has bitterly criticized is a natural element that every new population that is introduced into a new environment would have to face. The idea that immigrants identify with the dominant culture is not new, whether it is Poles, Arabs Jews, Italians, or Irish.
Per example, the Ashkenasi Jews deny their Mongolian/Khazari heritage and desperately as well as obsessively attempt to identify and associate themselves only with white Europeans, especially of Germanic descent more than the German people would, despite the fact that six millions Jews were slaughtered by their beloved Teutonic nation. The Jews were the dominant figure in Germany financially, politically and on every level. The German leaders had to down-grade them first, then, massacre them next because they could not compete with them. That makes the Jews superior to the Germans not their inferiors. The feeling of inferiority and vulnerability in humans promote their self-hatred, otherwise it becomes directed toward others in what we call the phenomenon of racism. Racism is part of the human character as much as the internal feelings of inferiority and self-hatred.
A natural compensation for inferiority is the creation of the illusion of superiority. The two elements are dependent on each other for survival.
People who want to be someone else including their assassins, tend to practice the inner mechanism of self-hared, but can also externalize it by becoming racists.
Nowadays racism is profitable for the elites in the Anglo-American establishment, because it leads to conflict, and conflict makes money. The establishment has even gone a step further in the classification process of races by wanting to eliminate the word "Caucasian" and by replacing it with "white" as the new classification, because white would have a direct connation with people of European descent, while "Caucasian" included the people from North Africa, the Middle-East, and India. However, the Indians were stripped of their Caucasian classification privilege in the late seventies in the Untied States and they were given their own classification, since there is a billion of them, although anthropologically they fit the Caucasian profile.

Finally, Chehade's book makes a great reading. However, her tone throughout the essay is mostly angry reflecting her struggle with her own identity as an immigrant. Her defense of blackness would be admirable and sincere if it did not stem from her own self-hatred and her own confusion with her identity. The book is more of an emotional experience than an objective one. It lacks scientific and anthropological evidence, and it is politically naïve. However, it is worth reading. It might help generate some thinking in the brave reader's mind.

Chehade doesn't leave any sacred ground for racism to hide. She bravely contronts racism on every level. I loved her bluntness and her willingness to write about issues that so many people outside of the African American community do not see or want to deal with. She is no joke. People who are in any way interested in solving racism NEED to read this book and find out just exactly what kind of beast we are all living with.

Although she claims to be a White woman, specifically an Arab American woman who has spent the majority of her life as an American, it is really difficult to consider Ms. Chehade as a part of a people she so staunchly accuses of bearing the majority responsibility of human oppression and subjugation. It is hard to associate her as part of "the problem" because she is so brutally honest in her assessment of race relations-an absolute rarity among those progressive Whites and even Blacks who are traumatized just having to think about the issue. One may be shocked that there are "liberal" whites, according to Ms. Chehade, who are just as racist as the typical Klu Klux Klan member. Throughout the book, Ms. Chehade includes herself in the many examples of the use of White privilege. Her unique perspective on how immigrants are acculturated into racism is especially insightful, particularly when she describes the symbiotic economic relationship immigrants have in Black communities.

No matter the level of participation Ms. Chehade had in these racial crimes, one can easily grant her immunity because she testifies to the evil of White denial of Black humanity. The book's overall point is that it is this very denial which is key to the problem, but also critical to any resolution of America's racial nightmare. "Big Little White Lies" does not lose focus in exposing this pathology. Ms. Chehade, directly talks to whites, exposing and then addressing their negative beliefs and behavior toward Blacks. She is relentless in placing the responsibility for healing on White people by pointing to the enormous amount of power only they command. For example, using her analysis of power as the ability to control people, resources, and institutions to the detriment of others, she exposes the paranoia Whites have of Minister Louis Farrakhan. It is only by reading this book will White people come to really understand what drives the Minister and may even thank the Creator for him.

This is the only book I would want White people to read if they are going to experience any Black History at all. Not only is it a concise treatise on the history of White oppression of Blacks, but more importantly, it shows how the evils of the past have accumulated to create negative consequences for Blacks in this time. Those interested in the movement for reparations for slavery should read this book not only for its value as a reference book on the pain and suffering inflected on Blacks, but as a tactical guide to the mind of White America.

In stripping away the most fundamental denials of White people, Ms. Chehade indirectly answers many of the questions Blacks have on why the majority of Whites are racist. On one hand, "Big Little White Lies" creates an overwhelming despair that brotherhood between the masses of Black people and White people is not only an impossibility in our lifetime, but a remote possibility in the lifetimes of future generations.

On the other hand, Carol Chehade opens the mind to the critical issue of power sharing in this society and the absolute necessity of self and group empowerment. No matter your position on the political spectrum, I guarantee that this book will leave you breathless and a little shaken.

My fear is that "Big Little White Lies" will never see the mainstream publishing success it deserves. No other book could claim to be remotely compared to it. No other book could have as much potential to heal.

I applaud Carol Chehade for her thought provoking work in this book! I am sure her words will be hard to swallow for those who are still in denial of why they are contributors of a system that continues to discriminate based on color. Non-Blacks, both immigrants and non-immigrants, are the first ones to to state that race "no longer matters in America." But have they thought to ask who it no longer matters to? Have they really examined the injustices and inequality that African-Americans still suffer from? No, they have not. Because when you live in a priviledged position it is easy to assume that all is well with everyone else. Or "if your stomach is full then that must mean that everyone else is eating as well." That is a false assumption. The author, Carol Chehade, in her book forces you to leave your comfort zones, and your false assumptions, and to really get real with the roots of racism in America. If you are finally ready to examine the REAL truth and challenge yourself with a heavy dose of a reality, then this book is the one for you. It will sincerely make you reexamine and think. I hope that more people will read it, learn as I have, and become wiser to this issues that have robbed us all as a society in America. I recommended it to all of my family and friends. Thank you Carol Chehade!

This book covers every little nook and cranny white people try to hide under and exposes their issues in regards to race. I recommend this book to any white person who wants to truly heal the race problem in America and abroad.

Chehade doesn't leave any sacred ground for racism to hide. She bravely contronts racism on every level. I loved her bluntness and her willingness to write about issues that so many people outside of the African American community do not see or want to deal with. She is no joke. People who are in any way interested in solving racism NEED to read this book and find out just exactly what kind of beast we are all living with.