Review: Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism

Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism by Terry McAuliffe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

As a book recounting the events of Charlottesville in 2017 from the hindsight vantage point of Terry McAuliffe, the governor at the time, the book was interesting. As a book representing a "Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism" and moving "Beyond Charlottesville", it felt disingenuous and disappointing. And while I get that authors don't always get to choose the names for their book, this title promised much and delivered little. McAuliffe is useful in providing context for how he navigates the complex issues rising up to and the aftermath, spending ample time reaffirming that Virginia is (supposedly) no place for white supremacy and that the President of the United States failed at his job to call out white supremacy in a clear, unequivocal manner. So, at the end of the day, McAuliffe does the bare minimum of what we should expect from our leaders and it's disappointing that bare-minimum is sufficient enough to get such accolades. That is, accolades for speaking out again the most egregious forms of white supremacy shouldn't be grounds for a book-deal; they should be the basic level of decency we have in our leaders.

So while I appreciate McAuliffe doing what he did, I still feel like this book was a quick way to make a buck, launch the next stage of his career, shine the light on him or what have you, but not really showing and articulating what it means to stand against white nationalism. The book attempted to be both memoir and call to action but doesn't really offer both. There's no insightful revelatory experience for McAuliffe and the final advice is light on changing or addressing the cultural and social elements that created Charlotteville and the numerous racist acts that happen daily. If you are looking for a book that helps to make sense of what happened in Charlotteville and provides a meaningful guide for moving forward--this is not that book.

View all my reviews

---

Did you enjoy this read? Let me know your thoughts down below or feel free to browse around and check out some of my other posts!. You might also want to keep up to date with my blog by signing up for them via email. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.