Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.

The authors of Beyond Fragility point out that nobody is born knowing how to promote racial equality, and that the majority of people were never taught how.

As a white person who grew up being taught that “racism is over,” I never learned how to recognize it in myself and in the rest of the world, let alone take action to stop it. Being insulated from the realities of racism means that white people tend to react from a place of fragility when confronted with this reality. This can cause us to center ourselves and our own feelings, instead of those who are most affected by racism.

Beyond Fragility provides a step-by-step guide to educate oneself on how to effectively act against racism. The book is styled like a workbook that will walk you through the process, with places to write down notes and reflections, clarify your values, and make actionable plans. It also provides real-world examples that prompt readers to imagine applying the lessons in each chapter. The authors reassure us that being a perfect anti-racist ally is not necessarily an attainable goal, and provide guidance on how to recover from making racist missteps which are bound to happen.

The book would be an excellent accompaniment to school and workplace anti-harassment training, in addition to being an accessible tool for individuals to complete on their own.

3.5 stars
Very informative and I think this would be a good book to read with a professional learning community at work. I liked how this incorporated reflection questions and examples of situations throughout. There was an acronym in every chapter which seemed like a lot, but I liked how there was a summary at the end of the book with a recap of everything.
Thank you NetGalley for providing me the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

“Beyond Fragility” is a great guide on how to be a better anti-racist ally that’s helpful both for people who feel they know nothing about this topic, or for people who are already familiar and looking to improve their anti-racist work and skills. My favorite parts of the book were the case-based scenarios, in which a situation is described and the authors walk you through how to approach the situation and identify the causes and effects of racism and systems of oppression. It’s also very validating: the authors acknowledge that people learned biased stories of American history in school, were often raised to “not see race,” and that reactionary emotions are a normal part of being human; however, all of these can be worked on if people are willing to accept some amount of discomfort.
Where I struggled with this book was the acronyms, which are present in every chapter an outline a strategy for a different aspect of allyship. However, there’s enough overlap between them to make it hard to keep track of them all, and which one to use in certain situations. Some acronyms even embedded an earlier acronym within them. Each individual one would be perfect for something like a single seminar, but putting a dozen of them into one short book feels to me like a recipe for confusion. Overall, though, this book is worth a read for anyone who wants to become a better anti-racist ally no matter their comfort level.

This is one of those times I wish I had had a physical copy of this book. I was very kindly given an eARC via NetGalley, PESI Publishing, and Bridge City Books, but unfortunately electronically isn't (in my opinion) the best format for this book.

I had issues straight away with trying to read this on my kindle. ARCs are often badly formatted on kindle, and you do end up getting used to it, but the interactive pages (which encourage you to write your thoughts or have graphs and tables) were so messed up that I ended up switching over to the version on the NetGalley app every few pages so I could actually read these sections. I didn't just stay in the NetGalley app because the writing was so tiny that I was struggling to read the book. First world problems but problems all the same! Of course this won't be an issue once the book is published, you'll be able to read it on any platform, but this compounded the "I'd rather this was physical" issue I had with the book, in wanting to fill out the interactive pages and flick back and forth within the book to rerefer to pages.

When I first started reading, I did think that this was a very basic intro to anti-racism. I have to admit I was tempting to DNF because it was relaying things that I, personally, have known for years. But as the book went on it went into much more depth, and I actually appreciate that it starts out at the level it does. It really eases the reader into the interactive style that the authors are going for, and for those who are at the entry point to anti-racism it doesn't exclude them from the book and prevent their learning and growth.

I do wish there had been more intersectionality throughout the book. Whilst the authors mention that this book is American focused, and that's fine (you get used to that quite quickly reading in English), I was really surprised to see that disabled, LGBTQ+, and working class people of colour weren't included explicitly in this book. All of the scenarios given are best posed when in a group of white, cis, straight, middle class folks with a few POC of the same characteristics mixed in. And whilst intersectionality can be a more difficult topic to discuss, I feel like this should have at least been approached in some of the later chapters.

All of the skills in this book are presented as acronyms. And whilst they can be fantastic learning devices, it's hard when there are 15+ acronyms that you're supposed to remember! Again I imagine this book would be best used as one to refer back to over time, but as a one time read it is a little overwhelming, as acronyms from previous chapters are repeatedly used with no further explanation. (again, this is majorly an ebook problem, if this was a physical book I could just flick back!).

Most, but not all, of my issues with this book come from reading it in a digital format. Which is such a pity as I'm grateful to have been able to pick the book up. However, it does mean that if you're still intrigued I can push you towards a paperback/hardback version of this book, being able to fill out the pages and refer back to different sections will mean you can get a lot more from this book.

A good book, maybe more useful to have a hard copy to be able to make notes and follow a bit easier.

I good book and a useful tool for those starting to look into allyship, but I think more needs to be said about intersectionality as this is an area that appears to be missing from a lot of learning.

Thank you for the ARC

I read this book for free thanks to NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback.

I really really wanted to.enjoy this book and learning a little from it, however, because every single skill taught in the book is presented as an Acronym, I find it very difficult to remember everything!

Perhaps if I had a paper copy of the book I would find it more useful because I could highlight, write notes and more in the book.

Thank you for helping me on my journey to being a better Ally

Thank You to Netgalley and PESI Publishing for a digital ARC copy of this book for a honest review.

While I found this book very informative and if I had a physical copy I would of been highlighting and tabbing pages left and right it was lacking intersectionality.

Chapter one starts off strong and it's all about intersectionality but then nothing for the rest of the book. I'm learning only through what felt like the lenses of able bodies who were cis, and straight and white and upper class and dealing with issues BIPOC people who were usually also able bodies, cis, straight and in most cases co workers.

I'm not saying I didn't learn anything because I certainly didn't, but I feel like whole groups of people are missing from the conversation.