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White Lives Matter Most: And Other "Little" White Lies
Modern-day movements to end racism in the U.S. seem sadly doomed to fail. If more fundamental approaches to social change and more sober analysis of U.S. history are not considered, our efforts will lead to continued fragmentation—or worse. The essays in this book—written by lifelong anti-imperialist organizer, educator, and author Matt Meyer—reveal the successful strategies and methods of multigenerational and multitendency coalitions used in recent campaigns to free Puerto Rican and Black Panther political prisoners, confront neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and many more. Meyer’s reflections on the need for a new, intensified solidarity consciousness and accountability among white folks provide a provocative and urgent challenge. These essays—some coauthored by Black Lives Matter and Ferguson Truth Telling leaders Natalie Jeffers and David Ragland, Puerto Rican professor Ana López, Muslim interfaith activist Sahar Alsahlani, and Afro-Asian cultural icon Fred Ho—offer up-to-the-minute insights. Read on, and get ready for hope in the context of hard work.
- GenresActivism
112 pages, Paperback
Published October 1, 2018
2 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Matt Meyer
31 books2 followersMatt Meyer is a New York City–based educator, organizer, and author who serves as War Resisters International Africa Support Network Coordinator, and who represents the International Peace Research Association at the United Nations Economic and Social Council. A former draft registration resister, Meyer’s extensive human rights work has included support for all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, solidarity with Puerto Rico and the Black Liberation Movement, and board membership on the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 19, 2018
I wanted to like this book because I so concur with its sentiments; however, I did not really learn anything new. I know that the US is built upon white supremacy and it will never end until people take responsibility for the privileges it accords white people. I also know that an organized multidimensional movement is necessary to change the course of history. But I would have liked more concrete suggestions or examples of community organizing. The items in the book felt too vague and too jargonish.
April 30, 2022
I can see why this book was 50% discounted on the bargain shelf of Exclusive Books. Almost all it has going for it is the title. Other than that I take away from White Lives Matter Most the importance of reparations. I used to sleep on them but through sheer repetition on the pages, I see now that little can be done to heal the souls of the oppressed without them
December 31, 2018
Not gonna lie. This was more than a little disappointing.
Saw it in my favorite radical bookstore. Loved the title. Loved the topic. And I love PM Press. So I hoped it would be terrific. Or mostly good.
But it wasn't.
Can't say much overly critical of it. I mean, there were places where Meyer came across as more self-righteous than is helpful. But for the most part there wasn't so much anything "wrong" with this as just not a lot "right." Nothing that pulled me in. Some terrific topics, but none of them delved into deeply. Thoughtful stuff on Puerto Rico, but underdeveloped. Sort of, this felt like the first chapter for several other, better books.
Saw it in my favorite radical bookstore. Loved the title. Loved the topic. And I love PM Press. So I hoped it would be terrific. Or mostly good.
But it wasn't.
Can't say much overly critical of it. I mean, there were places where Meyer came across as more self-righteous than is helpful. But for the most part there wasn't so much anything "wrong" with this as just not a lot "right." Nothing that pulled me in. Some terrific topics, but none of them delved into deeply. Thoughtful stuff on Puerto Rico, but underdeveloped. Sort of, this felt like the first chapter for several other, better books.
March 13, 2022
This was a challenging book for a bunch of different reasons. For one thing, it talks extensively about political prisoners which is difficult because one man’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist and it’s hard to find common ground about it.
Another challenge is the unabashed anger and disappointment with white people in general. Not just racist white people, but specifically the white left. Reading this book, you see they can do nothing right. If they try to help, they’re being too paternalistic. If they try to use their privilege, they’re endorsing colonialism and bolstering empirical tendencies. If they DON’T use their privilege and DON’T create large organizations or movements that would be called paternalistic, they’re not doing enough.
But the biggest challenge just deals with the call to change.
Conservatives have it easy: they just have to fight any change whatsoever. They have what they want and they want it to stay that way. They all agree.
But progressives have a greater challenge because change requires buy-in from a group if there’s any hope of it succeeding so you need to find a balance. Too little change and it will be deemed weak and not worth it. Too much change and you lose an audience that would have normally been with you.
One of the biggest complaints seen in the last decade or so is the backlash against a “PC culture,” which is really just people yelling that they can’t use terms that were previously deemed inoffensive. It wasn’t so long ago that everyone was using the term “that’s gay,” to say something was bad. I was certainly guilty of it. But now that kind of talk is shut down immediately (which is good), and most agree that it was a poor term in retrospect. But things are changing so fast - sexuality, social causes, and especially terms - that I think the people yelling the most are more worn out from trying to keep up than anything else. I suspect that most tried at first, but after years of being told “no, we don’t use that word, we use THIS word instead,” they suffered fatigue, threw up their hands, and gave up. Then they started screaming about a PC culture because they get tired of being called out for saying what is now deemed racist/sexist/homophobic things.
This book calls for radical change. Honestly, it says that America is an empire nation that holds different countries hostage within itself (specifically referencing Hawaii and Puerto Rico but vaguely saying that the South is its own thing as well) so of course any change would be radical and sudden.
It would certainly be nice if America could wake up one day and realize that treating symptoms without even glancing around for root causes is a bad idea. That punishing more severely based on conscious or unconscious bias is a bad thing. Even waking up to realize that 1) privilege exists and 2) we should really consider the 2nd and 3rd order effects of a world where privilege exists when YOU aren’t the privileged one would be a huge step forward. (Also, “privilege,” is not used as a synonym for “easy,” but rather “easier in social contexts.” For instance, a white man statistically has less to worry about when being pulled over by the cops and that’s privilege. Privilege is often unconscious like when a jacked dude walks down a dark alley and fears nothing where a small female would stick to paths that are well-lit because she doesn’t have the privilege of being physically intimidating.)
There’s a few books that say people don’t change - not really - and whatever social change does happen, happens very slowly. And it sucks that it happens slowly, but if you want change to stick - to permeate into the culture as a way of life - it needs to be slow or you risk someone coming in and flipping a switch and having it just go back to the way it was with no resistance.
So I have hope for the country when it comes to civil rights and hope that everyone takes the time to think about what would come after this next drive or goal. More people are more vocal about making a fair world and I hope it continues and progresses.
There are a couple of tricks to look out for, though.
One is meandering. Until everyone is treated fairly, there shouldn’t be any stopping. Slow movement, sure, but always movement.
Another is getting sidetracked to do something else. Like a side-quest instead of focusing on the campaign.
Another is fatigue. Especially today when we want results so immediately, the idea of working toward something that probably won’t come to fruition while you’re alive or perhaps even in your children’s lifetime is a tough pill to swallow. You see this with people who flat-out don’t care about damaging the environment. Their nihilistic attitude goes “fuck it, I’ll be dead so it doesn’t matter.”
Lastly are the resistors. I’m not talking about the people who would agree if you phrased the question right, but the ones who are actively against progress. The ones who yell, but don’t argue. The ones who play dumb. In all change management texts, they say change is broken into early adopters, the masses who are influenced by the early adopters, and the laggards who will resist the whole time and all of the texts basically say “fuck the laggards. Move on without them. You’ve got work to do and they are existing SOLELY to slow or stop you, so move on.”
So I recommend just moving on and not engaging with these people.
Look, in the end, you’d have to be solidly obtuse to not see critical civil rights issues in modern America and I can’t imagine anyone who claims to be a good person trying to rationalize the way things are. We should all be working to make it better. Perhaps we don’t need radical change like this book demands and we might not even need to learn new terms to make things better. We might just have to admit that everyone should be treated civilly, have access to fair and just treatment, and (most critically) that it can ALWAYS be better and continue to work toward that goal.
Back to the book, though, it does bring up interesting points like how most people are taught civil rights and told that supporters of black rights in the 60s were EITHER falling in the King or X camps. In my high school (Mississippi) it was taught in a very binary fashion. They were two sides to the same coin, one preaching pacifism and the other a more violent resistance. But when King and X met, it wasn’t a prize fight. They agreed on so much that they were able to be friendly right away so PERHAPS we shouldn’t be looking at the things that set them apart but rather the things that they agreed on.
There’s also a harping on the idea that we can’t get over King in ‘63 and that this might be a construct to make people get an inaccurate view of King in his later years. I was never taught in high school that King was staunchly against the Vietnam war, for instance.
It’s an interesting book, but a real bummer. Then again, I haven’t read any books about race that WEREN’T bummers. But this is my least favorite that I’ve read so far.
Another challenge is the unabashed anger and disappointment with white people in general. Not just racist white people, but specifically the white left. Reading this book, you see they can do nothing right. If they try to help, they’re being too paternalistic. If they try to use their privilege, they’re endorsing colonialism and bolstering empirical tendencies. If they DON’T use their privilege and DON’T create large organizations or movements that would be called paternalistic, they’re not doing enough.
But the biggest challenge just deals with the call to change.
Conservatives have it easy: they just have to fight any change whatsoever. They have what they want and they want it to stay that way. They all agree.
But progressives have a greater challenge because change requires buy-in from a group if there’s any hope of it succeeding so you need to find a balance. Too little change and it will be deemed weak and not worth it. Too much change and you lose an audience that would have normally been with you.
One of the biggest complaints seen in the last decade or so is the backlash against a “PC culture,” which is really just people yelling that they can’t use terms that were previously deemed inoffensive. It wasn’t so long ago that everyone was using the term “that’s gay,” to say something was bad. I was certainly guilty of it. But now that kind of talk is shut down immediately (which is good), and most agree that it was a poor term in retrospect. But things are changing so fast - sexuality, social causes, and especially terms - that I think the people yelling the most are more worn out from trying to keep up than anything else. I suspect that most tried at first, but after years of being told “no, we don’t use that word, we use THIS word instead,” they suffered fatigue, threw up their hands, and gave up. Then they started screaming about a PC culture because they get tired of being called out for saying what is now deemed racist/sexist/homophobic things.
This book calls for radical change. Honestly, it says that America is an empire nation that holds different countries hostage within itself (specifically referencing Hawaii and Puerto Rico but vaguely saying that the South is its own thing as well) so of course any change would be radical and sudden.
It would certainly be nice if America could wake up one day and realize that treating symptoms without even glancing around for root causes is a bad idea. That punishing more severely based on conscious or unconscious bias is a bad thing. Even waking up to realize that 1) privilege exists and 2) we should really consider the 2nd and 3rd order effects of a world where privilege exists when YOU aren’t the privileged one would be a huge step forward. (Also, “privilege,” is not used as a synonym for “easy,” but rather “easier in social contexts.” For instance, a white man statistically has less to worry about when being pulled over by the cops and that’s privilege. Privilege is often unconscious like when a jacked dude walks down a dark alley and fears nothing where a small female would stick to paths that are well-lit because she doesn’t have the privilege of being physically intimidating.)
There’s a few books that say people don’t change - not really - and whatever social change does happen, happens very slowly. And it sucks that it happens slowly, but if you want change to stick - to permeate into the culture as a way of life - it needs to be slow or you risk someone coming in and flipping a switch and having it just go back to the way it was with no resistance.
So I have hope for the country when it comes to civil rights and hope that everyone takes the time to think about what would come after this next drive or goal. More people are more vocal about making a fair world and I hope it continues and progresses.
There are a couple of tricks to look out for, though.
One is meandering. Until everyone is treated fairly, there shouldn’t be any stopping. Slow movement, sure, but always movement.
Another is getting sidetracked to do something else. Like a side-quest instead of focusing on the campaign.
Another is fatigue. Especially today when we want results so immediately, the idea of working toward something that probably won’t come to fruition while you’re alive or perhaps even in your children’s lifetime is a tough pill to swallow. You see this with people who flat-out don’t care about damaging the environment. Their nihilistic attitude goes “fuck it, I’ll be dead so it doesn’t matter.”
Lastly are the resistors. I’m not talking about the people who would agree if you phrased the question right, but the ones who are actively against progress. The ones who yell, but don’t argue. The ones who play dumb. In all change management texts, they say change is broken into early adopters, the masses who are influenced by the early adopters, and the laggards who will resist the whole time and all of the texts basically say “fuck the laggards. Move on without them. You’ve got work to do and they are existing SOLELY to slow or stop you, so move on.”
So I recommend just moving on and not engaging with these people.
Look, in the end, you’d have to be solidly obtuse to not see critical civil rights issues in modern America and I can’t imagine anyone who claims to be a good person trying to rationalize the way things are. We should all be working to make it better. Perhaps we don’t need radical change like this book demands and we might not even need to learn new terms to make things better. We might just have to admit that everyone should be treated civilly, have access to fair and just treatment, and (most critically) that it can ALWAYS be better and continue to work toward that goal.
Back to the book, though, it does bring up interesting points like how most people are taught civil rights and told that supporters of black rights in the 60s were EITHER falling in the King or X camps. In my high school (Mississippi) it was taught in a very binary fashion. They were two sides to the same coin, one preaching pacifism and the other a more violent resistance. But when King and X met, it wasn’t a prize fight. They agreed on so much that they were able to be friendly right away so PERHAPS we shouldn’t be looking at the things that set them apart but rather the things that they agreed on.
There’s also a harping on the idea that we can’t get over King in ‘63 and that this might be a construct to make people get an inaccurate view of King in his later years. I was never taught in high school that King was staunchly against the Vietnam war, for instance.
It’s an interesting book, but a real bummer. Then again, I haven’t read any books about race that WEREN’T bummers. But this is my least favorite that I’ve read so far.
January 24, 2019
I really wanted to like this book. I ran across it at the library and immediately knew I had to take it home with me. The title is provocative and inviting.
Unfortunately, the book was just a disappointment to me. I forced myself to finish it in hopes of an improvement - and the second half seemed maybe a little easier to read than the first - but it lacked a cohesive feel. It felt confusing and at times contradictory. The authors made some important points and they are clearly dedicated to their causes. The book just fell flat for me.
Unfortunately, the book was just a disappointment to me. I forced myself to finish it in hopes of an improvement - and the second half seemed maybe a little easier to read than the first - but it lacked a cohesive feel. It felt confusing and at times contradictory. The authors made some important points and they are clearly dedicated to their causes. The book just fell flat for me.
November 21, 2024
This was a reread. I remember reading it the first time in 2019 and finding it insightful, and this time around it felt like it doesn’t know its audience. It’s overly academic which makes it easy to lose the point, and it presumes a level of foundational knowledge that, if already possessed by the reader, renders the calls to action moot, as the reader is likely already doing these things (and that’s for the actions that are actually concrete and not just vague allusions). Also the author being white himself works to his detriment - on the one hand, it’s important for white people to take on our own share of dismantling racism; on the other hand, the way he writes at some points sounded so self-important and like he was separating himself from other white people. I wish I could have liked this more. I’ve read much more compelling, interesting, accessible, actionable books from this publisher and from directly affected voices writ large.
August 19, 2022
When I saw this book on the library shelf, all that was visible was the little title "White Lives Matter Most." That kind of scared me but then I decided that if this was scaring me, I needed to investigate. (I am very much a proponent of trying to understand the other side of things, to better understand why I disagree.) This wasn't the greatest book out there but it was interesting. The author makes the point that the idea that white lives matter the most is as American as America gets, which is an unfortunate truth. To move forward, so that all lives truly matter & so that there is real equality, I have felt the need to stare that truth in the face.
January 5, 2019
I wanted to love this book, but the out of context essays and assumption of both historical and present activism and social justice knowledge makes this book difficult to recommend.
This would likely be a great book for coursework, that way there is room for expansion and discussion on the topics and issues covered.
If the goal of this book is to convince others of the importance of current movements, then it falls drastically short. If the purpose is to speak to its followers, then it has accomplished that.
This would likely be a great book for coursework, that way there is room for expansion and discussion on the topics and issues covered.
If the goal of this book is to convince others of the importance of current movements, then it falls drastically short. If the purpose is to speak to its followers, then it has accomplished that.
August 2, 2020
I really liked the start of this book. In the middle, I felt some of the essays lost focus for the purpose of the book, but in the end they were able to return to the main message. There were a lot of great quotable passages. It's a short easy read that gives more insight into what fighting the empire really looks like in terms of being a white ally and how white people have to confront their whiteness in order to be effective allies in the revolution.
November 1, 2018
Wanted to like this but it's just a series of manifestos/speeches containing the usual tired bromides of the left.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews