Lowest White Boy

In Place

by Greg Bottoms

An innovative, hybrid work of literary nonfiction, Lowest White Boy takes its title from Lyndon Johnson’s observation during the civil rights “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.” Greg Bottoms writes about growing up white and working class in Tidewater, Virginia, during school desegregation in the 1970s. He offers brief stories that accumulate to reveal the everyday experience of living inside complex, systematic racism that is often invisible to economically and politically disenfranchised white southerners—people who have benefitted from racism in material ways while being damaged by it, he suggests, psychologically and spiritually. Placing personal memories against a backdrop of documentary photography, social history, and cultural critique, Lowest White Boy explores normalized racial animus and reactionary white identity politics, particularly as these are collected and processed in the mind of a child.

Genres: Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

Published April 1, 2019

Reviews

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The child’s mind is the adult’s story.

“Significant as it was, it did not matter a whit. For what is significance? It is significance for people. No people, no significance. That is all I have to tell you.” —AD

“I am I and my circumstance.” —JO

[Dave Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-intentioned book that feels completely obvious in its narrative and certainly makes an argument that white privilege doesn’t work as a literary device. Maybe it’d be a better book if you haven’t read Bottoms. I love all of his books, aside from his first, which reads like an MFA manuscript, a book so meta it argues it shouldn’t exist. The rest are great. Two of them, Angelhead and Fight Scenes, are set during similar periods but I don’t remember either of them even addressing white privilege or the disadvantages that black people experience in any significant way, which makes this book feel unintentionally disingenuous. 5 stars because I think Bottoms is an underrated writer who deserves more attention, but this book could have easily been reduce to, “I grew up poor and white, and the black people in the next neighborhood had it much worse,” with a link to Ta-Nehisi Coates.

[Lucy Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read. Bottom's awareness of how his early years (seen through today's eyes) were full of advantages as compared to his black peers, was refreshing and entertaining.

[Diana Eberhardt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Particularly affecting in the examples he gives because they demonstrate how white exceptionalism works in a young white kid

[Charles Wagner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bottoms. Greg. Lowest White Boy. West Virginia University Press, 2019. 171 pp.

If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pockets. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you-Lyndon B. Johnson.

The hatred of minorities, particularly African Americans, is the glue that binds the Republican party together- C.W. Charles

Aporophobia: Fear or hatred of poor and disadvantaged people.

I was arrested by a sheriff in my senior year in college while hitchhiking through Missouri. He was the stereotype sheriff prolific in bad movies about the south. Stupid, big, fat. He did not like me because I had long hair and was not them. Did I mention he was stupid? He suspected me of being a Civil Rights worker, but I did not even have a copy of the Constitution in my carpet bag. So, he just told me to get on the bus and told me to get out of the state. I was whiter than him and his Scotch-Irish compadres…
I had seen Martin Luther King, Jr. at a convocation, but had not thought about apartheid in the U.S. before. If I had smarted off to the fat man, I would just have been another body floating down the Mississippi River.
Poverty and racial discrimination. America as a company town.
This is how you were molded by when you were born, where you were born and to whom you were born. Only the very few have the power of introspection/critical thinking to stand back, look at that mold, and, perhaps, escape from that mold.
Greg Bottoms is one of that slim minority that I have known of.
Having been squeezed by poverty and opinions myself, I greatly admire a man who can metamorphosize himself into so much better.
His summary is incisive:
“the real, insidious power of racism the world over, and in America and the South and my boyhood city in particular, is its ability in human culture and thought and the nuances of communication, in individual and social psychology, to achieve normalcy in the minds of those benefitting and then take on the character of unquestioned truth.” P. 171.
This is a book which could take on truth and meaning to high school students and adults alike.
There is not one copy of Lowest White Boy in any public Indiana library.

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well worth a read for anyone looking to better understand the cultural subtleties of racism embedded in our country's foundation. Rather than focus on grand acts of hate crimes or blatant injustice, Bottoms presents a picture of fundamental racism displayed by the attitudes of the people around him during his childhood. The reader experiences these memories in part through the eyes of a young boy for whom a perception of the world has not fully materialized, and in part through the reflective pause of the man writing, who has had time to analyze and contextualize the many factors at work behind the scenes of these memories. Through his own reflection, Bottoms conveys the implicit ways racism takes shape in our culture, whether it's his father being granted a loan to buy a house while black families earning similar incomes did not have that option, or simply the ways white people perceive or attribute malicious intent to neutral or harmless actions of black people. Ultimately, this memoir is a call for reflection, particularly in a time when no one can seem to agree on the parameters of racism. Is it hate speech? Is it physical crimes against people of color? Or is it something more deeply ingrained in the foundation of our culture?

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Introspective short memoir of a white man who recalls growing up in post-segregation era, amidst black neighbors and a mother who drove the black student school bus due to poverty. The author brings forth the argument that racism is learned, not intuitive and provides numerous examples from his youth where his community and social network subtly and often not so subtly conveyed the superiority of whites and how he thought nothing of it. Reflecting back as an adult, Bottoms offer no excuses for when his behavior is that of one who goes along with the majority. However, there is the undercurrent of how could a 5, an 8 or an 11 year old boy know better when this is what surrounded him? Intriguing and thought-provoking memoir whose message is even more relevant today, amidst the resurgence of hate crimes and blatant bigotry.

[Everett Egginton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A memoir composed of brief heartfelt stories of growing up poor white in working class Hampton, VA in the desegregation era of the 1970s. Bottoms lived and grew up in a complex racist society; he did so without realizing it. That is, the racism that surrounded him was invisible to him; invisible until it wasn't invisible any longer. When he came of age he saw the light, the truth. I am reminded of myself, unaware while growing up of the racism surrounding me; unaware of the myriad privileges I had by virtue of nothing other than my white skin. Interestingly for me, my greatest eye opening experience to the realities of racism and to the privileges in life I always enjoyed occurred in Bottom's home town and the locale of Bottom's stories--Hampton, VA. The occasion, a college tennis match between Colgate, for whom I played, and Hampton Institute, an HBCU.

[Catherine Symchych · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honest and thought-provoking. Rarely do we think about childhood memories in relation to historical trends, but he can look back and clearly see the evidence of his prejudice and those around him. Particularly timely as race riots and demonstrations sweep the country. I’d like to think that we can move ourselves away from such ingrained racism, but don’t have much hope.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating memoir of growing up white in a racist white neighborhood. It is intertwined with current facts and implications which make a strong statement of why America has been built on systemic racism. I recall these times and while tamer in rural Minnesota I still recall George Wallace as a scary candidate for the presidency.

[Soundwave · Rating 2 out of 5]

It really could have gotten into more detail with the events. My mind just wouldn't settle and get into the book at all. Loved the pictures that accompanied the stories.

[Alex Castellano · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really unique exploration and explanation of how racism is unnatural, nonsensical, and taught via structures that have existed for millenia.

[Maxwell Levine · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting perspective that gives a retrospective voice to a white child growing up surrounded by the implicit racism in society. train book 3/4