We'll All Be Free: How a Culture of White Supremacy Devalues Us and How We Can Reclaim Our True Worth

by Caroline J. Sumlin

Discover a Better Standard of Excellence

You're not good enough. How many of us internalize this belief before we even reach adulthood? How many of us feel unworthy and unable to live up to what seem like impossible-yet-completely-arbitrary standards? Where do these toxic beliefs about ourselves come from? And who told us there is a way we are "supposed" to be anyway?

With passion and compassion, Caroline J. Sumlin reveals the force that keeps all of us, whether we are part of a marginalized group or not, from freely expressing who we are as image bearers of white supremacy culture. Sharing her own story, she helps you see the wide-ranging effects of living in a culture of white supremacy. She identifies the damaging beliefs we internalize from our very earliest days and shows us how to find clarity and freedom as we dismantle the oppressive structures that hem us in and force us to conform.

If you have struggled with perfectionism, self-doubt, unworthiness, or the unrelenting pressure to pursue someone else's version of "success," you will find here the tools you need to silence the voices that seek to keep you down and to value yourself as never before.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Social Justice

232 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 25, 2023

About the author

Caroline J. Sumlin is a writer, speaker, and educator with a passion for helping all people to reclaim their self-worth and their humanity. A former foster child turned adoptee, Caroline brings awareness, healing, and liberation to the topics of toxic white supremacy culture, systemic injustice, mental health, faith reconstruction, and bold, purposeful living to her growing audience. She received her bachelor of arts from Howard University and resides with her husband and their two daughters in Northern Virginia.

Reviews

[Ellie Hunja · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has knocked me off my feet. It exposes the way white supremacy has seeped its way into every aspect of our culture, and lights a path toward a better way. The author shares her own journey authentically, while helping us to dismantle the culture of white supremacy that has infected each of our hearts. Deeply convicting for white folks like myself, and I imagine incredibly healing for BIPOC.

It's extremely well-written, with searing truths but also deep compassion. The style is conversational and approachable and is sure to make you think. I would absolutely recommend it to EVERYONE.

[Jane Bruner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has given me such eye opening realizations around how pervasive and harmful cycles of hustle, perfectionism and burnout can be in our lives. The way Sumlin shares personal stories from her own life and threads them through to larger cultural and societal themes gave me new context and depth to my understanding of concepts I had always only learned about at a higher level.

I started reading this book with expectation of learning more about historical marginalization (which it certainly delivered on), but I didn’t expect the journey of personal exploration and growth I’d be taken on through the journaling exercises. I definitely recommend taking the time to pause and journal to get the most from it.

This book is so beautifully written, it held my attention and the content is so well structured it felt like it really brought me on a journey as a reader. It truly is a MUST read!

[Michelle Neer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book! Caroline Sumlin does a stellar job at weaving her personal growth experience, raising awareness to historical and present injustice and a call to action into a very thought-provoking book. She shares enough of her deeply personal struggles to make it feel like you are having coffee with a good friend while simultaneously calling each of us to self-reflection about how our world shapes our perceptions and how we can grow beyond it.

It’s a book to read slowly and soak in. I love how each chapter finishes with journal prompts and leaves space for each person to (alone or with friends) think of how we can break free from a negative white supremacy culture that hurts all of us and change mindsets. She masterfully takes deeply painful topics of a terribly broken society and speaks hope and liberation in a way I haven’t seen in other books adjacent to this topic and makes it applicable to everyone who picks it up.

[Rohadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go to intro outlining the expansiveness of white supremacy at work in culture and society. Highly recommend for personal reading or groups looking to engage the WORK.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book, Sumlin eloquently outlines how white supremacy affects all aspects of our lives including how we think about things and view ourselves. I will definitely be re-reading this multiple times, and would highly recommend to everyone.

[Kate Schaefer · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read the beginning chapters I realized I've never considered myself a victim of this disease. For many years I've been busy understanding my privilege and doing what I can (within my limited reach) to raise awareness & support of racial equity. But not until I met this book did I consider that my white self may be suffering from negative effects of White Supremacy Culture. My mind was absolutely blown.

It’s part memoir; you may cry. It’s part history text book; you will learn. It’s mostly essential conversation & reflection our (American/Western) nation needs to be engaged in for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of its future. This book is truly a must-read! I can say with 99.99% certainty that if you read it you will learn something regardless of what you think you know about white supremacy culture. Caroline’s perspective is not only relevant it is also fresh, tender, inviting, & inclusive.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredibly well written and allows even the total beginner who’s never even paused to reflect on white supremacy culture a chance to learn how it affects us all, and what to do about it. Well organized into great chapters, and incredibly compelling. I wish every person on the planet could read this at least experience perspective changes if not entire life changes and a desire to fight the system forever after.

I found Sumlin’s personal experience to be compelling, human, relatable, and I especially appreciated how it was clear that it’s ongoing for her too, this whole process of dismantling white supremacy culture. In fact the whole process is personal to each of us and will be ongoing forever as the culture fights back, hard, to retain the power structures that have left all of us, BIPOC, women, all marginalized peoples, in places of subjugation. It’s exhausting but a worthy pursuit, and this book was a great introduction to how to start that pursuit.

[Amy F. Matos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved Caroline J. Sumlin’s debut book: We’ll All Be Free: How a Culture of White Supremacy Devalues Us and How We Can Reclaim Our True Worth. This is one of the first books I can recall reading that seamlessly connects the dots between the primal wounds of our nation’s founding, the various systems of oppression that are killing each and every one of us, and our personal and collective struggles we experience each day under the burden of white supremacy culture. Equal parts history lesson, faith deconstruction, and vulnerable personal memoir, the author beautifully models a way forward… a way in which We’ll All Be Free. This book is both informative and healing, providing hope to all who read it that “we will be the last generation that ever has to feel ashamed of our full humanity.” Two thumbs up, five stars, 10/10, must read.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book feels like having a coffee and chatting with a good friend. Caroline is so vulnerable and honest about her experiences, while also weaving in complex and often triggering concepts and presenting them with clarity and grace. Her personal stories make it so that we can not only understand the individual concepts, but also clearly see how they tie together, where they have their roots in white supremacy, and how they affect us all. Even if you’ve read other books on white supremacy and feel familiar with these ideas, there are still things in this book for you! Caroline draws connections here that aren’t always presented when discussing white supremacy culture and will give you fresh things to consider. A must read!

[Jessica Kantrowitz · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's this scene in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader where Eustace has fallen under a curse and been turned into a dragon and Aslan is helping him shed his dragon-skin. Eustace tries himself several times to take it off, only to find that he has only peeled back one thin layer and is still a dragon. He finally asks Aslan (who is a lion) for help, and Aslan digs deep into dragon-flesh with his lion-claws, finally removing the whole thick dragon skin at its core. This book is like that. But our dragon-cursed flesh is white supremacy, and the thin layers are the ways we've tried to heal ourselves from shame and self-doubt without understanding their true cause, and Caroline J. Sumlin is the lion that is here to gently but fiercely help us heal to the core. I'm so grateful for this book.

[Nicole Boehrig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Her approach is honest & clear, and her posture is clearly towards a love of people. She doesn’t dislike whyte people (which I think many white folks earlier in the anti-racist journey are afraid of. Their problem to misunderstand the difference), but Sumlin will no-nonsense call the crap that perpetuates harm for Black & Brown people. The same harm that actually harms us all. As a white woman reading, I’ve felt seen (but not overly so), challenged, called more into action and most importantly — like I have more of a window into her life as a Black woman, mom, adoptee, and writer. Her blend of personal story and experiences, as well as facts and research creates a compelling read.

Whether this is a first book on anti-racism you pick up, or the 10th, it’s a great tool!

[Susan M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across Caroline on Instagram and noticed that she was an author, so I obviously had to support her by purchasing her work! I loved this book so much, and the messages in it are so important. It was very informational and also felt like a warm hug incorporating bits about self-worth. I highly recommend this book to anyone on their anti-racist journey looking to educate themselves on white supremacy. It is engrained in the fabric of our society and tied to much more than one would think. Caroline breaks things down in such an easily digestible way, and you can feel the warmth and care in her words.

[pamela jablonski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to finally read this book! Caroline walks us through white supremacy with personal examples and shows how we all suffer from things that have their root in white supremacy! The striving for perfection, the lifestyle of always hustling, things that rang true to me and after reading this book I feel more prepared to live a life that is not defined by white supremacy. I am a white woman, this book is for me, too! Caroline wants us ALL to be free, and she tells us ways to do this just beautifully.

[Christine Giannetto · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is more overtly religious than I expected. Initially I struggled with this (I was raised in the Catholic church and have spent my adulthood disentangling myself from religion altogether).

Surprisingly though, Sumlin discusses her own Christian beliefs in a way that doesn't detract from her overarching messages of liberation, advocacy, and dismantling white supremacy -- but actually strengthens them. I found this aspect of the book really refreshing, even though I don't consider myself religious.

[HILARY · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, it definitely wasn’t what I had originally expected when I picked it up. I feel like she touched on things that were more to the heart of issues for people individually which I found insightful and helpful with the topic of white supremacy.

Can you lay an academic foundation of the culture of white supremacy in three chapters? No. So that’s not fair to judge the book on. The foundation she presented led more in her own personal story. I feel like where she really excelled was identifying damaging beliefs and walking towards freedom in those structures.

[Chelsea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book so captivating that it was hard to put down once I’d started reading it. Throughout so many different chapters I found myself relating to the topics discussed in a way that felt incredibly personal, while also being informed on the history, culture and the “why” behind all of it. The journal prompts at the end of each chapter offer a place for quiet reflection and an opportunity to explore attainable and personal solutions. This will be a book that I revisit often and is an incredible reminder of how personal change and healing can contribute to the overall healing of humanity.

[Laura Danger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book! Was a proper deep dive into the ways white supremacy culture is at the core of what harms us. It’s clear they care for the reader has gone into these pages. This book would be an excellent entryway for anyone hoping to create internal and systemic change. Solid historical overview, theory and personal context. Have already recommended it to others. Also! As a non-Christian, I would fully recommend this for anyone, regardless of faith. Well done!

[Hannah Rule · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We'll All be Free" was challenging in the most hopeful way. It challenged me to rethink and relearn how I think about myself and others and if I am thinking from a view of a white supremacy culture or from Jesus. I will be digesting this one for a while, but as I digest I plan to move toward freedom for myself and others.

[Kaila Walton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - I did not realize how Jesus-y this book was going to be. I’m not religious so not a fan of that aspect of this book. But it is a great starting point for diving into how much white supremacy affects literally everything in this world.

[Toni Kolb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not just a memoir.
Nor is this book only the telling of our American history. Carolin Sumlin vulnerably shares her personal experience within white culture and brilliantly points out how white supremacy has impacted our every days lives.

Sumlin educates the reader by showing how white supremacy has built a white culture, a culture that pushes us to be perfectionists, individualists, hustlers. A society that demands a white standard that none of us can keep, no matter our race.

And lastly, this book offers us hope. A practical guide towards freedom.

Please join the healing journey by learning from this timely, beautiful, Black voice, so we’ll all be free.

[Zakia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a powerful read. I know quite a bit about the ills of white supremacy culture, but I still learned a lot from “We’ll All Be Free.” Sumlin does a great job of being relatable while pushing her audience to be self critical in order to grow. I finished the book feeling hopeful and energized to make specific changes in my life and world view.
Great book!

[Ashley Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sumlin mixes personal experience with historical facts to explore how white supremacy culture has infected our society. I really appreciate the trigger warning given at the beginning of the chapter instead of being included in a list at the beginning of the book; it aids the reader in knowing what specific section may be triggering.

I found it ironic that she wrote to take a break when I was planning on staying up late to finish the book. I found the Christian invocations to be a bit much, but the book is partially marketed as Christian living.

A great debut!

[Cacey]

DNF, read to 75%. Four stars but then it got really Jesus-y at 67% mark.

[Alisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an insightful, smart, eye opening, challenging, and potentially life changing read. It will change your view of the world and of yourself. It definitely challenges the status quo but if you let it, it will set you free. Caroline has done a tremendous job and this book is worth your time.