yes. This book is awful. I read it to understand the arguments for claims that I knew I disagreed with, I wanted to understand how Owens gets to her conclusions,
Turns out, her arguments are a collection of things like straw men, ad hominems, and changing definitions of terms midstream,
There may be redeemable things about the book, But if one is evaluating it based on the quality of its arguments, It is and I cannot stress this enough terrible, I will only say here that I wish everyone who was, . . upset at my review of sitelinkWhite Fragility: Why Its So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism would simply read this,
The book is a sober, open, factual account of MS, Owens experiences and what she has learned from them,
Please don't be mislead by that, I don't mean it's a biography, I'm simply saying that she speaks of what she knows,
Look as I've asked before, just please read it and try to read it with an open mind,
Please
Recommended, Candace Owens makes some really fine points about what is happening in America, She cites statistics and studies that confirm that black Americans have made little progress, She blames the fact that we have allowed families to disintegrate and the children receive the backlash of being in poverty,
In general, it is a sad telling of the lifestyle being forced onto black people by the leaders that they are encouraged to vote for again and again with no results that benefit them.
Promises are easily broken and lives are never bettered by broken promises, What an incredible and strong voice! Candace is truly one of the most brilliant mouthpieces of my generation, and I would love to sit down and have a conversation with her and pick her mind.
She has been demonized so much for staying true to her beliefs and upbringing but has never wavered or backed down, Thats definitely something to aspire to, The points she makes are spot on, and she provides the sources for anyone who may doubt their accuracy, Just for how wellwritten and wellworded this book is, I think it is probably my favorite memoirtype book Ive ever read, I do wish there was a little more HER in it, as far as learning more about her life, but perhaps she focused on the now to keep her privacy, which I understand.
I love Candace. Anyone who disagrees with what she says is an uneducated follower, candacetldr This book is dishonest, hypocritical, and filled with sparse evidence and logical fallacies,
Im a progressive American raised Republican, and I read this book as an attempt to broaden my perspective and add depth to my understanding of issues.
However, what I found was another “us vs them” narrative in which one party is the hero while the other is the villain, Frankly, any narrative that presents either party as pure good and the other as pure evil is extremely biased and shallownot to mention divisive and harmful,
The great thing about books is that they dont have to work in absolutes, Books give you tons of space and time to delve into issues and develop ideas, to provide numerous perspectives and add nuance to arguments, The problem with this book is that it does none of that, Blackout is a divisive piece of Republican propaganda that takes complex issues and reduces them into a dichotomy of extremes fighting extremes, often grossly misrepresenting and/or oversimplifying any counterarguments.
But before I go on, let me talk about some positive takeaways I got from reading this book:
, Society is unfairly harsh toward Black conservatives, Challenging beliefs is healthy, but we need to stop judging and attacking people for thinking differently than we do,
. Our country has a history of not coming through when it comes to Black Americans, and theres no reason to assume it will start nowso Owens has a point here: “We cannot rely on a hopelessly inefficient and burdensome government to fix what we ourselves refuse to do.
” However, her take on this view is problematic in that she frowns on activism to push for systemic change, instead exclusively favoring the individual narrative, More on this later.
. Reading this book also gave me firsthand experience as to what its like to have your beliefs completely misrepresented at a large scale, This is a problem that occurs on BOTH sides of the aisle, and I know Ive accidentally done it myself thank you to my wellintentioned conservative friends who have pointed out when Ive misrepresented their beliefs.
But basically what Blackout does is take a collection of crazy, extreme “left” beliefs no matter if anyone actually holds these beliefs, combine them into a single Frankensteins monsterlike platform, and ascribe it to over half the United States population.
The problem is, no one in this country actually believes everything Owens thinks that the entire “left” community believes, so the opponent she attacks throughout this whole book doesnt actually exist.
Political discussions arent ever going to go anywhere if we keep misrepresenting each others arguments, They also arent ever going to go anywhere if we keep viewing each other as opponents instead of collaborators bringing different ideas to the table, Blackout adeptly demonstrates the toxicity in the twoparty system in America and why its so difficult for us to make progress,
Now for some critique:
, The “Persuasive” Writing
Remember that Candace Owenss audience is specifically Black Democrats, She wants to help them see that theyre being blinded and manipulated by White Democrats and to encourage them to hop over to the Republican party instead, This means that her book needs to be strongly persuasive, and to do so, she needs to reach out and meet her target audience where they are and then carefully guide them toward her way of thinking.
The problem is, her book is written in such a way that the only people who will like it are people who already think what Owens thinks.
She misrepresents the other sides beliefs, attacks “straw man” arguments, irresponsibly uses studies and statistics, and fails to address any of the real reasons that people choose to vote Democrat, instead insulting the intelligence of the Black community with quotes like “In essence, black Americans were certainly not becoming more oppressed but were instead being transformed into pawns for smarter men in the pursuit of power.
”
Rule numberof good persuasive writing: Dont insult your audience!
In sum: This is not a persuasive book, its a Republican battle cry.
. The ConservativeBiased Hypocrisies
Owens is obsessed with accusing Democrats of victimizing Black Americans through discussions about systemic racism, yet her whole argument is based on the fact that she believes Black Americans are victims of Democrats who manipulate them for votes in order to further their sinister, racist agenda.
Owens laughs at Democrats for challenging systemic racism, yet she gets completely on board with systemic racism that favors Republican ideals, For example, she expertly points out the concentrated placement of Planned Parenthood locations near Black neighborhoods no discussion about the fact that Planned Parenthood is meant to serve individuals with limited access to healthcare and how it targets Black babies, yet she is unable to recognize how the different criminal treatment of crack vs cocaine two forms of the same drug, used predominately by Black or White Americans, respectively targets Black men.
Additionally, shes quick to blame schools for failing to educate about individuality a systemic failure that aligns with Republican ideals but cannot recognize how the way we fund our schools results in lower quality education for people living in poor neighborhoods a systemic failure that aligns with Democrat ideals.
The system is not the enemyunless, of course, a systemic argument benefits Republicans,
She claims that Democrats were responsible for slavery, the KKK, and Jim Crow without any deeper look at the way that parties evolve over time, Yes, freed slaves were Republicans because of Lincoln, Yes, southern slaveowners were Democrats, However, she then talks about how the Democrats wooed Black voters to their party with welfare, but she ignores the transformation of southern Democrats into Republicans, Democrat and Republican had completely different meanings and completely different platforms inthan they do ingo figure, so attempts to associate modern parties with past parties without discussing the complexities of party switching is dishonest and irresponsible.
She accuses the media of believing that “Democrats are inherently blamefree and Republicans are incapable of virtue,” when the reverse is literally what this book suggests.
She attacks “the left” for pointing out racism where it is not and claims that thats a large reason why racism persists, However, after mocking Black people for complaining about microaggressions, she calls out Clinton and Biden as racists for talking about hot sauce and using the word “aint, ” Now Ill agree with her about Clinton and Biden both of those instances were problematic, But you cant decide that microaggressions are only valid to talk about when theyre instigated by Democrats, Basically, she calls out A LOT of people for being racist in this book, and every last one of them is a Democrat, Seems pretty partybiased to me,
She criticizes “the left” for using statistics out of context, and in the same breath, she herself uses statistics out of context, She brings up the fact that Black men are disproportionately incarcerated when compared to White men as an example of a statistic “the left” uses out of context, and then she tries to rebut it in two sentences by telling us that Black men also commit a disproportionate number of homicides.
I dont know what “the left” shes talking about, but entire books have been written on this topiclike sitelinkThe New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, which is literally three times longer than Owenss entire book.
So much for “stats out of context, ”
. The Dichotomies
As mentioned at the beginning of this review, Owens regularly takes complex arguments and reduces them into simple dichotomies of two extremes, While it is certainly possible that Owens herself doesnt actually believe all these dichotomies in real life, a meaningful book would add nuance to the discussion of different topics and develop creative solutions that do not sit at either extreme.
This book does not do that, It presents one extreme, Owenss opinion, and the other extreme, Owenss perception of “the left” which may or may not be fair,
Heres a brief sampling of the dichotomies of Candace Owens as presented in Blackout:
Youre either Republican OR Democrat AKA good OR bad
Owens talks about a lot of people and policies in this book, but she NEVER criticizes Republicans and she NEVER praises Democrats.
The reality is that both parties are deeply flawed and that every issue needs to be looked at individually and not through a party lens, Shes not wrong that Democrats have broken lots of party promises and have espoused platforms that hurt the Black community, but shes wrong to claim that thats evidence that Republicans arent just as or more! harmful to the Black community than Democrats are.
Republicans and Democrats BOTH have flawed platforms, Neither is purely right and neither is purely wrong,
Either you believe all women OR you believe all men
In response to metoo and the exposure of the frequency of sexual harassment and assault, Candace Owens finds it necessary to come to the defense of men.
Obviously, there are problems with the “believe all women” narrative, in that it makes it very easy for women who regret a sexual encounter or who simply want to retaliate against a man to “ruin his life” by falsely accusing him of rape.
However, Owenss discussion of the subject talks exclusively about how metoo hurts men, and even shares a handful of stories about men who have been falsely accused.
Where are the stories about the women whose lives were ruined by men before they were accused of lying about their traumaESPECIALLY given the fact that this is a far more common problem than men being falsely accused
A meaningful discussion on the metoo movement would absolutely take into account both sides of the coin.
It would talk about the danger of false accusations, and it would talk about the repercussions of not believing women, It would search for a middle ground that would allow for women to be believed and given resources they need to cope with traumatic experiences while not risking confining innocent men.
Because, ultimately, if you leave women out of the discussion and talk only about the damage that believing women does to men, youre advocating for always taking the mans side and letting rape culture persist.
Either you're a victim OR youre empowered
Owenss mindset as presented in this book is that if you choose to be a victim, you decide you have no power over your own destiny and you passively let life happen to you.
On the other hand, if you choose not to be a victim, you can take power over your own life and not let anyone hold you back,
The problem with this mindset is that it treats victimhood as a choice, and it makes “victim” a dirty word and a personal failing, Being a victim is something we have no control over, and there is absolutely no shame in it, And recognizing that youre a victim does not mean that you have to roll over and give up,
Teaching people that they can get on their feet and take charge of their destiny is empowering, But teaching them that they have to deny how the system is stacked against them is harmful, Too often, people suffering from Owenss mindset see recognition of victimhood as a weakness, They see activists looking for systemic change as having a “victim complex, ” This narrative teaches people that they have to pretend life is fair and that anywhere they dont succeed is because theyre weak, which is just as dangerous as the extreme Owens is pushing against.
But the truth is, you can fight against injustice AND take charge of your own individual destiny, You can recognize that you have more obstacles than someone else AND resolve to not let them hold you back, You dont have to choose!
Youre either a manhater OR an antifeminist
There are certainly issues with how feminism is sometimes practiced today.
But a meaningful discussion would recognize that the ultimate goal of feminism is equality, and then go from there to explore how specific practices actually detract from that goal.
But what really isnt up for debate is that our world is still heavily malebiased, Owens may make the claim that sexism against women is goneand that the system, in fact, is biased in favor of womenbut she does so without bothering to tackle the barrage of data catalogued so damningly in books like sitelinkInvisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, making her baseless claim quite meaningless in the larger scheme of things.
Additionally, her reduction of feminists into crazy manhaters denies the existence of the much larger group of feminists who, like me, just want to see more female representation in government and the workplace along with equal compensation.
Youre either fully capitalist OR fully socialist
Owens talks about communism vs socialism and how theyre actually the same thing, Then she goes on to use Venezuela as an example of how socialism destroys a country, This is problematic because communism, socialism, and democratic socialism are vastly different ideologies, and their implementations look vastly different in various countries, In fact, the US is already proof that socialism is a continuum, Libraries, public school, and road construction are some very basic examples of US
socialism, and one can push for universal health care, welfare, and universal housing without wanting the US to be the new USSR.
Either youre a pure victim OR youre not a victim
Owens seems to believe that “the left” thinks that all disadvantaged groups are perfect, pure victims.
What she doesnt realize is that you can be a victim even if you arent perfect and pure,
Her attempted “gotcha” discussion near the end of the book about how Indigenous groups performed human sacrifice is proof of this, Obviously, human sacrifice is an abhorrent activity, However, just because a group performed human sacrifice does not justify another group slaughtering them and stealing their land for personal gain, This kind of dangerous narrativethat only pure, perfect people can be victimsis what sends people combing through the pasts of victims of violent crimes to see if they are “worthy” of being considered a victim, the way Owens does repeatedly with George Floyd.
No ones perfect, We all suck, actually. That doesnt give us an excuse to harm each other,
Takeaway
If youre a progressive like me who is looking for a meaningful discussion of issues from a conservative perspective, I advise you to skip this one.
But if you've got a recommendation of a fairer conservativeleaning book, let me know!,
Explore Blackout: How Black America Can Make Its Second Escape From The Democrat Plantation Originated By Candace Owens Available In Paper Copy
Candace Owens