Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Daily Lobo The Independent Voice of UNM since 1895
Latest Issue
Read our print edition on Issuu
Layla Saad.jpg

Author Layla Saad talks about her book “Me and White Supremacy” at Bookworks in Albuquerque on Jan. 31, 2020.

Author Layla Saad on combating white supremacy

Layla Saad, author of “Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor” visited Bookworks in Albuquerque as a stop on her national book tour. 

The Jan. 31 event filled the small store, leaving only standing room after the chairs were filled. Saad spoke not only about her book but about racism and how it appears especially in liberal white women.

Saad published her book “Me and White Supremacy” in 2019. The book guides readers through a 28-day journey to recognize and take steps towards eliminating the ways readers unwittingly participate in white supremacy. 

While the first 28-days are designed to start this journey, Saad makes it clear that combating racism and white supremacy is a lifelong endeavor. During the event Saad also teased that she is working on a children’s book, to help children understand white supremacy.

Saad began getting public attention in 2017 when she wrote a controversial article called “I Need to Talk to Spiritual White Women about White Supremacy.” While many people resonated with the article and it earned Saad a large online following, she also got some very negative reactions online.

Saad said she remembers, “Every time I go into my inbox, I don’t know whether it’s going to be ‘thank you so much for writing this letter somebody needed to say it’ or ‘who the hell do you think you are?’ and then expletives of racial slurs and Islamophobic hate.”

A year later, after a break from her anti-racism work, and focusing on self-care, the first incarnation of her book began as a series of Instagram posts. In the summer of 2018, she wrote 28 Instagram posts in which she challenged her followers to address the ways that they uphold white supremacy. 

“We started with 19,000 followers when I started the challenge,” Saad said, “By the end of it that number had more than doubled.”

Reflecting on the undertaking of the Instagram challenge Saad said, “The challenge was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but I just knew something important was happening I knew I had to show up fully in it.”

In the winter of 2018, these Instagram posts were collected alongside examples of white supremacy and a passage on self-care that is meant to be followed while undertaking this challenge. This collection was made into a free online workbook.

The idea of self-care resonated with the audience on Friday who were preparing to undertake Saad’s 28-day journey to recognize and change the ways people are complicit in white supremacy. 

Tara Hackel and Laura Steele, two audience members agreed on the importance of self-care in activism.

Enjoy what you're reading?
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Subscribe

“When I first started getting into identity, power and oppression-based work it was really easy to do what Layla talked about. I started to burn out.” Hackle says, “You need to pace yourself and focus on self-care.”

When the workbook was released Saad was alarmed once again at its popularity. 

“Within three days 11,000 people had downloaded the workbook,” Saad says, “Within six months, a 100,000 people had accessed the free workbook. It became its own movement.”

In its final form, “Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World and Become a Good Ancestor” was published as a book that includes the original 28-day Instagram challenge as well as examples and stories that highlight the way white supremacy is a part of our lives.

Gloria Taradash, who attended the Bookworks event, appreciated Saad’s ability to be straightforward when talking about a topic as sensitive as race. 

“It’s hard to talk about racism,” Taradash says. “Especially as women, we are so careful about our feelings and our relationships with other women, but she was very straight forward. Women are the ones who can really take a look at ourselves and can make a difference.”

Saad finished her discussion by encouraging the audience to become good ancestors, 

“The world when you’re gone will be impacted by the way you lived.” Saad said, “Everyone who came into contact with you in your life will be impacted by you. You have an opportunity to create a different kind of world by the choices that you make today.”

Loreena Cain is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @loreena_cain 

Comments
Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Daily Lobo