WeBuzz
Reader discussion: Blind Spot
Public reader discussion about Blind Spot in the WeRead Catalog by Bascom Jones.
What are your biggest literary blind spots?
By MapleCounts35
I just watched the trailer for the A Wrinkle in Time movie, and it seems like everyone in my feed is *so* pumped for it. And then I realized I never actually read the book growing up, which honestly feels like I missed something.
It made me wonder though—what books/authors (or even whole genres) are way more important or influential than you realized, but somehow you’ve never gotten around to?
Also, one of my big gaps: I’ve never read any Stephen King at all. I feel like I probably should fix that, but I just keep not doing it.
My Brilliant Friend— What am I missing?
By CafeKettle81
I kept seeing *My Brilliant Friend* everywhere—recommended nonstop, showing up on “must read” lists—and I finally picked it up because it was #1 on that NYT best books of the 21st century thing.
I just finished it this morning and… it was only okay for me. I did like some parts a lot: the friendship between the women felt really sharp and believable, the book does a great job showing the gender and class gaps in Naples, and I especially connected with how Ferrante shows the loneliness of being academic-minded when you’re surrounded by a working-class world. But I still feel like I might be missing something? Like, why does everyone love it so much? To me it wasn’t bad, just not great.
Curious what other people think.
For those who had a difficult time reading, how did you overcome it?
By tenderharbor
I’ve got tons of books I really want to read, but the second I actually have one in my hands, I can’t stay focused. My mind drifts and I end up rereading the same pages a bunch just to get it. It’s honestly pretty discouraging, so I’ve basically stopped reading for now, even though I still really want to. I’m trying to figure out how other people handled the same problem and what actually helped them.
Blindspot by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald
By LateVelvetTiger
This is such a great book, like seriously. A few years back I came across the implicit bias stuff, and I learned it was put together by Banaji and Greenwald. I read their book “Blind Spot” and it kind of messed with me in the best (and worst) way, because I realized I have racial biases that I didn’t want to admit. I think most of it is unconscious, but it still ends up affecting choices and decisions all over the place.
One time someone asked me to think of ten influential Americans, and I made my list without even thinking. Then they asked how many of them were Black. My answer was 0, and I honestly hated that my first instinct was that. I could tell something was off, but I didn’t want to pretend it wasn’t.
That day I changed things—on my computer I made a screensaver with 50 images of influential Black Americans, like Spike Lee, Donald Glover, Coretta Scott King, Frederick Douglass, all of that. I want to believe if I was asked the question again my list would be different, but I’m not fully sure. I guess the hidden stuff takes real work to undo, and I know I still have a long way to go.
I don’t think the goal is to say “I’m not racist” like that shuts it down. It’s more like, yeah, I grew up in a society that put races in a hierarchy, so it makes sense I picked up biases along the way. I just have to keep trying to counter it by listening to people of color and believing them, even when it’s uncomfortable. I’ll probably mess up sometimes, but I don’t want to get defensive. I need to admit I’ve got work to do, because that’s the only way anything actually changes.