I found these twitter threads to be useful about this book: https://twitter.com/drchanequa/status/1278775116059598848

I agree with this thread, and it has a bunch of other great books listed:

https://twitter.com/RheaBoydMD/status/1276909706422829058?s=...

Here's a list of books mentioned in the thread that people may want to read.

The Warmth of Other Suns: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0679763880/

Sister Citizen: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0300188188

Pushout: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1620973421

This Bridge Called My Back: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1438454384

So You Want to Talk About Race: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1541647432

Killing the Black Body: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0679758690

How to be an Anti Racist: https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Be-Antiracist-Ibram-Kendi-ebook...

Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American https://www.amazon.co.uk/Racecraft-Soul-Inequality-American-...

Why I'm not longer talking to white people about race: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Longer-Talking-White-People-About/d...

If you are a non-white person, no, I would not say you have had your expectations set by experiencing white privilege.

You are welcome to empathize with white people. I often do. I am one. I empathize with that guy. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge privilege.

If you can't fathom what this has to do with race, I'd suggest you haven't studied the topic enough. There is an ocean of history and rivers of current evidence that in America race drives a lot of this.

For example, you could go read Loewen's Sundown Towns, [1] which demonstrates that America had a major period of violent ethnic cleansing circa 1890-1930 known as the Nadir. That peaked with white people destroying America's most prosperous black district, firebombing it from the air and burning 35 blocks to the ground. [2]

You could go back from there and read about slavery and the civil war. You could read the various declarations of secession, where white people make clear they're willing to go to war because they believe black people are so inferior that they must forever be property. You could read the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau, and how even after the civil war there was endless violent aggression against black people.

Or you could go forward from the Nadir and read about Jim Crow. About white flight. About redlining. About racial exclusion covenants. Heck, right here in the Bay Area after WW II there was public debate over whether the peninsula should be declared whites only in its entirety.

From there you might read about the present. There too there's a ton of material. E.g., the classic resume study showing discrimination against black people. [3] And there are plenty of evocative books. E.g., Julie Lythcott-Haims's memoir Real American about growing up biracial. [4] Or Ijeoma Oluo's So You Want to Talk About Race. [5] And I don't think an understanding of American racial dynamics is complete without a look at white fragility. DiAngelo recently did a talk about her excellent book that's a good intro. [6]

I agree that America could be unique in the extent to which race matters historically and currently. But it's not like other countries don't have major issues with racial discrimination. Wikipedia has a very long list of ethnic cleansing campaigns, for example. [7] Congrats if your home country never had any of that, but that's not where you are now.

I also get why you might think discrimination was due to some correlative factor, like money. I used to think that too. But over time I came around. What changed was studying the history, looking at the evidence, and really listening to non-white people with empathy and an open mind.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Sundown-Towns-Hidden-Dimension-Americ...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_riot

[3] https://www.nber.org/papers/w9873

[4] https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-About-Race/dp/158005677...

[5] https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-About-Race/dp/158005677...

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ey4jgoxeU

You might consider that your question is similarly self-fulfilling. Your basic theory here is you know a black man's experience better than he does. How many black people will be willing to honestly share with you what happens to them when this is a depressingly common reaction? Which of course leads you to believe that this isn't a pervasive problem in the US.

If you're interested in moving beyond that, I'd suggest starting with the recent books from DiAngelo [1] and Oluo [2]. Or for a more personal take, the recent memoir from Julie Lythcott-Haims is good at conveying how pervasive this stuff is, and how much pain that causes.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07638ZFN1 [2] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073P53DVL [3] https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MR92UQN

If you are legitimately curious and open minded about digging more into this topic, I highly recommend the recently published book "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo.

https://www.amazon.com/You-Want-Talk-About-Race/dp/158005677...