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A gift guide in the Guardian today recommends 'Me and White Supremacy' by Layla F Saad, "a Twitter thread-become-bestseller in the form of a therapy workbook with journalling prompts to help the reader improve their anti-racism, which could be used as a pointed Christmas gift."
Intrigued, I google Saad. She's actually written two books with this title. The first in January 2020, with a foreword by Robin DiAngelo. The second a couple of weeks ago, the same content but rejigged as a "guided journal"
(yes, *that* Robin DiAngelo) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/07/dehumanizing-condescension-white-fragility/614146/
Saad used to work as a life coach and spiritual mentor to business entrepreneurs, but then hit the big time with this blog post in 2017 (quote: "Before hitting publish on this letter, I have infused it with the healing energy of reiki.") http://laylafsaad.com/poetry-prose/white-women-white-supremacy-1
The Guardian gift guide is wrong, it was actually a series of Instagram posts that inspired the 'Me and White Supremacy' hashtag and then book, which was a New York Times bestseller. Endorsed by various white celebs incl. Anne Hathaway and the author of 'Eat, Pray, Love'.
The book and now guided journal are very much aimed at a white, liberal, female audience, and this new version is attempting to capitalise on the events of the summer. The Amazon reviews include a lot of "as a white woman..."
In June, Saad wrote a piece for the Guardian on events in America: "As we mourn and seek justice for the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop and Tony McDade (to name but a few), many black people such as myself..." https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/jun/03/do-the-work-an-anti-racist-reading-list-layla-f-saad
At no point in this piece does Saad mention the fact that she isn't American.
Her family are originally from Oman, her mother was born in Zanzibar, her father Kenya. Saad's parents met while studying in Britain, which is where Saad was born. She moved to Qatar aged 15.
Her family are originally from Oman, her mother was born in Zanzibar, her father Kenya. Saad's parents met while studying in Britain, which is where Saad was born. She moved to Qatar aged 15.
The family moved to Qatar because Saad's father was "head hunted for a job" and she lives there still, with her husband and children, who attend the British international school in Doha.
Listening to her interview on the Goop podcast, Saad sounds like the has an international school accent herself, given the American inflection (either that or it's affected...)
What's SO INTERESTING about the Layla Saad phenomenon is that while she's actually a wealthy woman with no connection to America who has spent most of her adult life living in Qatar, a country condemned by the UN for its tolerance of modern slavery...
... She has achieved success in America by appointing herself an expert on Black American politics. And has had glowing coverage in Marie Claire, Vogue etc. etc.
She get away with it by appealing to a kind of pan-African identity, e.g. this: "I am a black muslim woman. I carry within me both the experience from my own lifetime of racism and discrimination, and the collective trauma of belonging to a people who were slaves for centuries."
"BELONGING TO A PEOPLE WHO WERE SLAVES FOR CENTURIES"
Is Saad writing here about the Arab slave trade in East Africa, which enslaved an estimated 17 million people? Nope, she means the transatlantic slave trade. Even though she has no connection to either West Africa or America.
Is Saad writing here about the Arab slave trade in East Africa, which enslaved an estimated 17 million people? Nope, she means the transatlantic slave trade. Even though she has no connection to either West Africa or America.
I've not found her talking/writing anywhere about the Gulf's historic connection to the East African slave trade, or indeed ongoing slavery. Qatar criminalised slavery in 1952 and Oman in 1970, but in practice there is still a huge problem that goes overlooked by Gulf states.
And hey, maybe Saad doesn't personally benefit from slave labour, although she does presumably use shopping centres etc. built by migrant workers who are effectively treated as slaves. But I'm not in the business of assigning collective guilt.
What really amazes me is the Western (particularly American) audience who don't seem to recognise that 'black people' aren't all the same, and that class and nationality still mean a great deal. Layla Saad's experiences are nothing like your average Black American's.
I can only assume that the various interviewers who have fawned over Saad don't know anything about Qatar, and really do think that 'black people' (well over a billion people!) are all alike.
Layla Saad is a grifter, but all she's doing is responding to a market that rewards her grift. Because I WONDER how a book on racism in modern Qatar would do in the New York Times bestseller list.....?
