The Right Kind of White: A Memoir

Summary

A “deeply revealing and vulnerable memoir” (Kate Schatz, New York Times bestselling coauthor of Do the Work) that earnestly reckons with whiteness and explores how understanding one’s own white identity can create the racial accountability needed in the national discourse.

As the product of progressive parents and a liberal upbringing, Garrett Bucks prided himself on the pursuit of being a “good white person.”

The kind of white person who treats their privilege as a responsibility and not a burden; the kind of white person who people of color see as the peak example of racial allyship; the kind of white person who other white people might model their own aspirations of being “better” after.

But it’s Buck’s obsession with “goodness” that prevents him from building meaningful relationships, particularly those who look like him. The Right Kind of White charts Buck’s intellectual and emotional odyssey in his pursuit of this ideal whiteness, the price of its admission, and the work he’s doing to bridge the divide from those he once sought distance from.