Reviews for Women of Color Pray: A Journey of Strength, Faith, Hope, and Change

The average rating for Women of Color Pray: A Journey of Strength, Faith, Hope, and Change based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-11-14 00:00:00 Guy Guy The star is mostly for the fact that attempting to make a collection of prayers of women of color from around the world and across time is a worthy endeavor' and I would really love to engage with a volume that takes that quest on with more discernment than what we have here. My main criticism is that the editing and curation of the material of this book are limp and lackluster. While I do think there are many ways to express prayer and to attend to that which is holy or sacred for one, and while I think that such ways could exist in the form of quotations, novel passages, axioms, poems, and others, much of what is in these pages are flaccid inserts. I assert that they do not feel like they belong in this volume, even by the editor's own understanding of prayer. The editor, Christal M. Jackson, while not explicitly defining what a prayer is, does assert what a prayer means in her introduction by personally (and powerfully) sharing how prayer has impacted her life. She then states clearly that she wanted to share a global collection of prayer from women of color since prayer is so meaningful to us. However, stating that purpose clearly is not the same as executing that purpose nor achieving it as an end. There are beautiful poems by Sandra Cisneros (I didn't know she wrote poetry too, and now I'm curious to read more): one is literally an adaptation of a Grimm's fairytale'and introduced as such ("Six Brothers"), another reads as a subversive affirmation of female power and sexuality ("I The Woman"), and another posits becoming the fruit of a toxic relationship ("My Wicked Wicked Ways"). Each of these stand out as separate from the goal of the volume. Examinations of life, of domesticity, of existence, but not prayer. Even the most figurative and ethereal of these, "I The Woman," feels out of place. Again, these are *beautiful poems,* but are they prayers? They don't seem to align with the editor's introduction. To be generous, we could give some license and say that "prayers are in the eye of the beholder." Sure. But then there are these random passages from the Tao Te Ching that present something *else*: Actual excerpt from the book from p. 39: THE TAO TE CHING The weakest thing in the world Excels the strongest thing in the world What doesn't exist finds room where there is none Thus we know doing nothing succeeds Teaching without words Succeeding without effort Few isn't he world can equal this. 'Buddhist affirmation WHAT?!? OKAY. First of all, the Tao Te Ching, was literally written by a *man*'Lao Tzu. There are/were no Taoist women to quote from? Second: these are TAOIST passages are literally inserted by the editor AS BEING BUDDHIST. While there are similarities between Taoism and Buddhism, and while they both originated in Asia (the first from China, the second from India) they are NOT the same thing. That would be like citing a passage from the Kabbalah and labeling it as being from Christian mysticism'I mean, hey, they're both Abrahamic religions, amirite? 😒 So then thirdly'these passages from the Tao Te Ching in this volume and meant to... what? Stand in as entries for "Asia" or even "China"? We're just supposed to be okay with tokenizing the beliefs of millions of people and flatten them out like this? Is this supposed to be a part of the contribution of Asians to this book? Of course there is going to be overlap in belief while there existed co-mingling of people overtime. But conflating it all together is an egregious oversight at best and at worst a damaging contribution to the stereotype of "sameness" for peoples of Asian descent. And once again' this book is Women of Color Pray. Where are the Buddhist and Taoist women's voices during these multiple excerpts from Lao Tzu's Tao? While there are powerful entries by Una Simms, Maureen Shaw, and Bev Spencer; Rev Chestina Mitchell Archibald ("Against Domestic Violence"); Rabi'a Al-Adawiyya ("You are Sufficient," "Stars are Shining"); as well as those that are from the oral traditions of Pygmy women, Ashanti women, and the Negro Spirituals; there were a number of entries that were deflating including a number of "slave narratives" that were prayers to forgive oneself for having hateful thoughts of violent masters, or prayers to express gratitude that at least slavery brought enslaved Africans to Christianity: "Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain,/May be refined, and join th' angelic train" from "On Being Brought from Africa to America" by Phillis Wheatley' basically Black folk can be "refined" to join the (white) angelic forces too! Yes, in a literal sense, these too are prayers by women of color'which I guess is just a loose brief, an umbrella to contain all the entries therein' but there is no *context* no editorial to introduce the historical milieu of these passages? We know that spirituality and faith were in the backbone of the lives of enslaved people, and that more importantly they were tether to freedom, activism, and abolition, but for a short text (maybe 100 pages out of 168 total are the so-called prayers) AND for a volume that is an de facto introduction to prayer of women of color from all around the world, such entries are the carefully curated ones? Without even any historical context or explanation? Really? That is a lot of prayin' for "massa" imho. And what is with all of the shoehorning and tokenizing' even the Cisneros poems, are they supposed to be exemplars of Chicanx and therefore Latinx/Hispanic/etc (labels are in flux) "prayer"? Enough for this volume to tick off requisite representation? It is dismaying to think that the disparate entries are supposed to be a sufficient primer to the theme of "women of color, praying." That's not even getting into what or rather WHO is missing when this book asserts to represent "women of color." Of course a short volume is going to be that: short, limited, contained. My problem though, is that the hodgepodge of material feels scattershot and discordant while also just ticking off some arbitrary boxes. We are deserving of more thoughtfulness and respect shown in the editing and curating of such a book that aims to collect, condense, and yes, introduce this material with the world. If you dig, you'll find a few gems. But for a volume published *this century* this effort is lacking. (Seriously this would be hard pressed to fly 50, 60, or even 100 years ago imho because there was serious scholarship, inquiry, and activism including from those of faith in the 20th century, especially by Black women.) Hopefully someone else with more mettle and a more thorough sense of integrity for the subject matter will try again. Maybe even with all the time that has passed (this came out in 2005) the editor of this volume has garnered enough perspective to try to come at it again.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-05-14 00:00:00 Richard Mercer This is an inspirational book of many different women and how they make it through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Read it over and over again.