Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was really excited when I saw Katherine Alford and Kathy Gunst’s new cookbook, Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices on NetGalley. It seemed like it could be a great book for this worst of times. As I read the introductions, I decided I was going to need to do some research before hitting publish. The co-authors and a lot of the contributors are white and rage baking seemed like the kind of thing Black women would be doing that white women would center around themselves. Full disclosure – I am white, I know my people. Before I got a chance to do the research, the answer popped up on my twitter feed. Before the co-authors decided to collect recipes and essays on the subject of rage baking with the backing of a major publisher, there was Tangerine Jones. Jones, a Black woman, created a social justice and community building movement around rage baking. She has a website, Ragebaking dot com, and an Instagram account and she encouraged building community through #ragebaking. Jones set up rules for rage baking which are designed to spread love and build community – posted two whole years before Kathy Gunst was enraged by the response to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony at the Kavenaugh hearing. Alford and Gunst’s book states as its mission: "This is a book about women’s voices, women’s recipes, women in community with one another. Don’t let anyone tell you you’re being too dramatic, too loud, too outspoken. Too Sarah Bernhardt. Speak out. Speak up." This is the problem with ignoring Tangerine Jones. It can’t be a book about women’s voices, or women in community with each other when Jones’ voice is shutout. And if anyone is complaining that Ms. Jones and her supporters are being too dramatic, too loud, or too outspoken, well the authors said we should. Feminism has a dismal history of reserving itself for white and wealthy. White women have centered social justice movements around themselves too often for this to feel like an accident. I feel badly for the contributors. Some of the recipes and essays in this book are fantastic. I also continue to feel badly for women and femmes. One of the reasons Patriarchy is alive and well is because we keep narrowly defining who counts. There is no gender equality without all the other equalities. I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.