Book Review: We Need To Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy, by Eboo Patel
This book may cause some people to rethink their basic assumptions about how to achieve the just society they properly desire. Eboo Patel offers essential perspectives that some white progressives (and those they’ve influenced) may have overlooked—or forgotten. When the dust has settled after protests and court cases, the real work of building institutions remains to be done—thus Patel’s astute observation that focus on constructing the world desired is more productive than spending one’s finite energies on rage and withdrawal no matter how greatly justified.
In successive personal anecdotes, the author relates his own painful experiences with racist taunts and microaggressions—these accounts, together with Patel’s broader research, provide an authoritative view of race issues that (culturally) white people may not naturally perceive. Equally powerful are Patel’s accounts of mutual acceptance among persons of different religious faiths—that aspect alone makes this book uniquely valuable.
Patel illustrates how progressive cancel culture is itself an expression of white privilege. Instead of preaching about and to people of color, white progressives need to truly listen to them now more than ever—and fortunately many are. People are beginning to see how emphasizing group oppression without the context of individual victories snuffs out the personal agency essential to overcoming the real oppression experienced.
Burning it down (euphemistically), leaves only a smoldering heap that’s not much use to anyone—and even afterward the oppressors still oppress, sometimes worse than before. Patel recommends instead to build institutions designed to achieve just and beneficial goals—and the way to accomplish that is to ensure everyone’s dignity and individual agency is sustained in a multi-cultural and multi-faith democracy that empowers our common humanity. This is the society we need to build. After reading this book, I’m convinced we can.