Avalanche (Westhead Jessica)(Paperback)

The stories in Avalanche combine satire with an earnest examination and indictment of white entitlement, guilt, shame, and disorientation in the wake of "waking up" to the reality of racism. Focusing on the perspective of white, cis, straight, and mostly middle-aged and middle-class characters, this collection shines a light on the obliviousness of white privilege, the violence of "polite" and "quiet" racism, the anguished flailing of the newly woke, and the desperation of well-intentioned white ladies to confirm their essential goodness at all costs. "Calling in" rather than "calling out," Westhead writes with compassion and empathy for both her frustrating and frustrated white protagonists and the racialized characters who encounter them. Westhead uses humour not to comfortably distance white readers from the harmful behaviour of her self-absorbed protagonists, but to pull
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