Avalanche

Avalanche is a collection of short stories that explore white entitlement, guilt, shame, and disorientation in the wake of waking up to racism. It combines humor with an earnest examination and indictment of these issues, focusing on the perspective of white, cis, straight, and mostly middle-aged and middle-class characters. The author writes with compassion and empathy for both her protagonists and the racialized characters who encounter them, using humor to pull readers in close to recognize and reckon with their familiar parts of themselves and become more aware of the insidious systems of white supremacy at work behind the scenes.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 160 pages
Publication date: 09 November 2023
Publisher: Invisible Publishing

Things used to be simpler, but even in those carefree days, the rules were in place for a reason. And that reason is: so we can all agree. So we can all have the same standard applied across the board. So there is no special treatment, which no one should receive. This is why we need the rules.

The stories in "Avalanche" combine humor 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, quiet racism hiding just under the surface of mundane, everyday situations, and the anguished flailing of well-intentioned white ladies desperate to confirm their essential goodness at all costs. Westhead writes with compassion and empathy for both her frustrating and frustrated white protagonists and the racialized characters who encounter them, and uses humor not to comfortably distance white readers from the harmful behavior of her self-absorbed protagonists, but to pull them in close to recognize—and reckon with—those familiar parts of themselves, and to become more aware of the insidious systems of white supremacy at work behind the scenes.

Things used to be simpler, but even in those carefree days, the rules were in place for a reason. And that reason is: so we can all agree. So we can all have the same standard applied across the board. So there is no special treatment, which no one should receive. This is why we need the rules.

The stories in "Avalanche" combine humor 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, quiet racism hiding just under the surface of mundane, everyday situations, and the anguished flailing of well-intentioned white ladies desperate to confirm their essential goodness at all costs. Westhead writes with compassion and empathy for both her frustrating and frustrated white protagonists and the racialized characters who encounter them, and uses humor not to comfortably distance white readers from the harmful behavior of her self-absorbed protagonists, but to pull them in close to recognize—and reckon with—those familiar parts of themselves, and to become more aware of the insidious systems of white supremacy at work behind the scenes.

Dimension: 203 x 127 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781778430268