Five on Friday - Telluride, New Books, and White Fragility Review

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Happy Friday, y’all!  As always, I’m sharing a handful of favorites this morning!

O N E – My Telluride

I have to say that my very favorite thing from these past couple of weeks has been my new Kia Telluride.  Y’all, I have never been so obsessed with a vehicle in my whole life!!  I’ve pretty much always viewed vehicles as a way to get from point A to point B, and as long as they’re reliable, that’s all I need. 

I’ve never been a “luxury vehicle” kind of gal, but this SUV has completely changed my mind.  The Telluride is chock full of technology, which is normally intimidating to me, but it’s all so intuitive that driving it already feels like second nature.  It typically takes me several weeks to adjust to driving a new vehicle, but I already feel completely at home in this one.

Also, Apple CarPlay is basically the best thing since sliced bread, and I already know I won’t be able to live without it from this point going forward.  It is so user-friendly, and the functionality is just amazing.  I’m a very Type A, organized person, so I’m constantly critiquing things and pointing out how this or that would make it better/easier to use/more organized, but I have to say, the Apple CarPlay arrangement (and the entire display in the Telluride in general) is perfection. 

I know I’m probably a little too excited about this, but considering I drive vehicles for 10 years at a time, just let me have my moment… Jacob will probably be in college before I get another new vehicle.  Like, literally.  Haha.

T W O – New Books Released!!

I don’t know how I missed the memo, but The Heir Affair, sequel to The Royal We, came out back in July!  I loved The Royal We so much that I bought a copy for my home library, and I’ll be buying a copy of The Heir Affair as well.

Also, last week, Emily mentioned that Nicholas Sparks has a new book, too!!  I own every single book he’s ever written, so I’ll be buying this one for my library as well.  If any of you have read The Heir Affair or The Return, I’d love to know your thoughts.

 

T H R E E – White Fragility

Speaking of books, I finished White Fragility last week and I learned so much.  I read it slowly, only reading a chapter or section at a time, so I could give myself time to process each section fully, evaluate, and really let things sink in before moving on to the next section.  Here are a few of the takeaways and my thoughts on the book:

1. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has some extent of racial bias even if you consider yourself to not be racist.  It’s human nature to have different biases, whether they’re racial, gender-related, beauty-related, etc.  This is called implicit bias, or the unconscious attitudes we have towards other people… unconscious being the operative word.  In other words, you could be doing, thinking, or saying things that are racist without even realizing they are racist.
2. It is our job to identify these biases and work actively to change them.
3. A lot of people are not willing to recognize their own biases simply because they consider themselves to be “not racist.”  But until we are all willing to accept that we have these biases, nothing is going to change.
4. Changing these biases and fighting racial injustice will be a lifelong process.
5. We, as white people, should never teach our kids to be “color blind” or to not see color.  That might seem like the right thing to do, but by doing that, we are only making matters worse as we’re basically choosing to ignore the racism that does exist.
6. White privilege is indeed a thing, and we as white Americans need to recognize our white privilege as a whole, or racial injustice is never going to improve.  I cringed the first time I heard that term a couple of years ago, but after doing the research and learning what it truly means, I understand.
7. White privilege does not mean that you don’t suffer or haven’t had a hard life, it just means that you haven’t suffered or had a hard life because of the color of your skin.  If you are white, then you have white privilege thanks to the broken system that our nation was founded upon.  As the book states, “individual whites may be against racism, but they still benefit from a system that privileges whites as a group.”  That is white privilege. 
8. Racism isn’t just outward hatred towards people of a different race or color.  Racism manifests in lots of different ways, many of which, are so subtle and unintentional that people don’t even realize that they’re doing it.  This again, has to do with the racial biases that we all have that we don’t realize that we have, as stated in the first point.  Implicit bias.
9. Again, IT IS OUR JOB TO IDENTIFY OUR OWN BIASES AND WORK ACTIVELY TO CHANGE THEM.  Otherwise, nothing will ever change.
10. Every white American should read this book.

F O U R – Sunrises and Sunsets

We are always treated to the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets this time of year.  We live on the western side of our time zone, so the sun rises later in the morning here than it does in most places.  Now that the days are getting shorter and the time hasn’t yet changed, the sun is just rising as we’re driving to school, so we have been able to enjoy the sunrise every morning.  What a way to start the day!

The sunsets have been beautiful here lately, too.  I snapped this picture this past Sunday and, of course, the pictures never do them justice.  It was just gorgeous.

F I V E – This Weather

It’s been unseasonably cool these last couple of weeks, with the exception of one or two days, and I am loving it.  We woke up to temps in the forties on a couple of occasions this week, and I’m wondering what we did to deserve this so early in the season.  Typically, September is brutal here, but it’s been so mild this year, and for that, I’m thankful. 

Friday Funnies

I still cannot get enough of Baby Yoda

This is SO me

Yes please!

On the Blog This Week

What I Purchased from Amazon in September 2020

Our Week – The One with Quarantine, Week 29 (Baseball and Family Visit)

Happy Friday, y’all!

*Linking up with A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites.