Jeremy Williams

It’s early spring 2020 and Max is eight, almost nine, years old. His Mum’s a nutritionist (so he has to eat a LOT of fruit and vegetables!) and his Dad’s an ENT doctor at the local hospital. He’s an only child but has lots of friends, enjoys school (most of the time) is looking forward to his birthday party and loves visiting his grandparents. However, he’s begun to notice that his parents are acting a bit strangely. His Mum seems distracted and one particular evening his Dad was unusually late home from work, didn’t eat all of his dinner (also unusual because he always finishes his food) and then suddenly asked Max whether anyone at school had mentioned coronavirus. Max thinks perhaps he did hear the deputy head mention it during assembly, but he wasn’t really paying attention because he was looking around to see who was kicking him in the back and putting dusty marks on the back of his blazer. He’s still thinking about it when his Dad tells him to let him know if it comes up at school … and then reminds him to make sure to wash his hands before eating anything.
It all felt a bit strange but in Max’s experience adults often asked odd questions and were always telling you to wash your hands. However, after he’d gone to bed, and his parents had gone downstairs again, he needed to get up for the glass of water he’d left in the bathroom. He knows that parents often wait until children have gone to bed before talking about serious, usually boring, subjects he wasn’t interested in. However, as they’d both been behaving strangely that day, when he heard them talking he decided to listen. At first they seemed to be talking about Dad’s work but that wasn’t unusual because they often grumbled about their jobs, then he heard his Mum wonder about how long schools could remain open. What was going on and, as his parents sounded worried, maybe even scared, should he be worried too? When he heard his Dad say, “What do we tell Max?” and his Mum reply “Nothing. There’s no need to worry him just yet” Max realises that yes, he should be worried.
The story then follows Max as he tries to make sense of a world which has not only become very different but often feels frightening and confusing. Although his parents have explained what words like Covid, virus and pandemic mean, he can’t really understand why he can’t go to school, can’t play with his friends, can’t visit his grandparents and probably won’t even be able to celebrate his ninth birthday with a party. As his Dad is now working on the wards in the hospital he’s moved into a hotel because he doesn’t want to risk passing the virus on. Max really misses him; he does talk to him every day but that’s not the same as seeing him. His Mum is working from home and although he knows she’s got her job to do, he sometimes gets upset when he can’t just talk to her whenever he wants to. He knows she misses his Dad too so he tries to be good and not worry her but sometimes they get cross with each other. Then one day he shouts really loudly at her and she tells him to go to his room and count to a hundred. This is the usual punishment if he’s been naughty but this time he’s so cross that he wants to make her feel bad too so, as he storms upstairs, he shouts “Fine. I’ll count to a million!” Although at first he had no idea of what huge figure this was, or just how long it would take him to count so high, his initial act of defiance becomes something which helps him to feel more in control of his life. Then, as more and more people praise his efforts and media attention helps him to start to raise money for charity, Max becomes determined to achieve his goal and feel proud of himself.
Just as the whole country fell in love with Captain Tom when he set himself a challenge for lockdown and raised so much money for the NHS, I cannot imagine anyone reading this story without falling in love with young Max as he struggles to cope with his fears and uncertainties during those early months of the first lockdown. Everyone will recall panic buying, social-distancing, being unable to see family and friends, home-schooling, playgrounds being locked, only being allowed out of doors for an hour’s exercise a day and the visceral feelings of fear whenever a relative caught the virus. As an adult it was often difficult to process all these feelings but, by giving Max such an authentic voice, the author enables us to see that world through the eyes of an eight-year-old. He has brilliantly captured how children of that age think and feel, how they’re sometimes confused by abstract explanations and so visualise things in a very concrete way. Just one example (and there are many, many more throughout Max’s story!) was when his Dad, making metaphorical use of trains and planes, was trying to explain how a virus can quickly spread across the world because it travels through the air when people cough and is breathed in by one person after another. Max didn’t really understand but imagined the virus as tiny zombies with suitcases, flying out of people’s mouths and coming down on parachutes … I’m not sure that I’ll ever again be able to think of Covid 19 without that image popping up in my head!
Although I’m considerably older than the target readership for Jeremy Williams book, I enjoyed reading this deeply-moving, but frequently very funny, story. I not only loved Max’s reflections on the pandemic and lockdown, but also appreciated seeing the world afresh through the eyes of an eight-year-old … and being reminded that the adult world is often confusing and sometimes illogical! I think this delightful story holds an appeal for readers of any age … and as £1 from the sale of every copy will be donated to NHS Charities Together, I hope that at least a million copies will be sold to mark Max’s remarkable achievement!
With thanks to Readers First and Nosy Crow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)

I thought I was aware of social injustice issues. Jeremy Williams' thought provoking and both profoundly well researched and readable book reminded me of many holes in my knowledge. One particular story he shared has stuck in my mind, and I hope will be imprinted there for a long time: in 2019, tropical cyclone Idai decimated the city Beira in Mozambique razing 90% of the buildings and killing over a thousand people. Williams highlights that this global disaster happened on the same day as the Christchurch mosque shootings where 51 people were shot. Both disasters were horrific, but only the Christchurch one was significant in Western media reports - and Williams raises the uncomfortable question - would Beira have been remembered if its citizens were White? One of the hugest climate disasters in the world and it barely left a mark.

This and countless other stories and facts are weaved together in a seemingly flawless way (although I realise the book took a long time to write!) to drive home Williams' compelling argument that climate change is inherently racist due to global structures and values going all the way back to colonialism, which ultimately privilege the largely White, Western, wealthy nations over the developing Brown and Black south. A book to be read, reread, highlighted and acted upon.… (mehr)

Climate Change is Racist: Race, Privilege, and the Struggle for Climate Justice is not my "typical" non-fiction pick. I always joke that anything in the STEM field goes way over my head. When I read the description for the book, I was intrigued.

The book itself challenges readers to look at what they know about racism. Now, most readers who pick up this book are aware of personal biases or institutional attitudes that harm people of color, especially Black people. This harm can impact everything, from self-esteem to job acquisition. Williams pushes past surface-level understandings of racism to discuss the structural racism built into our society (which ultimately causes personal and institutional racism) and how this structure, combined with climate change, reinforces the racial injustices and inequalities.

Jeremy Williams takes readers all over the world to discuss how white privilege affects climate change. Through this travel, Williams encourages readers to look at the expertise presented by activists and scientists while also understanding the effect this climate change has on the most impacted communities. Dr. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (author of This is Why I Resist: Don't Define My Black Identity) wrote the foreword and it is short but absolutely impactful. I also thought that having Mos-Shogbamimu write a foreword was a good way to add a different perspective to reinforce his words and research.

During this book, I definitely found myself understanding climate change in a much deeper way. The recent environmental events impacting the world around us make this book's topic more relevant than ever. Reading this with those events fresh in my mind just reinforced that it is up to all of us to push for change and justice. It is the only way we can hope to lessen the impact of climate change and right the wrongs of society thus far.

Overall rating: 4.5/5 (rounded to 4)

Climate Change is Racist is available for purchase now. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Jeremy Williams’s website!
I was lucky enough to be able to read this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.… (mehr)