Daidria Eckels's Reviews > Sky Full of Elephants

Being wiped out entirely is not even equivalent to what has been done to Black Americans? Do you have screaming macaques inside your skull, where grey matter should be?

If the premise was flipped, all of these reviews would be 1 star and you all would call this white supremacist fantasy fanfic. So stop

Excellent review!

Great review!

^re: MBW you’re right, it would be white supremacist and that’s the point? You can’t flip it, because us white people haven’t experienced hundreds of years of genocide, abuse, and racism so…

ELIZABETH you are speaking out turn. wikipedia White slavery. Also, Wikipedia doesn't even cover a fraction of the stopic or goes anywhere near as deep as the subject truly is.

Elizabeth, I beg you to please use your head. Are you advocating for a kind of vindictive justice à la “an eye for an eye” across generations that have never even met each other? If you don’t see the multiple problems with that, it’s probably time to read better books.

I’m going to read this BECAUSE it sounds uncomfortable and thought-provoking

Hi Traci, good opportunity to copy and paste my review of this book here, in case you haven't read it:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”, Martin Luther King.

Evidently, Cebo Campbell strongly disagrees with this quote.

This book tells of a USA where all white people have died (magically — no hard science-fictional explanation). Like the reviewer “Jeremy” says, once all the white folks have died, “black folks can laugh and sing and dance without fear of violence or reprisal”.

See, because that’s not something they can do today.

Well…

Ok. Another reader messaged me, asking me why I found this book divisive, dangerous and racist.

Here is my reply:

First, let’s get the surface stuff out the way: the book is not written very well, many readers have found several gaping plot holes, and the focus on the daughter’s “internalized racism” is a clumsy way to fictionalize a social studies research paper.

Additionally, hinting in a not-so-subtle way that capitalism is a “white people thing”, like the author does, is simply ignorant. Capitalism means open markets: what did hundreds of huge African tribes have for thousands of years before being colonized, if not open markets? And were they not trading in Black slaves far, far, far before any white colonist set foot on their soil? Ancient Egypt is a perfect example, but think of Kano and Salaga, or Timbuktu in Mali, a great open market where goods like gold, salt and slaves were traded. Not to mention the trade of white slaves, as well, even if that is a piece of history that no one talks about.

Now, on to the important suff.

I am an Italian catholic and I’m 50 years old. I grew up in Italy, I lived in Germany, in the UK, and after 14 years living in the US, I’m now a US citizen.

I’m highly educated, I don’t like everyone but I sincerely love every single human being, without any hint of a difference.

People have hated me because of my faith. People have hated me because I’m Italian. People have hated me because they were in a horrible mood in that moment.

I do not care and I do not create any cultural narrative out of these behaviors. That’s how life goes. There are millions of reasons why our brothers and sisters may sometimes hate us, and being Black may be one of them, just like being white may be one of them, or being blue or purple. But being Black in 2024 U.S., in and of itself, is objectively and demonstrably not a problem anymore, no matter what Toni Morrison or Barack Obama or any other panderer would have you think. In fact, it’s largely because of people like Obama that it might “be a problem”. That kind of thinking is pure poison. But I’ll get back to this point later.

Going on incessantly about the past, like Cebo Campbell does (indirectly) with his book, has ZERO constructive consequences, but a lot of negative and toxic consequences — which, coincidentally, is a principle that applies perfectly to any individual’s life and past.

You know what would be really hard for me, if I was Black today? It would be living in a society where they keep telling me that I should be angry, that I should be very angry, because I am a victim — it would be living in this society and not get at least a little bit angrier than what I would naturally be, just due to the constant media aggression.

The barrage of “Look at what they did to us”! “Look at how they treated US!”. “Are you gonna let THEM get away with that?” would probably get at least a little bit under my skin. Songs, movies, books, articles. Every single day.

Don’t you see how fake and divisive that attitude is? Don’t you see that there is no “us” and “them”? Don’t you see that today Black and white is not even a binary choice anymore, with millions of people being of mixed ethnicities?

Don’t you see that writing a book about “us” and “them” today is dangerous, divisive and racist?

When I talk about mixed ethnicity people, that includes my son, by the way. He is not white and he is not black. He is a child of God, just like you and me, just like everyone else. Just like the rev. Martin Luther King wanted to see us all be and see ourselves.

Nothing else. Americans. And before that, children of God, with many differences and various skills.

If I’ve never for one second felt like a victim in my life, it’s not because I’m white. It’s because I’ve always known that feeling like a victim — in any circumstances, but especially when you are not one — is stupid. It’s very simple.

Corroborating the myth that being Black in America today is a tougher life in and of itself is counterproductive. It’s fanning the flame of my Black brothers’ anger. This anger can come from anywhere else, but now they have a fictional place to channel it: the struggle.

Oh, don’t get me wrong: the “struggle” was real. Very real. I’ve read three long MLK biographies, and God, in his times the struggle was absolutely real.

Today it’s not anymore. Full stop. I don’t care how entitled one might feel to think that only they or only Cebo Campbell can talk about how real the struggle is, because our world offers facts to counter every fallacious argument. The argument “You can’t talk about it because you’re not Black” is contrary to the second amendment. Pretty fundamental stuff, folks, so do not use that argument.

A major fallacy in the modern discourse on Black struggle is the idea that “systemic barriers” are the sole cause of disparities, neglecting the role of individual choices, cultural factors, and the negative consequences of some social policies (i.e. welfare programs that can create dependency and hinder upward mobility within communities).

A constant and intense focus on these fallacies can hinder real progress for Black Americans.

Another dangerous fallacy: the notion that the U.S. is a systemically racist or white supremacist society. The median incomes of Americans of Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Korean ancestry are higher than those of white Americans. Among male workers, Asian Indian males earn over $39k a year more than white males ….. a weird outcome if white supremacy were so pervasive.

Black family poverty has long been higher than white family poverty, but the poverty rate of Black married-couple families is consistently below the national poverty rate. So: if black family poverty is caused by “systemic racism’”, do racists make an exception for blacks who are married? That doesn’t quite compute, does it?

I’m not even going to discuss affirmative action. The Supreme Court has said more than enough about it, in a very eloquent way.

I also read Barack Obama’s memoir, Dreams from My Father. Obama offers the example of a young Black man who wanted to become a pilot but decided not to pursue it because he thought the Air Force would never let a Black man fly.

Obama stops there, obviously, because he is simply not a deep thinker, and he loves the fallacy of “internalized barriers”, which is as stolid as the “internalized racism” that Campbell describes within the protagonist’s daughter.

Obama never acknowledges that the fact he references happened decades AFTER a whole squadron of Black American fighter pilots flew in World War II. Decades.
Whoever indoctrinated this young man did him more harm than any racist could have, by keeping him from even trying to become a pilot. That is racism, too: twisting someone’s mind based on artificial and politicized concepts of racial identity.

By penetrating the psyche of the country with his ideology, Obama has done real damage to Black people and to the US. No Obama would have meant no BLM, no victim ideology, no constantly fanning the flames of anger, and no “Sky Full of Elephants”.

That’s why I think this book is divisive, dangerous and ultimately racist.

Blah blah blah

That part. It’s how our ancestors who didn’t asked to be here lived their whole lives or what short lives they experienced because of it being taken by the very people’s ancestors who are “uncomfortable”. We still living uncomfortable TO THIS DAY!

Thanks for advocating revenge! Way to go.

Tom LA is hilarious. “…being black in the U.S. is… not a problem anymore.” CTFU. Yet Black Americans are disproportionately imprisoned and killed by our legal system, disproportionately living in poverty, I mean need I go on? But let a white man please tell us how our experience in “2024 America” is not a problem PLEASE!

Van, there's no need to continue because you're merely echoing talking points that have been thoroughly debunked numerous times. The idea of systemic racism has been extensively studied, with a wealth of research concluding that it is, indeed, a fallacy. You can easily look up studies by Ferguson and Smith, Liberty Matters, the Center of the American Experiment, and the Manhattan Institute, among many others.

Just because your lefty media tell you that being black is "so tough", it doesn't mean that it's true.

Additionally, considering that 12% of the U.S. population identifies as Black, while 10% and growing already identify as being of mixed race, your argument becomes increasingly untenable. With time, and through investments in education, financial literacy, community development, affordable housing, and healthcare access, these disparities will improve. However, this progress will not be achieved by perpetuating the focus on a Black-and-White divide—a divisive and emotional argument that serves only to harm social cohesion.

Lastly, the claim that certain truths can only be understood by individuals of a specific ethnicity is baseless. While you're free to repeat that claim, it's worth noting that such a notion is, ironically, the only racist comment in this discussion.

Whenever white people want to gaslight Black people and People of Color they pull out the MLK quotes. It’s sickening and tiresome.

I swear, I could have run this as a sociology test - nobody, literally nobody who replied to my comments about this book has been able to bring a SHRED of an argument or counter-argument. That is what is really sickening. (Also, I quoted Thomas Sowell, whom you all should read).

Blacks being 13.4% of the population commit over 52% of the murders, 78% of drug related crime, 93% of black murders, and 70% of violent crimes.

Blacks pay 6% of the taxes and collect 26% of welfare outlays

Per capital budgetary impact of whites, blacks, Hispanics: Whites: +$220k, Hispanics: -$588k, Blacks: -$751k

*capita

In San Francisco, LA and Seattle — among the most leftwing major cities in the US — the black homicide rate was, respectively, 20, 17, and 24 times higher than the white homicide rate.

In Chicago the black murder rate was 26 times higher.

“Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade found a massive admission preference for blacks that amounted to a 450-point SAT penalty against Asians and a 310-point penalty against whites at highly-selective universities”

^rekt

Tom LA-you do realize the book is written as fiction, right? The outrage is a lot. 🧐

Oml 🙄 Nobody is rebutting this bullcrap because it’s a book NONE OF US WROTE tf?? The book wasn’t for you rate it low and move tf on. This book obviously wasn’t for you and you felt the need to dive head first in and then come out with complaints.??? About a book that WASNT FOR YOU?!?! Statistics lack context and thats why people LOVEEEEE to throw statics around because the numbers without context is enough to pass your black people did it first black people do it more cry. LEAVE US TF ALONE THEN you supposed have love for all humans but quick to invalid black struggle LMAO go AWAY

White people control and own damn near everything even a book about yall disappearing yall believe yall have a right to SHIT ON. You don’t you didn’t have to read it. LITERALLY RIGHT NOW WHITE PEOPLE ARE MAKING WHITE ONLY COMMUNITIES SHUT ALLLLLLLL THE WAYYYYY UPPPPPPPPP. Divisive??? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!?

“Black people owned slaves”THEY DIDNT FUCKING WHIP AND BEAT AND RAPE AND USE EVERY PART OF THEIR BODY FOR SOME TYPE OF FURNITURE OR REPLACEMENT FOR THEIR OWN BODIES. OUR HAIR TEETH SKIN BLOOD!! Used in some inhumane way DIVISIVE!!!!!????? SHUTTTTTTTTT UPPPPPPPPPPP

@TomLA What "reader' said times ten. Stuff your sociology test somewhere far, dark, and hard to get back. Why are yall so eager to invalidate us when the evidence is so loud and in your face....IK HAHA and you do too racist.

@TomLA As soon as some variation of "I love all people but.." "I dont see color" come out peoples mouths Usually what follows is the most prejudice crap yall can spew. LMAOOOOO. From experience BTW but that doesn't fit in with your 'black people are bad and are complaining for nothing" Novella in the comments does it..? Guess i should start a sociology test myself add this encounter to the list.

I love all these hysterical replies and I've archived them as precious records: they are the clearest evidence yet that the author's ideology crumbles under intellectual scrutiny. Thanks for the help, folks ... but I'm still waiting for a rational counterargument, and something tells me I'll be waiting for a long, long time ... : )

@TomLA PLEASE do save them i hope one day you'll become a decent enough human being to look back on this with regret but God will be waiting a long ass time for that I see. Again "the authors ideology " not ours so again what am I rebutting you, a random racist about the authors ideology when I didnt write the book and therefore isn't the author... Also thank YOU for proving my point you had no real response to me pointing out the lack of context your statistics have. I'm not rebutting obvious prejudice that's a waste of time yall will exist forever. I'd bet GOOD money that even if someone wasted their time to respond to that dead end of a comment you'd still only acknowledge and "archive" the "hysterical ones". I genuinely hope you get what you put out in the world Prejudice, ignorance, hate, lack of empathy and understanding for no reason i hope you experience it AND then I hope no one believes you not only that but they invalidate the whole experience.

Choke on one until you cant choke no more (can you archive this part separately? Thxxxxx)

"Intellectual scrutiny" that part had me dying best joke ever

The amount of triggered snowflakes there are pulling out statistics with no backing let's me know I absolutely need to support this book