Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

'But to white readers in particular, I say: Pull up a chair, grab a pen, lay down your defenses, and listen very respectfully to Rachel Ricketts. She has offered up an exceedingly valuable resource to a tired, troubled (and all too often delusional) world. This is a book we all need.'

Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love

'[Rachel's] heartfelt and engaging book is a both a call to action and a toolkit for anybody who wants to play their part in eradicating white supremacy - a mission she reminds us is not about getting it all 'right' but doing better every day.' Ruby Warrington, author, of Sober Curious

Thought leader, racial justice educator, and sought-after spiritual activist Rachel Ricketts offers mindful and practical steps for all humans to dismantle white supremacy on a personal and collective level.

Heart-centered and spirit-based practices are the missing but vital piece to achieving racial justice.

Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses anti-racism from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spiritually-aligned perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that racial justice educator and healer Rachel Ricketts has developed to fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. It is a loving and assertive call to do the deep - and often uncomfortable - inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change.

Radical racial justice includes daily, intentional and informed action. It demands addressing the emotional violence we have perpetuated on ourselves and others (most notably toward Black women and femmes), both as individuals and as a society. Do Better provides the missing pieces to manifest practicable, sustainable solutions such as identifying where we most get stuck, mitigating the harm we inflict on others and mending our hearts from our most painful race and gender-based experiences, plus much more.

This inspirational and eye-opening handbook is filled with carefully curated soulcare activities for getting into our bodies and better withstanding the grief, rage and conflicting emotions that naturally arise when we fight against injustice. Culturally informed, secular spiritual exercises, such as guided meditations, transformative breathwork and journaling prompt unpack our privilege, and take up the ongoing fight against oppression, while transforming our own lives along the way.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Racial justice educator and spiritual activist Ricketts offers tools for healing and liberation that anyone can use, with questions directed to individuals based on their identities and their comfort with social justice. This book is about internal work, especially work that is necessary for white people to undertake in order to avoid performative activism. It also calls for individuals to lean into the ways in which we uphold white supremacy by participating in racist institutions, so that we can all contribute to a more just society. Ricketts acknowledges that people might be scared to start engaging in antiracist work, and afraid of making mistakes. With that in mind, she offers an approachable entry point to key concepts and terms, such as intersectionality. A section on emotional violence caused by gaslighting or silence is particularly impactful. The glossary she has compiled, along with her careful notes about how she does not speak for everyone, illuminate many of the discursive and action-based errors people with privilege make when they do not take the time to learn before asking, speaking, or acting. VERDICT Meticulously researched, compassionate, and bold, this book should be read immediately and frequently returned to as a textual companion for the ongoing, reiterative work of antiracism.--Emily Bowles, Lawrence Univ., WI

Publishers Weekly Review

Antiracism workshop leader and "secular spiritualist" Ricketts offers a primer on combating white supremacy in her accessible, urgent debut. She opens with an explanation of how pervasive racism is, how trauma can be inherited, and how oppression is internalized by marginalized people. Defining spirituality as "an ethereal concept... in direct opposition to the analytical, tangible, facts-based knowledge adored by white supremacy," Ricketts argues spiritualism and social activism go hand-in-hand and notes that "to approach racial justice in a heart-centered and embodied way" requires an honest mindset that allows for righteous rage. Ricketts, who is Black, shares many personal stories of her own encounters with racism, as well as a heartbreaking account of her mother being spat on for being mixed-race. She also warns against adopting spiritual practices that focus on profit or rely on cultural appropriation, and prepares readers with a host of immediate actions they can do to combat racism, among them being attuned to microaggressions and considering impact rather than intention of one own's actions. Rickett's conversational tone and accessible activities will prove welcoming to anyone new to racial justice work. Agent: Cherise Fisher & Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Assoc. (Mar.)

Kirkus Book Review

A holistic how-to guide for people of all backgrounds willing to look inward in their fight against racial injustice. White supremacy is a systemic issue, but it starts and is perpetuated in "hearts and minds," writes Ricketts, a queer Black woman and "trained racial justice educator, attorney, grief coach, and spiritual activist." The battle for justice must be fought on both fronts, but White people typically fight racism as something outside of themselves, as a matter of comfort. Ricketts, however, refuses to coddle readers. Those who most need her guidance to do the "deep inner work" of anti-racism may be the least willing to stay the course. Her righteous, "loving anger" shines through on every page. She warns White women, in particular, that they will not like what she has to say. But it is to their advantage to keep reading this challenging but hopeful extension of the author's in-person workshops, designed for "all those who are ready to fight for a more equitable world, in which everyone, most notably Black and Indigenous women+, can finally find freedom." With a 20-page glossary of terms to help meet readers where they are, the book is exhaustive in its breadth and depth. Ricketts examines the consistent insidiousness of racism, from "friendship fails" to inequity in the workplace. She unpacks concepts such as prejudice, privilege, anti-Indigeneity, and decolonization, and she explores the differences among anti-Blackness, racism, and White supremacy. Ricketts speaks directly to readers via blunt, infectious, and at times humorous prose, including deeply personal anecdotes of her experiences of racism, which began in early childhood. Practical action items--e.g., meditations, affirmations, writing prompts, and "heart check-ins"--will get readers "spiritually activated" and able to work through the defensiveness and fear that can hinder growth beyond the superficial. A soulful, essential boot-camp-in-a-book that raises the bar significantly in the field of anti-racism training. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.