Why Im No Longer Talking to White People About Race Book Review
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
Hardcover, 272 pages |
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The provocative title is difficult to ignore, and so is the book'due south encompass. Seen from afar, it appears to be called Why I'1000 No Longer Talking About Race, which is intriguing enough on its ain. You accept to await closer to meet To White People hiding underneath it in debossed letters. Information technology's a striking visual representation of white people'southward incomprehension to everyday, structural racism — 1 of the central ideas that British journalist and feminist Reni Eddo-Lodge presents in her debut collection of essays.
"Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race" is also the title of a weblog post she wrote back in February of 2014. In that post, Eddo-Society wasn't trying to remove white people from the chat or accept them on a guilt trip; rather, she was simply proverb that she'd had enough. It was an act of self-preservation. She was washed with talking to white people who'd never had to think nigh what it meant to be white, or who showed a deep emotional disconnect when she told them nearly her experience as a black woman, or who — instead of listening while she spoke — were about instinctively preparing trite counter-arguments in their heads, waiting for her to stop just to tell her that she was wrong — situations that will sound only likewise familiar to many people of color.
The post quickly went viral and, ironically, e'er since she pressed publish she hasn't been able to stop talking about race. Readers flock to come across her speak at events around the U.One thousand; just few a days agone, organizers of an event at London's Tate Modern museum had to turn hundreds of people away from one of her events. She took to Facebook and Twitter to accost the situation, apologizing to those who couldn't get in — and pointing out her frustration at beingness underestimated. The whole incident, she wrote, spoke to "many of the issues I've written nigh in my book."
In this collection of seven essays, Eddo-Lodge delves into topics similar structural racism, form and feminism. But she begins with a crash course in blackness British history. Despite growing up in London, in schoolhouse she studied black history through the lens of the American civil rights movement. Information technology wasn't until she went to university that she learned more near her country'southward savage and all-encompassing participation in the slave trade — which inspired her to larn more nigh what it was like to be black in postal service-slavery Britain. She writes about this history with the clarity and approachability of a curious learner sharing what she'due south discovered, giving necessary context for everything she's going to discuss in the rest of the book. And although Why I'yard No Longer Talking centers on events in Great britain, it's yet accessible to readers of blackness American history.
That'south the case throughout the book, every bit Eddo-Gild touches on themes that are sure to resonate with people of colour everywhere. This is especially evident in her exploration of white privilege, which she defines as "an absence of the consequences of racism" — an eloquent explanation paired with existent-world examples of what happens when white privilege seeps into the conversation about race, whether information technology's an informal chat with a new acquaintance or a wider national give-and-take around a racially motivated murder.
The impact of that blog post dorsum in 2014 was a clear sign that people — both white and black — were hungry for more meaningful discussions about race. This collection of essays is Eddo-Order's contribution to keeping the chat going. But she takes it a step further and makes a call to action. That call is muted at the offset: "I hope you use it every bit a tool," she writes in the preface, simply by the end, Eddo-Guild is unapologetic in calling racism a white trouble: "It reveals the anxieties, hypocrisies and double standards of whiteness. It is a problem in the psyche of whiteness that white people must accept responsibility to solve."
It'south that boldness, that straight talk which makes this book memorable. Eddo-Lodge pushes readers to recognize that racism is a systemic problem that needs to be tackled by those who run the organization.
Silvia Viñas is a announcer and editor for NPR's Castilian-linguistic communication podcast Radio Ambulante.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2017/11/14/563728725/why-im-no-longer-talking-to-white-people-about-race-is-a-call-to-action
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