Why I Am No Longer Talking to White People About Race Review
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People Nearly Race
Hardcover, 272 pages |
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The provocative championship is difficult to ignore, and and then is the book's comprehend. Seen from distant, information technology appears to be called Why I'k No Longer Talking About Race, which is intriguing enough on its own. You take to wait closer to encounter To White People hiding underneath information technology in debossed letters. Information technology'due south a striking visual representation of white people's blindness to everyday, structural racism — one of the key ideas that British announcer and feminist Reni Eddo-Gild presents in her debut collection of essays.
"Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People Well-nigh Race" is also the title of a blog post she wrote back in Feb of 2014. In that postal service, Eddo-Society wasn't trying to remove white people from the conversation or have 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 call back virtually what information technology meant to exist white, or who showed a deep emotional disconnect when she told them about her experience as a black woman, or who — instead of listening while she spoke — were virtually instinctively preparing trite counter-arguments in their heads, waiting for her to finish just to tell her that she was wrong — situations that will sound only also familiar to many people of color.
The mail quickly went viral and, ironically, e'er since she pressed publish she hasn't been able to stop talking about race. Readers flock to run into her speak at events around the U.K; just few a days ago, organizers of an event at London'due south Tate Modern museum had to turn hundreds of people away from i of her events. She took to Facebook and Twitter to accost the situation, apologizing to those who couldn't arrive — and pointing out her frustration at being underestimated. The whole incident, she wrote, spoke to "many of the bug I've written about in my volume."
In this collection of seven essays, Eddo-Gild delves into topics like structural racism, grade and feminism. But she begins with a crash class in blackness British history. Despite growing up in London, in schoolhouse she studied black history through the lens of the American civil rights movement. It wasn't until she went to university that she learned more almost her country's savage and all-encompassing participation in the slave trade — which inspired her to larn more than almost what it was like to be black in post-slavery U.k.. She writes nigh 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 remainder of the volume. And although Why I'g No Longer Talking centers on events in Britain, it's still accessible to readers of black American history.
That's the example throughout the book, equally Eddo-Lodge touches on themes that are sure to resonate with people of color everywhere. This is especially evident in her exploration of white privilege, which she defines as "an absence of the consequences of racism" — an eloquent caption paired with real-earth examples of what happens when white privilege seeps into the conversation well-nigh race, whether it's an informal chat with a new acquaintance or a wider national discussion effectually a racially motivated murder.
The impact of that blog mail service back in 2014 was a clear sign that people — both white and black — were hungry for more meaningful discussions well-nigh race. This drove of essays is Eddo-Lodge'due south contribution to keeping the conversation going. Just she takes it a step farther and makes a call to action. That call is muted at the showtime: "I hope you use it as a tool," she writes in the preface, but by the finish, Eddo-Club is unapologetic in calling racism a white problem: "It reveals the anxieties, hypocrisies and double standards of whiteness. Information technology is a problem in the psyche of whiteness that white people must take responsibility to solve."
Information technology's that disrespect, that directly talk which makes this book memorable. Eddo-Gild pushes readers to recognize that racism is a systemic trouble that needs to exist tackled by those who run the system.
Silvia Viñas is a journalist and editor for NPR'due south Spanish-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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