Author: Reni Eddo-Lodge
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| via Amazon |
In February 2014, British author Reni Eddo-Lodge posted a blog entry that changed her life, entitled "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race." Essentially, she was tired of many (not all, she's quick to clarify) white people's defensiveness or outright hostility whenever she talked to them about her racial experience. They were too often unwilling to accept the idea of systemic racism. Racists wore white hoods and Nazi uniforms. Kind, well-intended, color-blind white people weren't racists. They didn't listen to her or believe her even when they did.
The post set off a political firestorm. Basically proving Eddo-Lodge's point, numerous critics took exception - though of course, most of them simply bristled at the title without actually reading the post. The brouhaha brought the author national attention and eventually inspired her to write a book by the same title.
2014 was a pivotal year for racial activism in the United States, particularly. In August of that year, Michael Brown, an 18-year-old Black man, was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. Protests erupted and the Black Lives Matter movement found a global platform. Most of the news focused (and still focuses) on the United States. But, of course, other countries wrestle with racial issues every day. In the UK in particular, such cultural anxieties eventually led to Brexit, the nation's departure from the European Union.
There are so many important reasons to read this book. The examination of the issues in a nation other than the US is high on the list. Because of my time in Japan, I have many British friends with whom I still enjoy meaningful social media contact. Many (but again, not all) white Britons are blind to the issues faced by black- and brown-skinned people in their own country. Just as in the States, they see the issues as economic rather than racial. Just as in the States, many see reforms as bringing advantages to POCs at the expense of white people.
Just as in the States, it's all bullshit. And that's the point for Reni Eddo-Lodge.
One by one, the author tears down the arguments against anti-racism. For me, the most powerful chapters are "The System," in which she details how a POC in the UK is disadvantaged at every life stage from birth to death, and "The Feminism Question," in which she reveals the intersectional relationship of race and sex/gender. In the latter, she tells her own struggle to reconcile her positions in two separate though obviously (to her) intertwined struggles. Those are my favorites but trust me, there are meaningful revelations on every page.
Probably (hopefully) many of you reading this has been through DEI (diversity equity inclusion) training in recent years. One of the most common questions asked of white people in these exercises is "When did you first become aware of your own race?" It's not easy to answer. Because it's about your own race, not your awareness of the race of others. What made you aware of whiteness, period? Eddo-Lodge's thoughts have made me wonder if "When did you become aware of your own racial privilege?" might provoke a more meaningful discussion. I find it easier to answer. But would it just make people angry, proving the author's thesis.
Of course, the whole point of asking the question is to clue white people into the fact that they don't think about their race at all the vast majority of the time whereas a POC living in white-dominated culture is aware of theirs constantly.
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is a must-read, plain and simple. If you're white, it will probably make you uncomfortable and that is deeply important.
