So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
(Format for this read: Audiobook)
This book has been on my “to read” list for months…It came thru off my library holds list at such a perfect time as I am about to lead a small group with the Be The Bridge book.
Here is a summary:
“In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America
Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy–from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans–has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair–and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to “model minorities” in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life.
“Oluo gives us–both white people and people of color–that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases.”
–National Book Review
“Generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt . . . it’s for anyone who wants to be smarter and more empathetic about matters of race and engage in more productive anti-racist action.”
— Salon (Required Reading)”
It can be easy as a white person to fall back into the trap of comfortable privilege even after you begin your journey of being aware of your Whiteness and what that means.
We can think we are “woke” after we read a few books, listen to some podcasts and watch some documentaries…
We then start to think we are totally knowledgeable about certain issues and that we have “arrived” at a full stage awareness.
That is extremely dangerous to any kind of progress….for ourselves and society as a whole.
WE SHOULD NEVER BE FINISHED LISTENING AND LEARNING.
It’s so so so important that we listen and learn to marginalized voices CONTINUALLY because the journey of knowing better and doing better is NEVER EVER OVER.
We should never feel “done”.
There is always ALWAYS more to hear and more to undo in ourselves and the systems around us.
In fact, I have found the more I learn, the more I realize I do not really know.
I continually try to dismantle my deep rooted biases and keep learning about various aspects of social and racial injustice in our society and throughout the world.
This book is packed with heavy yet such important material. The author dismantles and defines many topics such as nonwhitewashed history, cultural appropriation, affirmative action, microagressions and intersectionality just to make a few.
Whether you have read zero books on these topics or ten, I highly recommend reading this…especially if you are a white American.
It won’t be a comfortable read and really…it shouldn’t be.
Because growth and change never happen from comfort…especially that which happens within yourself.