So You Want to Talk about Race
Ratings146
Average rating4.6
This is an invaluable resource for people who want to be more thoughtful about the way they approach conversations about race in the United States. Honestly, it would do everyone a bit of good to read this, even if they feel like they are already well-educated in social and racial justice matters.
Oluo addresses all manner of commonly-discussed-but-often-misunderstood things like affirmative action, the school-to-prison pipeline, the Black Lives Matter movement, tone policing, and more in this book, all while being simultaneously extremely accessible and at times humorous and soberly serious. She speaks of her own lived experiences and attempts to speak to an audience that may come to this book defensive and uncomfortable. The end goal of course is to cause folks to stop and reflect on their own behaviors and adjust where they can to be better allies to people of color and oppressed minorities in their own lives, even if the road to self discovery can be upsetting and difficult. This book is well worth it and I encourage people to pick it up. It is absolutely eye-opening and educational.
A very good introduction to conversations about race and racism, with guidance on ways to be a better ally in the fight to dismantle white supremacy, and tangible steps one can take to make a difference in your community to that end. I liked that the author included personal stories throughout to illustrate the questions she posed (each chapter asks a different question, ie. What is the model minority myth? What is tone policing? What should I do if I've been called racist?), and she did an excellent job explaining very difficult concepts. Highly recommend.
I worried through the first chapters of this book, but Oluo does the hard and ultimately rewarding work towards the end. This book is probably a good primer on most of the topics that make talking about race and racism hard. Oluo really gets into the weeds in a good way in regards to the school to prison pipeline and the wonderfully titled “But What if I Hate Al Sharpton?” chapter.
I wonder if the intro and first chapters that bothered me were probably not intended for me. If you've already done a lot of reading on the subject you might think So You Want to Talk About Race was a very entry level book on the subject. It's not but you have to wait until Oluo can get further on the details to really enjoy it.
Short Review: Different books have different strengths, the strengths of So You Want to Talk About Race is it direct approach to the ideas around race and approaches to how the reader can both learn more generally, but in particular have difficult conversations about race.
Chapter 1 talks about what race is. Chapter 2 is about racism. Each chapter builds on previous chapters and cover topics like intersectionality and privilege, and police brutality and the “N” word and messing up conversations on race, etc.
I keep changing the book that I would say is the best opening point for new readers. And in part there is no one perfect book for everyone. But I think for many people, this is a good introductory place to start. The definitions are clear, there are lots of examples and analogies. There are stories and humor, but also very clear talk.
My full (about 1400 word) review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/so-you-want-to-talk-about-race/
Excellent and straightforward. This isn't an autobiography but she graciously gives us enough details of her life to ground her anecdotes and examples. She gives great actionable advice in a way that anyone can think on and follow. Strongly recommend for all readers.
Really, should be required reading for white people, especially those of us looking for scripts or suggestions for how to explain to other white people that “reverse racism” isn't a thing, for example–the writing is very clear and straightforward. If you've read Ijeomoa Oluo's other writings, or the writings of other black women, some of this might be familiar retreads, but it's a really useful and clear compendium.
(BTW I'm not saying that POC shouldn't read this book or wouldn't find the suggested phrasings here useful–I suspect reading this would be very validating! I'm just saying...white people should definitely read it.)
