Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - So You Want to Talk About Race

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

9 reviews

alyssa_s10's review

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informative medium-paced

5.0

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thedisabledreader's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective

5.0

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jasminrain's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

I don't know if reading about racial injustice is something that you can enjoy doing, but this book was such a good reading experience.

While it doesn't necessarily give that much new information to people that are familiar with the topic, I really really loved how the book was structured. Each chapter starts with the author's personal experiences on the given topic and moves then to discuss the structural basis of the problem and finally how to discuss about it. As someone who really struggles with confrontating people (about any topic), I found that to be really useful! The book is also very accessible and all the concepts, terms and phenomena are explained really well so I'd definitely recommend it for those who are new to the topic.

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reader_in_the_meadow's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo talks about racism, racial oppression and how to fight those problems.
The book is constructed of Praise for Ijeoma Oluo and so you want to talk about race, a preface, seventeen chapters, acknowledgements, notes and a discussion guide,

Each chapter starts with the autor recounting an experience from her personal history or the wider history of african american citizens and is followed by an explanation of the topic talked about in the specific chapter. Every chapter following the first one builts up on the knowledge, you, the reader obtains in the previous chapters.
by giving the reader first the chance to read of a real experience of an african american or person of color the reader will themselves expirience that and will afterwards have a critical look on the problematic shown in the example.

The writing is very emotional, which is likely to stem from the personal feelings the author has fo the problematic talked in the book. It helps the reader to also get personal with the things said.
Still, some parts of the book were a bit harder to read, due to higher language/words, that were used.

I really liked how the individual chapters were intertwined and built up on each previous one. And having the chance to read about the heartbreaking experiences was very interesting and emotional.

What I didn't like though, was that the book was very american-centered which was not that advantaging for me, a german reader. I would have liked a more international take on the talk about the problematic.
I also thought that the length of the book was a bit lacking. While still being very informative, I think that such a complicated and deep-rooted topic, such as racism and racial oppresion is, definitely needs way more pages to be fully covered.

For me personally this book changed how I see racism and the concept of race. There are things I did, and sadly, still do, that are in fact racistic or microaggressions. It also helped me see how I cam be an even better ally to all non-white people and their fight for equality.

In conclusion, this book is a very important book in our time and society and should be read by many more people all around the world, not only BIPOC or AAPI/API people, but also by white people from all age groups, to educate them on racism and racial oppression.

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alisazhup's review

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challenging emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

“‘Racial oppression should always be an emotional topic to discuss. It should always be anger-inducing. As long as racism exists to ruin the lives of countless people or color, it should be something that upsets us. But it upsets us because it exists, not because we talk about it.”

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.

This is a book all first year students at my college are going to be reading this year. When they handed it out to us, I was worried it would be difficult to understand. But while the book is centered on a heavy topic loaded with a lot of trauma and history, it really does inform you and equip you to have conversations about race and take action against racism.

I like that the chapters are not filled with an overwhelming number of facts and statistics, but there’s just enough to help me understand racism on a systemic level, like how the model minority myth makes us overlook Asian American economic disparity based on country of origin. At the same time, I appreciated that the author was willing to share her own experiences with racism. This helped me understand racism on a personal level.

Each chapter discusses a topic that is extremely relevant to today, and because of that, important to understand. I’m glad I got the chance to read this because a lot was new to me- for example, I didn’t know what tone policing was and I didn’t know the school-to-prison pipeline existed. Since I didn’t know about them, there was nothing I could do to fight them. There were so many moments where I felt called out for the ways I contribute to the system of White supremacy and I’m glad, as the author puts it, that I have the opportunity to do better.

Read this if you like/themes:

✅Politics/Current affairs

✅Social justice, activism, and intersectionality

Books similar to this one:

✅Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi

✅Anger is a Gift by Mark Oshiro

✅Slay by Brittney Morris

✅Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

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