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A review by samdalefox
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
challenging
informative
sad
slow-paced
3.5
Renni Eddo-Lodge provides a good primer and accessible book on institutional racism embedded into our UK history and culture. It is a good entry point for anyone wanting to become actively anti-racist. Anecdotal evidence for this, my mum has bought a copy of the book to read! A 57 year old sheltered white woman is open to self-learning and I'm proud of her. It seems to have a wide appeal to the people that need to read this... white people.
Main con: the larger points on intersectionality (particuarly around that of class) I found to be overly simplistic, probably because I've read more around the subject - I'd recommend reading Bell Hooks and Angela Saini, plus Eddo Lodge credits the coiner of the term intersectionaliy Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw. I also found this slow to read as an audiobook, so I read it at 1.5x speed. Main pro: It gives a UK perspective with UK examples. This may be obvious but it's important to highlight. A common theme in our culture is the ignorant view that racism isn't a problem here because it doesn't look exactly like that what we see in American culture, news, and anti-racist literature. American civil rights history often eclipses the UK one. The UK absolutely does have racism and a rich civil rights history and Eddo-Lodge does well to introduce many contemporary examples across England that should shake up newcomers to the topic. My favourite quote on this subject: "Faced with collective forgetting, we must fight to remember".
Ultimately, although I personally didn't find the way it was written very engaging, I have learnt more and I greatly value how accessible the book is, I genuinely think it will engage a wider audience that we need to become engaged in anti-racism. The author recognises that racism is structural, that structures are made out of people and thus are an amplification of personal prejudices. I have hope that this book starts that process by challenging and educating the UK population on our personal prejudices.
Main con: the larger points on intersectionality (particuarly around that of class) I found to be overly simplistic, probably because I've read more around the subject - I'd recommend reading Bell Hooks and Angela Saini, plus Eddo Lodge credits the coiner of the term intersectionaliy Dr Kimberlé Crenshaw. I also found this slow to read as an audiobook, so I read it at 1.5x speed. Main pro: It gives a UK perspective with UK examples. This may be obvious but it's important to highlight. A common theme in our culture is the ignorant view that racism isn't a problem here because it doesn't look exactly like that what we see in American culture, news, and anti-racist literature. American civil rights history often eclipses the UK one. The UK absolutely does have racism and a rich civil rights history and Eddo-Lodge does well to introduce many contemporary examples across England that should shake up newcomers to the topic. My favourite quote on this subject: "Faced with collective forgetting, we must fight to remember".
Ultimately, although I personally didn't find the way it was written very engaging, I have learnt more and I greatly value how accessible the book is, I genuinely think it will engage a wider audience that we need to become engaged in anti-racism. The author recognises that racism is structural, that structures are made out of people and thus are an amplification of personal prejudices. I have hope that this book starts that process by challenging and educating the UK population on our personal prejudices.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racial slurs, Police brutality, Racism, Hate crime, and Classism