Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

LoveReading Says

I’m really not sure where to start. A book has never held my attention so much, nor has one made me think so hard. In a good, good way, but in an uncomfortable way. About being white, about white privilege, about how white is the default, how white is neutral.

Having always seen myself as an anti-racist, I am embarrassed by how little I knew about black British history until I read this book. How little I knew about things that happened on my doorstep in my home town of Liverpool, originally Britain’s biggest slave port and where I live now in multicultural London. How I thought I understood but realised that unless you have experienced racism, you can never really understand. Unless we acknowledge that as white people we enjoy systemic privilege, how can we ever make a difference? As a white mother of mixed race children, the section talking about colour blindness was frighteningly enlightening and it has really made me consider what my children’s needs might be as mixed race kids.

Everyone should read this book. It’s so well-researched, so powerfully written, so personal and yet so eloquent and poignant. It’s an enlightening and essential book about race that gets you thinking about the inherent racism in our nation: the fear of the black planet, feminism and class and race all intertwined.

In February 2014 Reni Eddo-Lodge published a post on her blog on the topic of race, about the vast majority of white people refusing to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms. As Reni states, it wasn’t a cry for help or a plea for white people’s understanding, it was about self-preservation. This book is the result of five years’ worth of awkward conversations following the publication on that blog. 

Within the pages Remi quotes the late Terry Pratchett who once said: “There’s no justice. Just us.” This book is a tool, it’s an education, it’s a call to action. Please read it.

Deborah Maclaren

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