Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
by: Reni Eddo-Lodge
In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog and gave it the title: "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race'
Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanized by this clear hunger for an open discussion, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings.
The result is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism today. {cover copy}
It is important to me that I continue to improve as a person throughout my lifetime, constantly trying to challenge myself and my views so that I can grow and learn and set the best example possible for my daughters so they won't have to start from the same spot that I did, but witness my growth and let that be their square one. One of the ways I have challenged myself recently is to look at how open-minded and accepting I think I am, listen very hard to what minorities in all aspects are trying to say, and learn where I'm failing. So when I saw this book, I knew it was something I wanted to read. I also knew I had to have this particular edition, because the graphic design on this thing is SO CLEVER. That being said, I went into this with an open heart and an open mind, willing to learn what I could and to accept that what I discovered about myself might not make me feel wholly comfortable.
I will admit that this was the case, though it wasn't as bad as I thought, since I have been working on improvement in this area for some time, and started off in a better place for accepting growth here than many I know. But I must admit that I was guilty of actions or thoughts that I was unaware of at the time were adding to systemic racism or at least unhelpful for seeing things the way POC do. For example, in college I believed I was once the victim of "reverse racism". Now I know better. (Though I've known for a while, I didn't really get the specifics of how this isn't the case until it was articulated here in this book). Did I feel it was unfair that the three black teens who wouldn't move out of the way of the side of the mall walkway I was on nearly ran me over as they walked? Yes. Did I assume they thought I was from the South, where I had just moved, and therefore probably racist/grown up around racist people? Yes. Did I therefore believe they instantly hated me because I was white? Again, yes. And hey, maybe they did. But it was one split second that still stands out to me because that's all I have experienced that gave me any inkling that I was being treated unfairly because of the color of my skin. POC have to deal with that feeling literally every day.
Anyway... I found this book to be incredibly important and wishing quite often that those who need it most would read it, but knowing in my heart that they are the last people who would. Maybe they'll stumble upon my review and at least read the quotes that stood out to me. (Though to be honest, I marked SO many more than what I copied down here, but they were pages at a time, so I had to be a little picky in what I included below).
I highly recommend this book.
(the quotations below come from the UK version so things are spelled weird. Yes, that's right, friends across the pond, I said you spell things weird. It's true).
On 22 February 2014, I published a post on my blog. {first line}
"G...the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience."
"The emotional disconnect is the conclusion of living life oblivious to the fact that their skin colour is the norm and all others deviate from it."
"At best, white people have been taught not to mention that people of colour are 'different' in case it offends us. They truly believe that the experiences of their life as a result of their skin colour can and should be universal. I just can't engage with the bewilderment and the defensiveness as they try to grapple with the fact that not everyone experiences the world in the way tha they do. They've never had to think about what it means, in power terms, to be white..."
"The journey towards understanding structural racism still requires people of colour to prioritise white feelings. Even if they can hear you, they're not really listening. It's like something happens to the words as they leave our mouths and reach their ears. The words hit a barrier of denial and they don't get any further."
"Worse still is the white person who might be willing to entertain the possibility of said racism, but who thinks we enter this conversation as equals. We don't."
"Amid every conversation about Nice White People feeling silenced by conversations about race, there is a sort of ironic and glaring lack of understanding or empathy for those of us who have been visibly marked out as different for our entire lives, and live the consequences. It's truly a lifetime of self-censorship that people of colour have to live."
"It must be a strange life, always having permission to speak and feeling indignant when you're finally asked to listen."
"Although I analyse invisible whiteness and ponder its exclusionary nature often, I watch as an outsider. I understand that this isn't the case for most white people, who move through the world blissfully unaware of their own race until its dominance is called into question. When white people pick up a magazine, scroll through the Internet, read a newspaper or switch on the TV, it is never rare or odd to see people who look like them in positions of power or exerting authority. In culture particularly, the positive affirmations of whiteness are so widespread that the average white person doesn't even notice them. Instead, these affirmations are placidly consumed. To be white is to be human; to be white is universal. I only know this because I am not."
"Thinking about power made me realise that racism was about so much more than personal prejudice. It was about being in the position too negatively affect other people's life chances."
"We don't live in a meritocracy, and to pretend that simple hard work will elevate all to success is an exercise in wilful ignorance."
"Colour-blindness is a childish, stunted analysis of racism."
"Not seeing race does little to deconstruct racist structures or materially improve the conditions which people of colour are subject to daily. In order to dismantle unjust, racist structures, we must see race. We must see who benefits from their race, who is disproportionately impacted by negative stereotypes about their race, and to who power and privilege is bestowed upon--earned or not--because of their race, their class, and their gender. Seeing race is essential to changing the system."
"Those who are coded as a threat in our collective representation of humanity are not white."
"White privilege is dull, grinding complacency."
"Racism does not go both ways. There are unique forms of discrimination that are backed up by entitlement, assertion and, most importantly, supported by a structural power strong enough to scare you into complying with the demands of the status quo. We have to recognise this."
"It's about time that the critiques of racism were subject to the same passionate free speech defense as racist statements themselves. Freedom of speech means the freedom for opinions on race to clash. Freedom of speech does not mean the right to say what you want without rebuttal, and racist speech and ideas need to be healthily challenged in the public sphere. White fear tries to stop this conversation from happening."
"White people are so used to seeing a reflection of themselves in all representations of humanity at all times, that they only notice it when it's taken away from them."
"If, as they say, racism doesn't exist, and black people have nothing to complain about, why are they so afraid of white people becoming the new minority?"
• something • {last word}
In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. She posted a piece on her blog and gave it the title: "Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race'Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanized by this clear hunger for an open discussion, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings.
The result is a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of color in Britain today. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the political purpose of white dominance, whitewashed feminism to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge offers a new framework for how to see, acknowledge and counter racism today. {cover copy}
It is important to me that I continue to improve as a person throughout my lifetime, constantly trying to challenge myself and my views so that I can grow and learn and set the best example possible for my daughters so they won't have to start from the same spot that I did, but witness my growth and let that be their square one. One of the ways I have challenged myself recently is to look at how open-minded and accepting I think I am, listen very hard to what minorities in all aspects are trying to say, and learn where I'm failing. So when I saw this book, I knew it was something I wanted to read. I also knew I had to have this particular edition, because the graphic design on this thing is SO CLEVER. That being said, I went into this with an open heart and an open mind, willing to learn what I could and to accept that what I discovered about myself might not make me feel wholly comfortable.
I will admit that this was the case, though it wasn't as bad as I thought, since I have been working on improvement in this area for some time, and started off in a better place for accepting growth here than many I know. But I must admit that I was guilty of actions or thoughts that I was unaware of at the time were adding to systemic racism or at least unhelpful for seeing things the way POC do. For example, in college I believed I was once the victim of "reverse racism". Now I know better. (Though I've known for a while, I didn't really get the specifics of how this isn't the case until it was articulated here in this book). Did I feel it was unfair that the three black teens who wouldn't move out of the way of the side of the mall walkway I was on nearly ran me over as they walked? Yes. Did I assume they thought I was from the South, where I had just moved, and therefore probably racist/grown up around racist people? Yes. Did I therefore believe they instantly hated me because I was white? Again, yes. And hey, maybe they did. But it was one split second that still stands out to me because that's all I have experienced that gave me any inkling that I was being treated unfairly because of the color of my skin. POC have to deal with that feeling literally every day.
Anyway... I found this book to be incredibly important and wishing quite often that those who need it most would read it, but knowing in my heart that they are the last people who would. Maybe they'll stumble upon my review and at least read the quotes that stood out to me. (Though to be honest, I marked SO many more than what I copied down here, but they were pages at a time, so I had to be a little picky in what I included below).
I highly recommend this book.
(the quotations below come from the UK version so things are spelled weird. Yes, that's right, friends across the pond, I said you spell things weird. It's true).
On 22 February 2014, I published a post on my blog. {first line}
"G...the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates their experience."
"The emotional disconnect is the conclusion of living life oblivious to the fact that their skin colour is the norm and all others deviate from it."
"At best, white people have been taught not to mention that people of colour are 'different' in case it offends us. They truly believe that the experiences of their life as a result of their skin colour can and should be universal. I just can't engage with the bewilderment and the defensiveness as they try to grapple with the fact that not everyone experiences the world in the way tha they do. They've never had to think about what it means, in power terms, to be white..."
"The journey towards understanding structural racism still requires people of colour to prioritise white feelings. Even if they can hear you, they're not really listening. It's like something happens to the words as they leave our mouths and reach their ears. The words hit a barrier of denial and they don't get any further."
"Worse still is the white person who might be willing to entertain the possibility of said racism, but who thinks we enter this conversation as equals. We don't."
"Amid every conversation about Nice White People feeling silenced by conversations about race, there is a sort of ironic and glaring lack of understanding or empathy for those of us who have been visibly marked out as different for our entire lives, and live the consequences. It's truly a lifetime of self-censorship that people of colour have to live."
"It must be a strange life, always having permission to speak and feeling indignant when you're finally asked to listen."
"Although I analyse invisible whiteness and ponder its exclusionary nature often, I watch as an outsider. I understand that this isn't the case for most white people, who move through the world blissfully unaware of their own race until its dominance is called into question. When white people pick up a magazine, scroll through the Internet, read a newspaper or switch on the TV, it is never rare or odd to see people who look like them in positions of power or exerting authority. In culture particularly, the positive affirmations of whiteness are so widespread that the average white person doesn't even notice them. Instead, these affirmations are placidly consumed. To be white is to be human; to be white is universal. I only know this because I am not."
"Thinking about power made me realise that racism was about so much more than personal prejudice. It was about being in the position too negatively affect other people's life chances."
"We don't live in a meritocracy, and to pretend that simple hard work will elevate all to success is an exercise in wilful ignorance."
"Colour-blindness is a childish, stunted analysis of racism."
"Not seeing race does little to deconstruct racist structures or materially improve the conditions which people of colour are subject to daily. In order to dismantle unjust, racist structures, we must see race. We must see who benefits from their race, who is disproportionately impacted by negative stereotypes about their race, and to who power and privilege is bestowed upon--earned or not--because of their race, their class, and their gender. Seeing race is essential to changing the system."
"Those who are coded as a threat in our collective representation of humanity are not white."
"White privilege is dull, grinding complacency."
"Racism does not go both ways. There are unique forms of discrimination that are backed up by entitlement, assertion and, most importantly, supported by a structural power strong enough to scare you into complying with the demands of the status quo. We have to recognise this."
"It's about time that the critiques of racism were subject to the same passionate free speech defense as racist statements themselves. Freedom of speech means the freedom for opinions on race to clash. Freedom of speech does not mean the right to say what you want without rebuttal, and racist speech and ideas need to be healthily challenged in the public sphere. White fear tries to stop this conversation from happening."
"White people are so used to seeing a reflection of themselves in all representations of humanity at all times, that they only notice it when it's taken away from them."
"If, as they say, racism doesn't exist, and black people have nothing to complain about, why are they so afraid of white people becoming the new minority?"
• something • {last word}
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