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Let's Talk Race: A Guide for White People
Real conversations about racism need to start now
Let's Talk Race confronts why white people struggle to talk about race, why we need to own this problem, and how we can learn to do the work ourselves and stop expecting Black people to do it for us.
Written by two specialists in race relations and parents of two adopted African American sons, the book provides unique insights and practical guidance, richly illustrated with personal examples, anecdotes, research findings, and prompts for personal reflection and conversations about race.
Coverage includes:
Seeing the varied forms of racism
How we normalize and privilege whiteness
Essential and often unknown elements of Black history that inform the present
Racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, and wealth
Understanding racially-linked cultural differences
How to find conversational partners and create safe spaces for conversations
Conversational do's and don'ts
Let's Talk Race is for all white people who want to face the challenges of talking about race and working towards justice and equity.
Let's Talk Race confronts why white people struggle to talk about race, why we need to own this problem, and how we can learn to do the work ourselves and stop expecting Black people to do it for us.
Written by two specialists in race relations and parents of two adopted African American sons, the book provides unique insights and practical guidance, richly illustrated with personal examples, anecdotes, research findings, and prompts for personal reflection and conversations about race.
Coverage includes:
Seeing the varied forms of racism
How we normalize and privilege whiteness
Essential and often unknown elements of Black history that inform the present
Racial disparities in education, health, criminal justice, and wealth
Understanding racially-linked cultural differences
How to find conversational partners and create safe spaces for conversations
Conversational do's and don'ts
Let's Talk Race is for all white people who want to face the challenges of talking about race and working towards justice and equity.
- GenresSocial Justice
192 pages, Paperback
Published April 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 5, 2021
If you‘re a reader who is ready to work through your growing awareness of white privilege and you want to move forward in more consciously competent ways, "Let’s Talk Race" is an excellent choice for you.
The authors are a few steps ahead of most readers and eager to take your hands in the process. Johnson and Fine are credible guides: they are communication professors with strong academic credentials; parents of two Black sons whom they adopted as infants and raised to adulthood; and experienced leaders of community-based, multiple-session workshops. Their motives are transparent: they detail their points of view, confess their limitations, and profess their genuine commitment to improving interracial understanding. Their style is accessible and readable: the book is well organized—there’s a detailed table of contents, useful index, ample endnotes, periodic personal questions for readers to consider, and prompts with conversational topics for book/study groups. The book is structured to answer why the subject is important, what readers should know about it, and how readers with heightened purpose and new information should act. Each chapter’s purpose is clearly stated and easy to follow. The section headings and type setting are visually helpful. The text is full of internal forecasts and summaries.
The book’s guidance is simple, but challenging. Johnson and Fine ask for empathy. And empathy on two levels. First, the development of their case that white people need to talk about race relies on readers who will embrace the opening chapters--the authors’ reasons for writing, their information about racism and whiteness, and their experience. Then they ask readers to adopt that same spirit of careful listening and withholding of judgment when they engage in conversations about and/or with people of color. Johnson and Fine acknowledge that this is not easy and offer concrete suggestions about how to talk--what to do and what not to do.
Who will benefit most from this book? Although Johnson and Fine don’t limit their discussion of race and racism to the United States and to people of African descent, they do admit to focusing on American history, American cultural references, and the experience of African Americans. In that sense, the book will be best for white Americans who want to understand and overcome the interpersonal, social, and institutional gaps between white and Black people in the United States. Other white readers who want guidance on how to “talk race” and enhance their interracial relationships will still find the book useful if they can filter past the emphasis on American content and provide examples of their own. For those readers, Chapter 6, “Better Talk: Putting it All Together,” offers advice for anyone who wants to engage in productive interpersonal talk about race and might even want to develop cross-racial friendships. For yet another audience, the book offers valuable data for sociologists and historians. "Let’s Talk Race" exposes some hard facts about the status of racial equity and justice in the United States early in the 21st century.
The authors are a few steps ahead of most readers and eager to take your hands in the process. Johnson and Fine are credible guides: they are communication professors with strong academic credentials; parents of two Black sons whom they adopted as infants and raised to adulthood; and experienced leaders of community-based, multiple-session workshops. Their motives are transparent: they detail their points of view, confess their limitations, and profess their genuine commitment to improving interracial understanding. Their style is accessible and readable: the book is well organized—there’s a detailed table of contents, useful index, ample endnotes, periodic personal questions for readers to consider, and prompts with conversational topics for book/study groups. The book is structured to answer why the subject is important, what readers should know about it, and how readers with heightened purpose and new information should act. Each chapter’s purpose is clearly stated and easy to follow. The section headings and type setting are visually helpful. The text is full of internal forecasts and summaries.
The book’s guidance is simple, but challenging. Johnson and Fine ask for empathy. And empathy on two levels. First, the development of their case that white people need to talk about race relies on readers who will embrace the opening chapters--the authors’ reasons for writing, their information about racism and whiteness, and their experience. Then they ask readers to adopt that same spirit of careful listening and withholding of judgment when they engage in conversations about and/or with people of color. Johnson and Fine acknowledge that this is not easy and offer concrete suggestions about how to talk--what to do and what not to do.
Who will benefit most from this book? Although Johnson and Fine don’t limit their discussion of race and racism to the United States and to people of African descent, they do admit to focusing on American history, American cultural references, and the experience of African Americans. In that sense, the book will be best for white Americans who want to understand and overcome the interpersonal, social, and institutional gaps between white and Black people in the United States. Other white readers who want guidance on how to “talk race” and enhance their interracial relationships will still find the book useful if they can filter past the emphasis on American content and provide examples of their own. For those readers, Chapter 6, “Better Talk: Putting it All Together,” offers advice for anyone who wants to engage in productive interpersonal talk about race and might even want to develop cross-racial friendships. For yet another audience, the book offers valuable data for sociologists and historians. "Let’s Talk Race" exposes some hard facts about the status of racial equity and justice in the United States early in the 21st century.
May 17, 2021
Dr.'s Johnson and Fine do a great job using their backgrounds in race and cultural diversity to help white people educate themselves about the black experience, both historically and today. As the white parents of two African American sons, they have a unique perspective to share. The book will help you identify racial disparities in education, healthcare, criminal justice and wealth, as well as understand racially-linked cultural differences. It will also help those who are interested in engaging in genuine, honest, heartfelt conversations about race.
Our church looks forward to the challenge of using the personal reflections and conversational prompts in Let's Talk Race as a guidebook of sorts to help us explore our own ideas, values and experiences as we move along in our quest for equity and racial justice.
Our church looks forward to the challenge of using the personal reflections and conversational prompts in Let's Talk Race as a guidebook of sorts to help us explore our own ideas, values and experiences as we move along in our quest for equity and racial justice.
June 7, 2021
This is the most practical guide I've ever read about workshopping race for a white audience. Johnson and Fine deliver a mix of theory, history, current events, and specific tactics to how to have conversations with others and do self-reflecting.
Read
May 3, 2021Antiwhite drivel.
Wondering if Johnson or Fine are jewish.
Wondering if Johnson or Fine are jewish.
Want to Read
April 1, 2021Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.
May 17, 2021
This succinct and interesting guide for white people provides an interactive exploration of racial identity that is informed not only by the authors's experience as race relations experts, but also as parents of two adopted African American sons. For readers who have a hard time seeing themselves as white or for those who just want to increase their self awareness from a racial/ethnicity perspective, this book covers the essential issues & topics with helpful "prompts" to stop, reflect and dig deeper . My church's Racial Justice Steering Committee adopted this book to help our members explore their identity as we approach the challenge of meaningful diversity conversations. When white people talk to each other about their own racial identity and issues, they are able to better understand the qualitative differences of the historic and current Black experience in the United States. Co-authors Fern Johnson and Marlene Fine explain, 'genuine conversation is essential to social action and change toward racial equality'. Let's Talk Race helps us become much more comfortable and confident as we reach across racial and ethnic difference to speak to each other with empathy and support.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews