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First Book of 2018! Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
This post gave me so much joy!!! I love emma for being this wonderful person! The book sparked my interest! I will try to find it and read it!
Mod
Thanks for your message, Emma. So pumped to read this book!"
If it helps, being white myself I still think about this. Before I would have said, why, of course I am a white feminist, just as much as I am a white anything, because, well, it's obvious haha. But it looks like nowadays it's only used in a negative sense and referred to a body of ideas and misconceptions rather than your actual race? Not that I am complaining at all, words like intersectional are there for a reason. I'm just saying it's a term which scope I am no longer so sure of these days.
Beautiful writing, Emma. Thanks for leading the way.
Thank you Emma! Loved reading this letter. Thank you.
Please Emma never stop this book club, it has being really helpful and life change
What an incredible choice for a first book of the year, and exactly what I was hoping for in joining this book club a few days ago. I, too, had a bit of an awakening about seven years ago after I went back to Uni and began studying cultural psychology. Raised very conservatively in the Southern US, I saw it all. Although I was adamantly opposed to blatant racism, it took going back to school and moving to NYC to begin to understand how embedded racism is in white culture. I often got my feelings hurt when friends would call out 'white feminism' - but then I stopped speaking and began listening and paying attention. I started reading everything I could get my hands on - it helped that my partner (now wife) was a human rights law lecturer. It helped me understand that whiteness, mine not withstanding, is inherently tied to racism.
When it comes to white culture and racist thinking, my rule of thumb is this: I have to first admit where I'm coming from, regardless of whether or not I'm proud of it, regardless of whether or not I see it myself. I have choices I can make to do and be better. This involves changing the way I think.
You see, my first thought in any given situation, that's how I've been raised - it's what is natural to me based on white culture and how I've been taught to think instinctually. But my second thought - that's who I strive to be, who I believe I am, and who I want to become. When I get defensive when called a "white feminist" or a product of "white culture" or hear someone say they "hate white people" - that's my racist, not understanding, white self. But choosing to continue listening, choosing to do better, to read and learn what I can - that's how I fight "whiteness" and "white feminism".
Thanks, Emma, for picking this book and for using your platform to bring attention to racism. Living outside of London now, the difference in how racism presents itself in the US and the UK is striking - I'm excited to learn more about it.
Really looking forward to reading this, especially as a white woman to be educated. I bought it on Amazon.co.uk today and it's only €1.99.
Hello everyone.... Just wanted to share that I am currently reading two books - 1. Men explain to me and 2. The purple color. I am so glad that in the last few days of 2017, I did some research and got these two books to be my early 2018 reads.... this is in continuation to the book I read last year - "Why we all should be feminists"I am totally intrigued by the mentioned book title too - Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Hope to get my hands on this one soon...
I definitely look forward to reading the new book! I just have to say that, when you mention that the most difficult journeys often the most worthwhile, it really hits home for me as I am currently training to Join the U.S. Air Force to become a Pararescueman! Pararescue is career field in the Air Force which specializes in combat search and rescue. The training pipeline is roughly 2.5 years and is extremely demanding, so much so that 9/10 people who enter don't make it through. I know that what I'm saying is a little off topic from what this group is about, but I'm saying it because I want you to know that the work are doing has been very inspirational for me and is a driving force for why I continue day in and day out to work towards this incredible goal!
I am so proud to be apart of this group and I can't wait to see how much we continue to improve this year!
Dakota Boden
Dakota wrote: "I definitely look forward to reading the new book! I just have to say that, when you mention that the most difficult journeys often the most worthwhile, it really hits home for me as I am currently..."Thanks for sharing Dakota. You are doing a great job... Good luck with your preparation and training.
Stuckinthebooks wrote: "Dakota wrote: "I definitely look forward to reading the new book! I just have to say that, when you mention that the most difficult journeys often the most worthwhile, it really hits home for me as..."Thanks for the encouragement, it really means a lot! before I joined this group I really didn't know much about feminism until I saw the speech Emma gave when she launched the "HeforShe" campaign. Ever since then shes been one of my greatest role models, and it really opened my eyes to this issue, and I really wanted to be apart of what shes doing so making the commitment to HeforShe and joining this group, and how much I've learned about this cause has definitely been an incredible experience!
I think it's a great choice of topic! As a white middle class girl in Germany I didn't realise how privileged I was until a couple months or so ago. Similar to the experiences you've described, I started wondering whether I had "accidentally" been racist and whether I had ignored other people's struggles just because I couldn't relate. I know some of my friends have had racist remarks thrown at them and since I want to work in a nursery it'll be my job to make sure that kids (and parents) are aware of prejudices but also work against that so I really want to educate myself more!
Very excited to finally jump in to the reading for OSS. I've been a follower for some time, but I hate picking up new things right in the middle (I was also in the midst of a massive HP re-read session in 2017) so I've abstained from actually grabbing any of the selections.I can't wait to actually get my hands on a copy of this title. As a middle class white woman born and raised in Texas, racism and sexism are something I've encountered (and by encountered, I mean I'm 100% sure I'm guilty of it too) from strangers, friends, even my own family. My journey toward becoming an intersectional feminist has involved a lot of stepping on toes and making people uncomfortable, because it's the South and "that's the way things have always been."
I think the fact that this text focuses on Britain will be an interesting insight into what racism looks like in a place that is far more multicultural than the small town where I grew up and the town where I currently live (which is home to the second most conservative school in the US).
Looking forward to discussing the topics this book brings up over the following weeks!
Hope you all have a bright and prosperous 2018!
Thanks for suggesting this book! I look forward to reading it.
Excited for a new year and a new way of thinking, thank you so much for continuing the club this year !
Excited to read this---walking into 2018 with optimism.
Too bad I can't get this book in Poland :/
Looking forward to read it! But damn this book is kinda expensive 😱 I will have to wait until next month.
Happy New year. I love the idea of checking out this book. Race has always been an issue here, but not always acknowledged as one. Everytime I talk about this honestly, I offend people, so I’m sorry, I don’t mean to, but to talk about my life I have to admit that it started in 1963 in a very white place, with racism so much a part of the fabric of daily life, as to be invisible. People could ignore being prejudiced because only white people lived there. I say that with no small amount of irony, because my grandfather and his mom lived there, and she was, either Sioux or born to white people who had been raised by Sioux. So yes, my great grandma, born Sioux in 1875; the year before Little Bighorn, and raised there among the tribe until after wounded knee, then married a white stage driver and worked in Cody Wyoming, for Buffalo Bill, raising four sons as white and disowned by her father. So when she was 56 and her Dad died she went to the funeral and saw her mom for the first time in forty years. When I was ten and she died, I met a lot of Lafferty relatives from the Pine Ridge Reservation, but before that hadn’t heard a mention of Native relatives. Also
I was named Dixie, we had a black poodle named “nigger” who had a puppy we kept and my Dad named “perp”. The language of every day was casually racist, polock jokes were told, Brazil nuts were called “nigger toes” and all the races had stereotypes. Mexicans were lazy, Irish were drunks, you could laugh at everyone but not really question the truth behind the jokes.
So things have changed a lot, slowly, since I was 12 and my Dad took us to Pittsburgh to meet his family, but gave us the speech first, “there will be a lot of people around who look different than you are used to, people with dark skin that you shouldn’t stare at or say anything about”. When we came back from that trip, and saw a black couple sitting on a bench in my. Hometown, my 8 year old brother turned and yelled, “Dad! Here’s a black man! Don’t say anything!”
Gradually my Dad’s life convinced my siblings and I of the lie of the prejudices he was raised with. We saw him make friends with A Munoz from work and invite his family over again and again, and heard him tell mom, “he’s not like a real Mexican.” But then he’d make friends with more and more “exceptions” because my Dad was really a friendly, social man who never met a stranger, only friends he hadn’t talked to yet, so he liked everyone in spite of having been raised in extremely racist, stereotyped thinking. The exceptions finally overwhelmed the belief in the stereotypes but each step was a painful revelation of how blind we had been, and how privileged our life was that we had been able to live decades without questioning our “inborn superiority.” God! The thought of that mindset makes me ill now, but I never questioned it until I was a teen I think.
Then I went to Beijing as an exchange student in College. From being in an all white town, to being somewhere where no one looked like me and everyone stopped and stared and watched to see how and what I did, even when using a public shower.
So if you are totally offended by this, I’m sorry. If you have honest questions I don’t mind.
Karolina wrote: "Too bad I can't get this book in Poland :/"I think you should be able to get a Kindle version off Amazon.com (Poland should be covered under the American one if I remember correctly.)
It can be read on Kindle, or you can download an app for phone or PC and should be able to read it that way :)
https://www.amazon.com/Longer-Talking...
Barbara wrote: "Looking forward to read it! But damn this book is kinda expensive 😱 I will have to wait until next month."get an ebook, way cheaper <3 Amazon.com and uk both have it, and maybe some other websites too :)
Very inspiring introduction. I'm going to read this book. It makes me think of my own struggle to talk to my white friends about racism. Let's see what Reni Eddo-Lodge. Is Britain's way of seeing racism the same as France. Happy New Year to All.
Emma wrote: "Dear OSS, There is so much racism, both in our past and present, that is not acknowledged and accounted for. I know this to be the case from my own education, and I know there is so much more for..."
I know i don't post as much as i want too. but i do agree, why we not just as a community or the rest of the world, look past racism or anything else. Unless you walk a mile in that persons shoes, do what they do and see what they see on a daily basis you wont understand. I grew up looking at the other side of things, I grew up from humble and to respect anyone I meet No matter who, what or where they are from. We are all the same in the inside, we are just people from all walks of life trying, No Doing our BEST in life.
Miss Emma Watson Great Choice of on the book selection I look forward to reading it. For this NEW YEAR 2018 I look forward to every book you choose.
Miss Emma Watson HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!2018!!!
Yes!! I’ll definitely pick this up when I make it to the store. Currently finishing up My People Are Rising by Aaron Dixon
Happy New Year everyone! 2017 was a busy year where I didn't make enough time for reading, I want to change that this year. Just bought the book and now I just need to get to it.
Thank you Emma! You demonstrated us the amazing of reading and of changing the world!!
Hello our shared bookshelf. In these months at OSS I have started to open my eyes and see other realities I did not know. It is very sad for me to recognize it because I am already a middle-aged woman. I will continue here always learning something new about the realities, about you and about me.
Alecsky wrote: "Dear Emma. If you really get panicked when someone call you are racist, then, excuse me, but something's wrong. The only way to know whether you racist or not is to ask yourself. And of course you ..."I hope you are someone who especially benefits from reading and discussing this book
Ester wrote: "Hello our shared bookshelf. In these months at OSS I have started to open my eyes and see other realities I did not know. It is very sad for me to recognize it because I am already a middle-aged wo..."Middle-aged or not, you learn. And that is the important thing.
MeerderWörter wrote: "Ester wrote: "Hello our shared bookshelf. In these months at OSS I have started to open my eyes and see other realities I did not know. It is very sad for me to recognize it because I am already a ..." Thank you Meerder, I learn a lot from you.
I want to say about you, all of you. Damn translator.
Ester wrote: "I want to say about you, all of you. Damn translator.":)
We learn all from each other. Language- and other-wise:)
MeerderWörter wrote: "Ester wrote: "I want to say about you, all of you. Damn translator.":)
We learn all from each other. Language- and other-wise:)" ;) Yes
Thanks for your thoughts on this! While I always appreciate when women in the entertainment industry speak up about feminism, I also feel that there is often a gap between those privileged viewpoints and my own. I know that being under such constant scrutiny can make it difficult to speak up about feminism at all, so I am reluctant to criticize women who do make the choice to speak out - even when things seem a little off to me. I really admire your thoughtfulness in thinking about these issues and working, alongside all of us, to gain deeper understanding and build a better world for all of us.
Emma,I really appreciate this letter and the fact you are taking time to really understand what it means to be a feminist. I can’t wait to check this book out.
-Lauren
Yes! I am hoping to join in on this book. I am also greatly looking forward to "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo which comes out in two weeks. I think it will delve into similar areas. I have been a mostly quiet member but I do think on a lot of the commentary. Hopefully, I will have more time to delve into commenting and discussing in the year to come. All the best!
I was in bed half asleep thinking that I had not told you that your Emma does not feel alone either, because there are many of us who can support you in bad times.
I REALLY wanna read this book. Here, in Brazil, it has a organization about black feminist women. They are hardly fighting. I hope this book will help me to understand better this situation to, then, I could fight with them.
Everyone, a good 2018! - and great lecture!
hi Emma, thank you for your suggestion and kind words. I'll start ordering this book: sometimes we're blind to certain issues until someone opens our eyes on them. happy New year everybody!
This will be my first book - i'm so excited. I have a lot happening as my Dad was given 3months to live last november (cancer). so this will be my happy control place.
Stephanie wrote: "This will be my first book - i'm so excited. I have a lot happening as my Dad was given 3months to live last november (cancer). so this will be my happy control place." I'm so sorry, Stephanie.
Stephanie wrote: "This will be my first book - i'm so excited. I have a lot happening as my Dad was given 3months to live last november (cancer). so this will be my happy control place."Sorry to hear that, Stephanie.
Look forward to reading the first book of 2018! Sounds like a really interesting one.
Alecsky wrote: "Dear Emma. If you really get panicked when someone call you are racist, then, excuse me, but something's wrong. The only way to know whether you racist or not is to ask yourself. And of course you ..."Many racists claim that they aren't racist...sooooo
Pam wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: " .White feminism is not about one's skin colour, but about attitudes.It is called white feminism since mostly white women have these attitudes. It does not mean that a white ..."
Absolutely. I would add that it may also come from the language. See, in France, feminism has no color as the French language doesn't use color adjectives to define ideals and ideas.
I think talking about "white feminism" or "black feminism" or "green, blue, purple etc.." is just another attempt to divide (by creating a difference) what unites people.
What do you think ? :)
Debbie wrote: "Pam wrote: "MeerderWörter wrote: " .White feminism is not about one's skin colour, but about attitudes.It is called white feminism since mostly white women have these attitudes. It does not mean t..."
It's actually more complicated than that. "Black feminism" as a term has its right to exist very much so.
We use cisgender and transgender, right? Because there are different experiences that go along with each of them. The same it is with feminism - "black feminism" very much has its right to exist as a term.
Happy new year, Emma! I'm joining for the first time and will be listening to the author's audiobook this coming week. Great choice.I've been a supporter of Southern Poverty Law Center for a few decades. They battle the KKK and white extremists through the courts. They began their Teaching Tolerance project to combat prejudice among our nation’s youth while promoting equality, inclusiveness and equitable learning environments in the classroom. their anti-bias resources, including classroom documentaries, are distributed to educators free. They believe we may not be able to alter prejudice in current generations, but since racial prejudice is taught and learned, we can teach acceptance and tolerance/value of differences to the next generation. https://www.splcenter.org/teaching-to...
Having just finished recording my own first book (memoir), I appreciate at a deep level, all that goes into writing a book and recording it as a storyteller. Looking forward to our discussion. When does it start?
Chris wrote: "Happy new year, Emma! I'm joining for the first time and will be listening to the author's audiobook this coming week. Great choice.I've been a supporter of Southern Poverty Law Center for a few ..."
Anytime. As soon as people have read the book, topics will pop up in the folder:)
I look forward to discuss this book with you all!
Our Shared Shelf
Books mentioned in this topic
Shadow and Bone (other topics)The Color of Water (other topics)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (other topics)
Yeah, it is off-topic, but mostly, I highly doubt you're going to get any valuable advice here. :/ I would advise talking to a lawyer / educational board / somebody else depending on your circumstances.