Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race
2017
- political aspects
- social aspects
- non-fiction
- essays & journalism
- race relations
- race discrimination
- blogs
- history
- racism
- social classes
The story
In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote on her blog 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. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Exploring issues from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Reni Eddo-Lodge has written a searing, illuminating, absolutely necessary examination of what it is to be a person of colour in Britain today --
What it’s like
Sharp, direct prose in a conversational yet rigorous British voice, the kind that reads like a long argument delivered across a kitchen table rather than a lecture hall. Eddo-Lodge builds each chapter from a blog-born frustration into careful reportage: archival history, statistics, interviews and personal memory woven together, with short declarative sentences giving way to longer, more searching ones when the argument deepens. The mood is bracing and clear-eyed rather than cozy, a steady anger held in check by precision and a refusal to be glib. It suits a focused weekday read, a long train journey, or a slow chapter-by-chapter session with a notebook close by. Pacing is brisk and essayistic, with each section closing on a pointed turn that invites the next. Emotionally it is candid and occasionally raw, tracing the exhaustion of explaining oneself and the slow, stubborn work of naming what is structural. The content is intense in an intellectual rather than visceral way: frank discussion of racism, discrimination and violence in British history and daily life, but no gore and nothing sensational. For readers who want substance, British social history and a clear, unflinching account of race and class, and who are ready to sit with discomfort.
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