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

by Reni Eddo-Lodge

[empressbrooke]

This was a great companion to [a:Ijeoma Oluo|14408819|Ijeoma Oluo|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]'s [b:So You Want to Talk About Race|35099718|So You Want to Talk About Race|Ijeoma Oluo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499224833s/35099718.jpg|56405219]. While the titles are quite opposite in nature, both books very clearly and conversationally lay out the nature of institutional racism. If you've ever had a knee jerk reaction to the fight against "whiteness privilege" or "white feminism," or if you know someone who needs a 101 primer about how "whiteness" is a structure affecting our society and not a personal indictment they need to defend themselves against, both of these books are great.

While Oluo is American, Eddo-Lodge is British, and she laid out a history about racism in Britain that I hadn't learned before (and apparently she hadn't either, before she went researching). There is a lot of discussion about Brexit and far-right British public figures I had never heard of before. I greatly enjoyed getting her British perspective since all of the books I've read about anti-racism and women of colors' experiences have been American.