For my goal of continuing my anti-racist education, I picked up the book So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. I listened to this on audiobook from my library and wow I can’t recommend that enough. It’s narrated by the author so you really get to understand the messages she was sending.
This book tackles everything from the school to prison pipeline, how to have conversations about race with people of color, people of your own race, and white people, the role of Black women and their lack of support even within the Black community, income inequality, pay gaps, all the different types of privilege, and more. You would think that covering all of these topics that the book must be long and sometimes boring or drawn out, but it’s actually less than 250 pages and highly engaging. This all speaks to Oluo’s strength as a writer. She’s succinct, descriptive, and impactful.
I think I would recommend this book over White Fragility. I think this does just as good of a job of relating to white people and allowing them into the conversation instead of making them feel like the Bad Guy. It covers so many topics that could come up in conversations about racial inequality so that the reader can feel both prepared to have those difficult conversations, and that they can be educated about them. The way she speaks to the reader is so accessible which is so important when it comes to race discussions because people can be alienated or become defensive so easily.
I’m recommending this book to everyone who wants to better themselves, make themselves more knowledgeable, to understand something that maybe they have a hard time understanding. I’ve already pushed this book onto my mom several times and I’ve posted it to my Instagram and Facebook in the hopes that anyone in my circle will pick it up. I highly recommend this to you as well, I’m serious in that I truly believe it will not let you down.
Just Read It 