In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are … know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life.
“Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told.“ ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can’t Touch My Hair
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Everyone, everyone, everyone should read this book. Ijeoma Oluo is an incredible writer, and this is essential reading. Highly recommend.
This should absolutely be required reading for everyone.
I loved this book. I recognized so much of this in my life. This book taught me new language to use, new ways to see my life and the bias I knew I had faced but never know how to talk about. I encourage everyone to read this. When politicians say, we need to talk about race, the conversation needs to start with reading this book.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo was my aha moment. It was my introduction to my own yt privilege and it started my antiracist journey. Ijeoma Olou is my super hero. If she writes it, I am reading it!
Not for the faint of heart but needed absolutely.
My fav nonfic! Ijeoma teaches you how to have those uncomfortable race conversations that are so important. And does it with lots of stories and anecdotes.
“You are racist because you were born and bred in a racist, white supremacist society. White Supremacy is, as I’ve said earlier, insidious by design. The racism required to uphold White Supremacy is woven into every area of our lives. There is no way you can inherit white privilege from birth, learn racist white supremacist history in schools, consume racist and white supremacist movies and films, work in a racist and white supremacist workforce, and vote for racist and white supremacist governments and not be racist.”
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo discusses seventeen different topics on race ranging from intersectionality to model minorities. She discusses her experiences with these topics and how they have shaped the way she, and others, live their lives. Oluo pushes you to have honest conversations with yourself about race and racism and how it is intertwined in every aspect of American life.
This book should be required reading for everyone, especially white people. Each chapter in this book focuses on a different topic from cultural appropriation, school-to-prison pipeline, and microaggressions. Oluo provides us not only with her personal experience with each of the topics, she also provides helpful steps to do better/ change.
“Racial oppression should always be an emotional topic to discuss. It should always be anger-inducing. As long as racism exists to ruin the lives of countless people of color, it should be something that upsets us. But it upsets us because it exists, not because we talk about it.”
This was both an easy read and a challenging one. Oluo’s writing style was extremely easy to read but she challenges you to think about your actions and how you have been racist. It’s not comfortable but it is important if you want to become a better person. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to learn about race, racism, and being a better person.
An excellent and incredibly important read on racism, white privilege, and intersectionality. From the preface: “We have to look racism in the eye wherever we encounter it. If we continue to treat racism like it is a giant monster that is chasing us, we will be forever running. But running won’t help when it’s in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves.”
I absolutely recommend this critical and timely read.
A must read to stop entitlement
Started this one out as an audiobook rental and a little over halfway I convinced myself that I needed the physical copy. It’s just one of those books you want to have on hand so you can highlight the heck out of it. Definitely recommend
A great grounding for White people to start their understanding of privilege in order to stand in allyship and solidarity with people of Colour.
Excellent source of answers to questions I’ve had about race. If we don’t know what words or behavior mean or do how can we improve? The world depends on us figuring racism out and on each one of us learning to do better.
I’m not the best at reading nonfiction, but so many booksellers I knew had recommended this book when it first came out (and I had the honor of meeting Oluo at a book event a year or so back) that I picked it up. I’m rereading it now, because it’s important, and I’m glad I did because the author added some material when the book came out in paperback.
If this is an important topic for you, or you’re trying to figure out where to start on your own education, this book is a great tool. Oluo’s writing style is honest, intelligent, and approachable. I highly recommend it.
Good insight into how those in a dominant culture can listen to and learn from those who feel, and are, marginalized.
This is such a solid book. Oluo invites us white people into a conversation and really it’s our chance to listen and learn. She defines racism and privilege and then shows the big picture of systemic racism and the ways white people continue to benefit from an unjust system. It’s laid out clearly and succinctly and then she lays the case for why we must not only listen and hear but take action. Until we do, white supremacy will continue to flourish. The title may be about conversation but the book is ultimately about why we can’t stay there. “Talk. Please talk and talk and talk some more. But also act. Act now, because people are dying now in this unjust system. How many lives have been ground up by racial prejudice and hate? How many opportunities have we already lost?…We have to learn and fight at the same time. Because people have been waiting far too long for their chance to live as equals in this society.”
This was a very enlightening read, and I recommend it to people of all races IF they are willing to read it with an open mind.
The focus of the book is on systematic racism and how even if a person does not consider themselves racist, there is a lot more to racism than how we treat minorities because we are all a part of a system that has been in place for hundreds of years that has a tendency to give whites the upper hand and suppress many minorities, especially blacks. I found the book engaging, interesting, and easy to read as it was broken down into chapters by discussion topic. It is a very relevant read for today’s environment, and I feel much more knowledgable about racism in the US, how to appropriately discuss many controversial topics, and some steps I can take.