REVIEW: ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’ by Reni Eddo-Lodge

TW: Racism, Violence and Misogyny

First things first, Reni Eddo-Lodge has done the work for us. She’s made a book that people of colour can readily give to all well-meaning white friends and colleagues that want to have a ‘discussion’ about racism. She’s put in all the mental and emotional labour to create a book that covers topics like structural racism, racism within feminism, racial bias in the criminal justice system, white privilege, class, gentrification and police brutality and when you read the book, you’ll see that there are many more themes and issues she discusses that I won’t bother listing for you. I say this book is for well-meaning white people because many people of colour, especially those of us who concern ourselves with race, gender and class, will find that they already know the argument she presents in this book. Even though there were some things discussed that I wasn’t aware of, by and large reading this book was reading and agreeing with what I already knew. However, this is not a weakness. This book is a powerful tool that draws from cultural, political and economic history as well as current affairs in order to show that structural racism is alive and thriving in Britain.

The book is divided into seven chapters: ‘Histories’, ‘The System’, ‘What is White Privilege?’, ‘Fear of a Black Planet’, ‘The Feminist Question’, ‘Race and Class’ and ‘There’s No Justice, There’s Just Us’. Honestly, I found some of these chapters boring and had to plough through them but that is not because of a failure of her writing, but instead because as I said before, I don’t need to be told what white privilege is. At the same time, some chapters really stood out to me.