Book Review: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Race, colonialism, empire, prejudice and privilege were not terms or concepts I was taught about until about the age of twenty, while studying English Literature at university. Up until that point, the only history I'd been taught was things like the Aztecs, the Vikings, Henry VIII's wives, the Great Fire of London, and the Black Death. I didn't study History for GCSE or A Level, so can't comment on what was taught on those courses back in 2008. During my time at university I read and studied work by writers from all over the world, from all kinds of different backgrounds and cultures, and I loved every moment. Some of my favourite books from my degree that opened my eyes to the concept of racial inequality like nothing ever had before were Native Son by Richard Wright, Small Island by Andrea Levy, and Brick Lane by Monica Ali. However, I didn't read any non-fiction on the subject. Over the past year or so I've been enjoying listening to The High Low podcast and heard an episode where Dolly and Pandora interviewed Reni Eddo-Lodge about her book, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Her words hit me like a train, and I knew I had to read her book. 

As someone who could confidently say they are not a racist person, it is easy to therefore feel that racism is someone else's problem, that those actively participating in racial hate crimes or racial discrimination are the ones who need to change. The thing I'd not fully appreciated was that racism is not just conscious hate or active discrimination against people who are not white; it is structural, embedded in the very fabric of our society. Whiteness has always been seen as the default and the norm and without even realising it, we have been exposed to social prejudices towards and assumptions about people of colour since the day we were born. 

I went to a very small primary school, with only around twelve to fifteen students in each year group. Of the twelve students in Year 6, seven were white and five were not. Similar ratios played out across the rest of the school. I grew up around other children from various racial backgrounds and cultures, and didn't think anything of it. As a child, everyone was the same. Whether or not I was friends with someone depended on how friendly they were, and that was it. While this was good in that it taught us to treat everyone equally from a young age, we were likely also rendered 'colour blind' in that because everyone was treated the same by the teachers and staff, we assumed that this would also be the case in the wider world. It was only when I got older and casually mentioned the name of a boy I went to primary school with and was met with the response 'where's he from, then?' that I realised that his experience of life may be vastly different to mine, despite our similar upbringings.

This book completely opened my eyes to things that I'd only been peripherally aware of; the intersectionality of feminism and race, of class and race, of gender and race. The way the government and media drum up racial hatred through subtle statements and false promises, the way that people of colour are treated as though they don't belong even though they may have been born here and lived their whole lives here. The media's constant focus on immigrants as the cause of society's problems in an attempt to (often successfully) draw our attention away from those with all the power, making all the decisions. One thing that stuck out for me most in this book was the concept that racism = prejudice + power.  The example Reni uses is of a local deli owned by a black man; the owner says that he saves the 'best cuts' of meat for black customers. Reni argues that everyone, no matter their race, has the capacity to be prejudiced, to be discriminatory and to make assumptions about someone before they know them. But the deli owner saving the best cuts of meat for his black customers has no negative impact on his white customers beyond the quality of their lunch. If that same prejudice were held by a white, male director of a large company, it could have a detrimental effect on who gets hired, who gets promoted, and the opportunities given to staff. There are simply not enough black people in positions of power for a black person's prejudice to have more than a superficial effect.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to put in the work, to make a change, and become actively anti-racist. It's incredibly well researched and gives a really useful bibliography at the back which I'll definitely be using to source some further reading. There is so much that we are not taught in school, and the fact that I only began to learn about Britain's real history when I was twenty and out of compulsory education, is something that definitely needs to change.