Just Finished Reading: Why I’m No Longer Talking (To White People) About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (FP: 2017)

This was a total impulse buy that has been sitting in a pile of books since the day I picked it up in my local franchise bookstore. I think it was being much talked about and I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I think that I knew I’d have issues with some of the directions it was coming from but do feel the need to not only expand my knowledge of subjects but also to challenge myself and see where my boundaries are.

Honestly the first 50-60 pages gave me a headache I was frowning so much. I found the authors style unfocused and chaotic as if she was having a stream of consciousness event and just wanted to get her thoughts down on paper without much in the way of editing or structure. Her examples, I thought, were poorly chosen and poorly presented. If this is the rest of the book, I thought, it was in real danger of being DNF’d. But at some point either the author improved her style or I simply got used to it – probably a bit of both. By the end of the book, although I still didn’t agree with her premise, at least I know where she was coming from and had a much greater appreciation of the basis for her argument. However, the more I started to understand her argument the more I started to see a fundamental flaw in it (at least from my point of view). Now I almost said from my ‘white privileged male’ point of view because that is an essential part of her argument that white people are privileged by the very fact that they’re born white. I have long rejected the idea of white privilege but now, thanks to this book, have a more nuanced understanding of what white privilege is – it’s the fact that white people in a white culture don’t have to contend with everyday racism, something which non-white people (a phrase the author doesn’t like) often do have to deal with. This idea of ‘privilege’ I can get my head around. The author did make an interesting distinction between prejudice and racism which, I think, should have pointed her towards a deeper understanding of the issue. She said that anyone can be prejudiced but that only white people can be racist because they have the power – however slight – to weaponise their prejudice to disadvantage anyone who doesn’t fit their racial ideals. This I think is the nub of the issue and something which the author should not have dismissed as easily as she did – that racism isn’t actually about race, it’s about power in the same was that sexism isn’t about gender, ultimately it too is about power.

If you understand the power relations in any group or culture you’ll know immediately who will be discriminated against and who will have a much easier journey through life. Historically in Europe and the US those in power have been and generally still are white men. It follows naturally that women and non-whites will be disadvantaged whenever those in power decide to do so. However, it doesn’t naturally follow that the white men in power will simply benefit other white men because of their skin colour or gender. The last thing those in power want to do is to share power with anyone else and they most certainly don’t want their power diluted in any way. A well-worn method of holding on to power is to divide your enemies and get them fighting amongst themselves whilst the powerful watch in wry amusement. This is how the few in power keep the vast numbers of the powerless from moving into their neighbourhood, going to their schools or marrying their daughters. Unfortunately the ‘divide and rule’ element of racism is another facet of the problem that the author either dismisses or minimises. Let me be very clear, I am neither saying that racism does not exist not am I minimising the impact on those in its crosshairs (sometimes literally). What I am saying is that racism (and sexism) are manifestations of something larger which the author almost, but not quite, recognises on several occasions. By half way through this book my headache had passed and I’d stopped frowning so much. At that point I had simply stopped rejecting her overall argument and had, instead, started to analyse it and find its faults. She almost had it right and I can see why she missed it (at least in my opinion).

It’s always interesting to be presented with something that you need to struggle with and which can challenge your world view. For me this book definitely achieved that end – after somewhat of a rocky start. The author eventually made some good arguments that I had to think through to see where they sat in relation to my existing beliefs about the world and, because of that, I believe that my world view has been improved. Definitely worth reading if only to see things from another perspective.