Race is a sensitive issue worldwide as people are often treated as members of their race rather than looked at as individuals. Now, as the world is struggling to become more aware, this book is important for helping people who want to have conversations with black people but want to do so in a sensitive manner.
The books explains what racism is in detail, not just a cold concise dictionary definition, but a definition of someone who has both studied and experienced it. After that each chapter is a question like “What is cultural appropriation?” along with the answer.
The book also has a lot of helpful tips, ideas, and strategies—particularly for those from a privileged position who want to help in a cause they might have been blind to and want to learn. While the focus of this book is about the discrimination of people of colour, particularly black people, in America, discrimination happens worldwide on many equally banal grounds and all the tips in this book can help us understand and improve on those systems as well. It’s well written and easy to read, even though it deals with a difficult and, for some, awkward topic.
How critics view the book:
“Oluo gives us–both white people and people of color–that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases,” said the National Book Review.
“Read it, then recommend it to everyone you know,” said Harper’s Bazaar and added it to their list “One of 10 Books to Read in 2018”.