While white readers are going to gain insight on hard-to-understand-unless-you’ve-lived-it topics in So You Want to Talk About Race, readers of color generally will find camaraderie and a resource in Ijeoma Oluo’s conversational approach to race, racism, and racial violence in America ...the author also turns her eye toward much more complex issues like intersectionality, the school-to-prison pipeline, and cultural appropriation with wit and heart ... Oluo is intellectually sharp and even funny, and this is one of the strengths of her book ... Readers may find the direct address — the 'you' she points at frequently — uncomfortable, but it’s appropriate. Combined with the book’s overall tone, it offers an intimate experience where readers can process situations before they enter into their own conversations about race ...a fairly nuanced understand of race relations and of the traumas enacted, in particular, on black bodies through the systematic inequalities present in American society.
With this book, Ijeoma 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. And this dialogue is critical ... Each chapter is framed as a question which Oluo unpacks thoroughly and rationally. These are questions that typically come up in daily interactions, whether they are raised explicitly, implicitly, or only in our heads ... She does not shy away from raising discussion points that might make some uncomfortable. There is no ambivalence or soft-pedaling. These talks are difficult, requiring introspection, empathy, and a voluntary rewiring of our brains if we are to make any progress ... That said, this book is much-needed and timely. It is more than a primer on racism. It is a comprehensive conversation guide.
Accessible and approachable in tone, So You Want to Talk About Race is aimed squarely at those who actually do. In other words, this isn’t a book to pass quietly to your slur-spewing uncle in hopes of getting him to stop sharing odious Obama memes on Facebook, nor is it an instruction manual on how to 'not see race' ... Oluo weaves stories from her own life through her research to put faces and voices to such fraught topics... As a result, the lessons, while still intellectually rigorous, feel more intimate than those gleaned from academic texts and perhaps more likely to make a meaningful impression on the lay reader ... Throughout her book, Oluo emphasizes how difficult these conversations about race will be, but also how necessary and urgent they are for people to have in good faith ... She invites the reader to 'get a little uncomfortable,' because racial inequality and injustice are real — we can't 'wish it away.'
...valiant and remarkably graceful... Her book, essentially a set of guidelines and tips written by an African-American queer woman for discussing race across identities, is urgently needed ... Drawing from the realities of her own life and her deep knowledge about a subject that can be as confusing as it can be frustrating, she offers a set of sensible explanations, tips and warnings for those who want to discuss race with people who aren’t like them, without resorting to shouting or coming to blows ... The book covers some of the most sensitive and easily conflict-inducing aspects of racial dialogue, with chapters exploring affirmative action, cultural appropriation, microaggressions and the historically problematic relationship between some communities of color and the police ...an invitation for everyone to join the conversation — and turn words into action.
At times, it seems as though Oluo is biologically incapable of writing a dishonest word. She speaks the truth, clearly and repeatedly. She doesn’t suffer fools. She speaks against injustice as often as she needs to, and the world is a very unjust place ... The book is conversational and Oluo is a disarming host. Rather than open her conversation of privilege with a host of bad examples, for instance, Oluo dissects all the privilege in her life that has led to her publishing her first book. The word that comes to mind, again, is 'generous.' By the time Oluo has moved into the most controversial topics of our time - police brutality, cultural appropriation, so-called 'callout culture' - she has disarmed all but the most hateful readers. Race is exactly what she promised the book to be - a conversation, one that draws in a reader and engages their ideas with a thorough and loving series of questions.
...a well-organized, well-argued and lively collection of essays that may be read straight through, relied on as a reference and used for group discussions ... Oluo is persuasive, sympathetic and funny. She is also direct... So You Want to Talk About Race combines memoir, history and statistics to illustrate points. Oluo also provides lists of questions to consider alone or with others, and tips to 'increase your chances of conversation success, or at least decrease your chance of conversation disaster' ... a challenging, sympathetic and beautifully organized how-to manual for anyone who wants to address problems of race and racism in the U.S.
Those of us who prefer to hide in the corner of a lecture hall as a speaker elucidates ideas that might prove uncomfortable can get uncomfortable when we're called out. Oluo wants to address single parts of the system and send her readers off to the job of dismantling it ... What works best in So You Want to Talk About Race are the personal experiences Oluo recounts ... If there's a deficiency to this book (and there aren't many) the poorly prepared or inexperienced reader might feel overwhelmed by all these ideas floating in Oluo's atmosphere, though she manages them very well.
In her feisty debut book, Oluo, essayist, blogger, and editor at large at the Establishment magazine, writes from the perspective of a black, queer, middle-class, college-educated woman living in a 'white supremacist country' ... Throughout the book, Oluo responds to questions that she has often been asked, and others that she wishes were asked, about racism 'in our workplace, our government, our homes, and ourselves' ... 'Is police brutality really about race?' 'What is cultural appropriation?' and 'What is the model minority myth?' Her sharp, no-nonsense answers include talking points for both blacks and whites ... A clear and candid contribution to an essential conversation.
Oluo gives readers general advice for better dialogue, such as not getting defensive, stating their intentions, and staying on topic. She addresses a range of tough issues — police brutality, the n word, affirmative action, microaggressions — and offers ways to discuss them while acknowledging that they’re a problem ... She’s insightful and trenchant but not preachy, and her advice is valid. For some it may be eye-opening. It’s a topical book in a time when racial tensions are on the rise.
Precise, poignant, and edifying, this primer gives readers much-needed tools, explaining academic concepts such as privilege and intersectionality, debunking harmful myths, and offering concrete ways to confront racism. Blending personal accounts and meticulously cited research, Oluo demonstrates how racism permeates every aspect of society, from education to the police force. She writes with empathy for her readers yet laudably refuses to let those who haven’t grappled with their white privilege off the hook
