Book: So You Want to Talk About Race
Author: Ijeoma Oluo
Core Themes: Conversation surrounding racism, systemic racism, and dealing with racists.
Takeaways: When I first picked up So You Want to Talk About Race from my school’s library. I was intrigued by Oluo’s approach towards racism. Oluo explains throughout the book how systemic and individual forms of racism differ and gave clear examples of how racism is intertwined within institutions. Oluo elaborated on “white privileged” throughout the book, coming from an approach that it should be recognized and used to support the movement for social justice rather than a source of guilt. She acknowledges the difficulty that comes from understanding privileged and how to go about conversations surrounding it. She went into detail on multiple different sub-topics of racism such as intersectionality, police reform, and racial equity, but the one that stood out to me the most was microaggressions.
Why Read? Deep intellectual discourse about race can be complex and difficult to understand, this book helps break down those topics into simple everyday conversations. The bullet-point style that Oluo uses when discussing different topics surrounding race make the reading easy to follow and enjoyable.
Who Should Read: Oluo and So You Want to Talk About Race is a great place to start for those being introduced to the complex nature of racism in America. I would recommend this book to people for all races to continue to support the effort of improving racism in this country.
Citations:
Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk About Race. Seal Press, 2018.