So You Want to Talk About Race

Ijeoma Oluo

Sep 2019 · Sold by Seal Press

About this ebook

In this #1 New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a revelatory examination of race in America

Protests against racial injustice and white supremacy have galvanized millions around the world. The stakes for transformative conversations about race could not be higher. Still, the task ahead seems daunting, and it’s hard to know where to start. How do you tell your boss her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law hang up on you when you had questions about police reform? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend?

In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from police brutality and cultural appropriation to the model minority myth in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race, and about how racism infects every aspect of American life.

"Simply put: Ijeoma Oluo is a necessary voice and intellectual for these times, and any time, truth be told." ―Phoebe Robinson, New York Times bestselling author of You Can't Touch My Hair

Ratings and reviews

Again, the author has obviously been through trauma and abuse. Unhealed wounds lend themselves to rage and retaliation. She is thus, codependent, living in ego, struggling to accept herself and believe the truth that she is worthy of love. Unhealed codependents are often depressed and anxious, and depression shows itself as hatred and rage toward others. I imagine as well that her first experience in codependency came through her caregivers. All codependents share trauma wounds, no matter their ethnic origin or land. All codependents need to heal and relearn the truth of self-love and self-compassion. You are no different from other wounded souls, and you too must stop blaming others (codependent ego response) and seek healing.

I dont get how people fall for these books. You try to talk about treating people fairly, equally and with respect. Yet you and people that agree with the book discriminate against anyone who you deem "racist". There is no convential wisdom to it in my eyes. I want to talk about race but about the human race. The only one that truely is anything. Any other "race" we label ourselves is just that, a label. Because at the end of the day. We all struggle, we all breath, we all bleed, we all find happiness. And once you look at the differences and not the similarities well, you get a book like yours.

Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy--from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans--has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair--and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. "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."--National Book

About the author

Ijeoma Oluo is the author of Mediocre and a writer and speaker whose work on race has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post. She was named to the 2021 Time 100 Next list, has twice been named to The Root 100, and received the Harvard Humanist of the Year award. She lives in Seattle, Washington.