Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge: Review
- Sociology Student
- Aug 6, 2020
- 8 min read
Updated: Aug 12, 2020
‘A wake up call to a nation in denial about the structural and institutional racism occurring in our homes, offices and communities’- Observer
‘comprehensive and journalistic, the book leaves a devastating trail of case studies, statistical and anecdotal evidence, personal stories and opinion about the manifestation of overt and covert racism’- Times Literacy Supplement
On the 25th May 2020, George Floyd was killed by police officer Derek Chauvin following his arrest. Chauvin reportedly forced his knee on Floyd’s neck for over 8 minutes, restricting his breathing and mercilessly ignoring the calls from Floyd and bystanders to stop. Following this, a video taken by a bystander began to circulate on social media. In a society so interconnected, individuals across America, as well as across the globe began to voice their shock and disgust towards this case of police brutality. Protests began to emerge in Minneapolis, and developed across 400 cities throughout all 50 states- as well as internationally eg- on the 3rd of June a large demonstration took place in London's Hyde Park, with actor John Boyega providing a notably passionate and poignant speech on police brutality. Accompanying these public demonstrations, there was a seismic shift in public interest for understanding race issues- with thousands of people sharing reading lists, podcast recommendations and documentaries in the aim of promoting discussion around the topic of race: ‘consciousness raising’. One book that was prominent within these online resources was ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’ by Reni Eddo-Lodge. Although the book boasted commercial success upon publication in 2017, it is clear that within the social context of George Floyd’s death and the subsequent Black Lives Matter movement, there was a revival of interest in Eddo-Lodge's contributions. This is most notable when one acknowledges that Eddo-Lodge recently became the 1st Black British author to take the number one spot on the UK’s official book charts- which almost operates as a contemporary case study for the themes of structural racism addressed in the book, or as Eddo-Lodge states herself ‘a horrible indictment of the publishing industry’. Inspired by her 2014 blog post of the same name, Eddo-Lodge wanted to openly criticise the dialogue surrounding race, a post evidently inspired by the frustration she had experienced when talking to white people about racial issues and the ‘emotional disconnect’ they possess. Preempting any titular controversy, Eddo-Lodge writes ‘not all white people, just the vast majority who refuse to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and it’s symptoms’.
One of the most important chapters to the book is ‘Histories’. Here Eddo-Lodge provides a multifaceted overview of black British history- moving from colonialism, to world wars, to the eugenics movement, to social policy (e.g- the Race Relations Act of 1965) and post-war immigration. However, a prominent theme here is the idea of ‘Forgotten History’- how a vast majority of the British public is left unaware of the history of black people in Britain, or at least the history that is at the forefront of British consciousness is dangerously nostalgic, romanticised and selective in its approach. Historian David Olusoga explores the long relationship between the British aisles and the people of Africa in his four-part documentary ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’- echoing Renni-Lodge's concerns when he states ‘we make period dramas (in Britain) but there are almost never black people in them, even though we’ve been on these shores for hundreds of years’. The reason for this ‘gap’ in our understanding of history is often associated with the national curriculum of the British education system. Sociologist Bernard Coard references the damaging effects of the ‘Ethnocentric Curriculum’ in British schools, echoed by Stephen Ball who criticises the attitude of ‘little Englandism’ communicated in history lessons- that focus primarily on the ‘mythical age of empire’ with the aid of euphemistic and romanticised language that ignores the negative experience of colonialism for African and Indian people. A personal example of this is shown in an online course I took during lockdown about the British Empire. Within this course there were only brief illusions and references to the violence committed during British colonial rule, with the line ‘Strikes, protests, and boycotts were all dealt with in turn, including through recourse to violent suppression’ seemingly trivialising and moving past British atrocities such as the Amritsar massacre. The course presents this event to be the results of ‘uprisings’, ignoring how the actions of General Dyer led to thousands being killed or injured without warning, many of whom were celebrating the Indian festival of Baisakhi, unaware of the ban on all meetings. This event was described by Winston Churchill, despite his own imperialistic attitudes, as ‘an episode without precedent or parallel in the modern history of the British Empire… an extraordinary event, a monstrous event, an event which stands in singular and sinister isolation... the crowd was neither armed nor attacking.’.
This sentiment of an ethnocentric curriculum is underpinned by teachers themselves, with Hasnet Lais writing an article for the Independent entitled ‘As a history teacher I am horrified by the whitewashing of my curriculum- I am being told to teach that Colonialism is good’. He openly criticises the AQA GCSE specification for continuing the pattern of ‘ugly revisionism’ of British history, for example ‘textbooks have barely mentioned how the colonial enterprise was institutionalised in Britain as part and parcel of a systematic presumption of white supremacy'. This cultural amnesia and cognitive dissonance is referenced in an interview Eddo-Lodge held with Emma Watson, in which Watson admits she felt an ‘enormous sense of betrayal’ by the education system after attending a history class on the modern Middle East. One of these lectures broached the actions of Churchill ‘dropping bombs on some parts of the Middle East’, a topic that caused Watson to ‘freak out... realising that... there’s this blank space... that I just never knew anything about’. Reports of the national curriculum as ethnocentric has lead to discussions of 'decolonising' the education system. Of course, the suggestion made by Eddo-Lodge and other social activists is not to stop talking about figures such as Churchill or Cecil Rhodes, but instead to promote a discussion about their complexities and their attitudes. However, Eddo-Lodge references how attempts to decolonise the curriculum have been met with criticism, especially towards Lola Olufemi who signed a letter addressed to Cambridge University that asking them to consider incorporating ‘non-white authors and postcolonial thought... meaningfully into the curriculum’.
Although Cambridge University have since supported the sentiments of the letter, there has been criticism from academics such as Gill Evans (professor of medieval theology and intellectual history) who views the campaign as ‘distorting’ history. This criticism was also matched by a torrent of abuse online across various sites of social media. For many this severity of online criticism seems to reinforce Eddo-Lodge's argument that black history is missing from the public’s consciousness, with romanticised images of British colonialism still dominating the British psyche. Akala writes 'what is most fascinating about British intellectual discourse is that we can see brutality ever so clearly when it wears Japanese or German or Islamic clothes, but when it comes to looking in the mirror at the empire where the sun never set- so many suddenly become blid, deaf and dumb, unable to see murder as murder.
Another important chapter of the book is ‘Systems’. Instead of focusing on the more overt forms of racism, this chapter concentrates on the ideas of structural and systematic racism in contemporary society. Eddo-Lodge argues that ‘For so long the bar of racism has been set by easily condemnable activity of white extremists and white nationalists'. Trying to avoid this narrative, Eddo-Lodge continues to focus on structural and institutional racism which is often defined as ‘a form of racism that is embedded as normal practice within society or an organisation’. This is reinforced by David Gillborn’s recent comments on the ‘Talking Race’ podcast that it isn’t a few ‘rotten apples’ within these institutions eg Derek Chauvin as an individual, instead this racism ‘inhabits the whole system’. One of the most prominent cases of institutional racism referenced by Eddo-Lodge is the murder of Stephen Lawrence in a racially motivated attack on the evening of 22nd April 1993. The publication of the MacPherson Enquiry in 1999 was seen by Jack Straw, as ‘the single most important decision I made as Home Secretary’. The report concluded that investigations into Stephen Lawrence's murder were ‘marred by a combination of professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership’- a case that was only concluded in 2012 when two of the perpetrators were convicted of murder. This issue of institutional racism is argued to still occupy the police force today, with the prominence of stop and search tactics disproportionately targeting ethnic minorities. This is expanded upon by Phillips and Bowling (2012) who reference the cases of ‘paramilitary policing, excessive surveillance, armed raids, police violence and deaths in custody’. However, Eddo Lodge also looks at other institutions under the lens of institutional racism, for instance: the education system. An empirical example of this institutional racism is the 2002 study conducted by Bristol University that found teacher assessments of exam papers of black African students were 6.4 points lower than blind assessments. This difference is almost double of their white counterparts (3.3), demonstrating a bias in teachers to underestimate the abilities of Black African students- which can have detrimental effects on their achievement eg- placed in lower set, capped at a certain grade. This is supported by the Ofsted 2000 study headed by David Gillborn and Heidi Safia Mirza that found in the largest LEA from their sample, black students entered the education system at the highest level, and left at the lowest. The importance of this chapter is that it moves away from the dialogue that racism is only present when it is overt and immediate eg racial slurs and violence, instead deconstructing this and promoting a national conversation that focuses on more structural, macro forms of racism within contemporary British institutions.
The last chapter of Reni Eddo-Lodge's book that I wanted to emphasise is her discussion of intersectional feminism- 'The Feminism Question'. Intersectional feminism is a term coined by Dr Kimberle Crenshaw, who states the necessity of this concept ‘started when I realised that African American women were not recognised as having experienced discrimination that reflected both their race and gender’. Ergo, intersectional feminism aims to understand how aspects of a person's identity can combine to create unique modes of discrimination/ privilege. Echoing Crenshaw’s thesis, Eddo Lodge argues that the feminist movement can often lead to issues of essentialism- the idea that women share a ‘universal’ experience, despite the existence of differences in race, class, age etc.. The prominence of ‘white feminism’ as argued by Eddo-Lodge means that a more nuanced analysis isn’t undertaken within the social movement for gender equality, one that acknowledges how different parts of one’s identity can influence their experiences- how these differences ‘intersect’. As a result of this, Eddo-Lodge argues that she has faced hostility within feminist spaces for promoting the values of intersectional feminism- often asked ‘why’ this discussion is needed. In response to this Eddo-Lodge argues that ‘white women must question their whiteness, just like we question patriarchy’- placing the focus on not just one power dynamic but multiple. Again, in conversation with Emma Watson, two Audre Lorde quotes are used which perfectly encompass Eddo-Lodge's rationalisation of intersectional feminism. Firstly, a quote that addresses the inaccuracies Essentialist feminism leads to (‘if I didn’t define myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive’) and secondly, a quote that portrays the strength within a more nuanced analysis of female experience- ‘the failure of academics to recognise difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the 1st patriarchal lesson. In our world divide and conquer must become define and empower’.
Reni Eddo Lodge concludes with an auspicious tone, addressing how social change can be enacted through the actions of individuals. The chapter title of ‘No Justice, just us’ centralises this, promoting the message that individuals need to continue fighting for change- arguing that ‘it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you’re doing something’. Although the black lives matter movement this year has certainly promoted discussion and change (especially for American legislation concerning ‘qualified immunity’ of police officers), there is certainly an anxiousness around how much change will actually eventuate. Will the discussion that was arguably accommodated by a British public in lockdown be continued in a post-covid Britain? In a recent interview with the Guardian Reni Eddo Lodge argues that ‘Certainly something feels different’ about the recent discussions around race, portrayed most notably through the amount of people admitting they now feel differently about the topic. But she still possesses a degree of fear around the extent of change that will occur. Perhaps this discussion will be aided by the tool of hindsight in the years to come? However, if we follow Reni’s advice of continuing our activism, maybe we’ll avoid the cyclical trend of shock, spotlight, anger, fatigue.
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