This book was my anti-racist read from the month (you can see my personal reading list here) and was excellent. I learned a lot reading it. It was definitely hard to read at times. But I am so glad I did, and I think it’s a really important, necessary read for all White people. I actually bought it a little while back. When the Alison Roman and Emily Giffin stuff was happening (google if you don’t know what I am talking about), I realized how poorly equipped I was about talking about race. I cannot recommend this book as a resource enough. Ijeoma gives so many examples from her personal life (I really liked this part, it made it a little bit less academic and more personal. In particular, I was really impacted by the parts where she talked about conversations she had to have with her well intentioned white mother.) This is a book that I will probably read over and over again (even having finished it I now feel like I need to go back and re-read it again) for years to come. It covers a LOT: from when something is about race, cultural oppression, microagressions, the model minority myth, and so much more. The parts to me that were particularly poignant were the parts on privilege, and of course the very last chapters about what to do next. Hard to read, uncomfortable, but also so incredibly important. Please read this book if you have not, already!
Author: Ijeoma Oluo
