I finished So You Want to Talk About Race the other week and found it a really comprehensive and actionable overview for continuing and improving conversations about race and racism, as well as steps to take beyond talking! This book would be a great resource to pass onto parents or people just getting to grips with the topic, but it has a lot to offer all types of people no matter their depth of knowledge about race and racism.

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It’s US-focused and Oluo tackles a range of topics from the school-to-prison pipeline, cultural appropriation, the model minority myth and much more. I loved that she includes actual tips and arguments you can use when your conversations about race are heading towards chaos (usually when the other ((usually white)) person is too entrenched in their own beliefs to hear what you are saying). For example, the whole ‘race is a construct and we should all stop talking about it to make racism go away’ argument can easily be dismantled by the counterargument that money is also a social construct, yet if I stop talking about it, my rent will still be due on the first of the month.

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The audio is really engaging too! I love Bahni Turpin as a narrator.