Author: Ijeoma Oluo
Rating: 4/5 stars
Genre(s): Nonfiction, Social Justice, Race
Publication date: January 16, 2018
Ijeoma Oluo gets real and honest in “So You Want to Talk About Race,” opening discussions about the political landscape of the United States. She focuses on systemic racism and weaves in her own experiences that show just how systemic racism impacts Americans of color.
One of the first things Oluo does in her book is address the fact that many people need to change how they define racism. The typical definition that comes to mind is when someone holds prejudice or bias against another person due to the color of their skin. Oluo challenges this notion and instead says that racism is an issue deeply ingrained in how the United States functions as a country.
She writes, “It’s the system, and our complacency in that system, that gives racism its power, not individual intent.”
One of the arguments I’ve run into several times when discussing systemic racism with other white people in my life is “I struggled too and that has nothing to do with my skin color because I’m white.” Oluo directly addresses these concerns when she writes, “There are very few hardships out there that hit only people of color and not white people, but there are a lot of hardships that hit people of color a lot more than white people.”
Throughout the book, she emphasizes how issues like poverty and interactions with the justice system have greater effects on people of color because the system is set up against them.
I think one of the most interesting discussions she has is regarding police bias and brutality. In previous conversations, I’ve struggled to articulate how systemic racism relates to law enforcement and I will be using Oluo’s reasoning from now on. She explains how the police were created to “police black Americans and serve white Americans.” If the creation of the police happened with this much bias, then it becomes very clear how racism is ingrained in every aspect of their operation.
