I do want to talk about race. And as a privileged white woman, there are about one thousand ways in which I could be really fucking up whenever I do try to talk about race.
So I picked up Ijeoma Oluo’s 2019 groundbreaking book, which delves into defining racism; microaggressions; the topic of affirmative action; the “school-to-prison pipeline,” and so much more. While it’s written for a U.S. audience, it’s definitely relevant to people in other parts of the world, especially if you identify or pass as white.
In addition to being an authoritative writer and speaker on racism, Oluo is a Black woman, a mother, and someone who comes from a complicated, difficult, economically challenged upbringing. And she is someone who has suffered in numerous ways from insidious racism in American society. She weaves personal anecdotes about her childhood years and motherhood seamlessly into her chapters, backing them up with statistics and research along the way.
I've been involved in activism and I have lived and worked in culturally diverse situations since childhood. But for me, this book is a necessary starting point for having deeper conversations and taking more meaningful action toward dismantling white privilege and supremacy. If you posted a black square on your Instagram a few months back, and if you want to use your privilege and platforms to further the anti-racist cause, please read this book. It’s one hundred percent worth your time. A friend of mine is now reading Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to be an Anti-Racist,” and we are going to meet up and talk about our readings together. It's a conversation. It's a start.
I know this post is a bit different to most of my book and natural wine reviews. But if you look at the recent post by @thecollectress, which points out that the natural wine community can do much better in terms of acknowledging its complicitness in racial inequality, I think you’ll see why it matters so much that people get talking about race.