Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race was released in 2017 amid a flurry of publications addressing race and racism in Europe and North America. The book is based on a 2014 blog by the same title, which Eddo-Lodge reproduces in its entirety in the Preface. The blog conveys Eddo-Lodge’s frustration with white people who refuse to believe structural racism exists in Britain. Rather than continue to exhaust herself emotionally, Eddo-Lodge announced she would no longer discuss race with white people. The blog did not have the effect Eddo-Lodge intended. Instead of preventing conversations with white people, it sparked more discussion and resulted in a book deal, which in turn led to more conversations.

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race relates thematically to several roughly contemporary publications. Similar titles include Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race (2018), a New York Times Bestseller that provides readers with the tools they need to have frank conversations about racism within their social circles. Like Eddo-Lodge, Oluo tackles difficult subjects in a clear and succinct manner, notably structural racism, intersectionality, and white privilege. Vilna Bashi Treitler’s The Ethnic Project: Transforming Racial Fiction into Ethnic Factions (2013) explores the history of immigration in the US as it relates to current racial hierarchies and discrimination, a topic Eddo-Lodge addresses from a British