So You Want to Talk About Race Insights

The must-read analysis of the key insights from "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo — presented by Athena.

Drawing from her personal experience and expert knowledge, Ijeoma Oluo offers guidance to white people and minorities alike on how to have uncomfortable conversations about race in a way that can effectively move the country forward in its struggle against racial oppression and social injustice.

Against the backdrop of protesters across the country taking a stand against racism, Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race surged to the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list in June 2020. The book’s meteoric rise is especially noteworthy given that it happened more than two years after the book was first published. But it points to a growing interest in learning how to engage with a subject that has long been in the background and only recently thrust into the national spotlight.

So You Want to Talk About Race was born out of frustration, Oluo writes in the book’s preface. Seeing too many articles and hearing too many conversations that lacked background and nuance, the author saw the need for a book that helped people understand “how to talk about race more effectively, and with more kindness.”

Confronting uncomfortable truths head-on and told in a narrative style, So You Want to Talk About Race ushers issues of racial injustice out of the shadows and into the forefront of our national conversation. It gives readers the tools they need to engage in that conversation responsibly.