What White People Can Do Next: From Allyship to Coalition

Product Information

I'm so glad that I requested the book and that I actually got it. I'm especially glad that I didn't leave in on my kindle app forever (like I always do), but that I read it right away.

Not going to lie and say I did more than skim through the book. I stumbled across this in university [the only segment I read through was presented as a paper] hence that was on my reading list. Even my extremely left-leaning liberal professor was less than impressed and ripped the piece to shreds. I can’t stress enough how much impact this book’s had on me, I’ll definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more on how race has shaped our lives and what to do to change it. One of the things I explore in the book is this idea that the ally’s needs are secondary,” says Dabiri. “One of the tenets of racism is not seeing the humanity in people, and the focus on interpersonal racism denies the humanity of those not racialised as white. This appeals only to a ‘white saviour type’ person who will be aroused by that dynamic, which is not the kind of personality that we can afford to build a movement on. Anything that further enshrines white saviorism isn't helpful.” Expecting white people to “give up their privileges” selflessly, in an almost transactional nature, is not only unrealistic and an oversimplification of racism, it is unhelpful and paralysing, too. Right now it feels like you have to identify yourself before giving your opinion about something, and according to the way you describe yourself you’ll be judged regardless of the actual value of your words. It’s like people don’t care to listen. Vital and empowering What White People Can Do Nextteaches each of us how to be agents of change in the fight against racism and the establishment of a more just and equitable world. In this affecting and inspiring collection of essays, Emma Dabiri draws on both academic discipline and lived experience to probe the ways many of us are complacent and complicit—and can therefore combat—white supremacy. She outlines the actions we must take, including:This has captured the problems I have with allyship and anti-racist discourse and how patronising it can be, and how it’s devoid of the collation building thinkers like Fred Hampton and Audre Lorde mobilised behind some 50 years ago.

Yes. I rate this. I’m just gonna write a mini-essay here lol if u want to read it but in short I thought this was good. I think the genre of instructing white people on how to act and behave when it comes to racism is short-sighted and needs to go and hopefully this book can start this conversation. Emma Dabiri ist in ihrem Essay ein Balanceakt gelungen: Sie kritisiert Formen des Aktivismus, spricht ihnen aber nicht ihren Wert ab, sondern macht vielmehr deutlich, dass eine Konzentration auf kleine Rädchen ohne Bekämpfung des Systems an sich nicht zum gewünschten Ziel, der Lösung von repressiven und klassistischen Denksystemen und einer besseren Welt für alle Menschen, führen kann. In mir hat das Buch sehr viel angestoßen, und mir zahlreiche neue Denkansätze geboten. Besonders toll fand ich zudem das Kapitel über Schwarze Literatur, in dem die Autorin eine Leseliste Schwarzer Schreibender an die Hand gibt.

There’s a ‘do the work’ hashtag, and people seem enamoured with telling others via infographics to ‘do the work’, but I don’t see much evidence of them doing the work themselves. ‘Doing the work’ to me would be dealing with theory, and engaging with the texts that we take soundbites and quotes from. They’re often presented out of context, and they’re often misrepresented and distorted. And in contrast to the expansive thinking that generated them, they become reductive.” So, what can white people do next? is a thought-provoking look at white allyship and racial coalition that confronts whiteness (supremacy, denial, guilt and saviourism) by telling white people to accept that colonisation, imperialism and racism is at the root of their current privilege.

Es ist auf jeden Fall eins der Sachbücher, dass mich noch lange beschäftigen und zum Nachdenken anregen wird. a b Ganatra, Shilpa (27 April 2019). "Emma Dabiri: 'I wouldn't want my children to experience what I did in Ireland' ". Irish Times . Retrieved 29 April 2019. Dabiri urges us to outright refuse the options of social change we have been presented with and begin the discussion on a new way of being. There is a lot to digest in this book and I would suggest you take your time with it or return to it regularly. I was buzzing after reading it in a similar way to hearing a fresh song. In Read Read Read and Dance, I was moved by a discussion on the importance of non-linguistic modes of rebellion. Hip hop, jazz improv, dance and other musical and sonic mediums hold space for freedom and connection, as Dabiri says we need to “think less with our eyes”. The nature of social media is such that the performance of saying something often trumps doing anything, the tendency to police language, to shame and to say the right thing, often outweighs more substantive efforts. "The chapter headings are a great précis of the internal steps white people need to take – what do you need to realise about your behaviour? – but stops a little short of concrete actions.