WHY I'M NO LONGER TALKING TO WHITE PEOPLE ABOUT RACE- A PUNTER'S REACTION

Blogging is a new thing for me. It’s basically fun but I wasn’t aware of how important it could be until I came across Reni Eddo-Lodge’s book, Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. My 2018 edition is the result of a blog Eddo-Lodge initially posted in early 2014 which had an immediate impact around the globe and encouraged her to develop and expand on those ideas and analysis. This book is the product of that process. My reactions follow……

Eddo-Lodge’s opening treatment of history, from a black viewpoint, in Great Britain has been criticised for omitting significant events but she’s certainly covered a lot of territory in the book. Britain’s willing and active participation in the slave trade, ‘hybrid’ children, Harold Moody’s League of Coloured Peoples, Rachmanism, the ‘Sus’ laws from the 1980s, the Commonwealth Immigrants Act (1962), the Oval 4, race riots in 1958 and 1982 and the Labour Party’s Black Sections are just a few of the things she pins to the wall. However, Eddo-Lodge acknowledges that this is far from exhaustive. ‘Perhaps I am betraying my ignorance, but until I went actively digging for black British histories, I didn’t know them.’ (Page 54). The presumption that history is often only recorded by the dominant agent needs no flag-waving here and it’s something of which she’s intimately aware. E.H. Carr’s suggestion, in What is history? (1961), that there’s a non-empirical bias to the writing of history only strengthens this assertion.

It is when the focus turns to covert racism that Eddo-Lodge’s skills of description realise full traction. Her preference for citing ‘structural’ rather than ‘institutional’ racism highlights the encompassing nature of the condition that exists in current Great Britain. Moreover, the recently evolved processes that are held up as bulwarks to racism (like ‘meritocracy’ and ‘colour-blindness’ in her discussion of black employment rates) are, in fact, the very agents for reinforcing the disadvantage and the differential in outcomes. Policing, unequal schooling opportunities and a piddling black representation on boards of management and even in Premier League football clubs all come under her close examination.

The karst-influenced topography of the Brit political, economic and social landscapes means that structured inequality may not be easily seen but it’s there and chugging along effectively just under the surface. This ‘invisibility’ is a recurring theme throughout the book. I think that we placate ourselves with the fallacy of meritocracy by insisting that we don’t ‘see’ race. This makes us feel progressive. (Page 81)

Coupled with structural inequality is the notion of white privilege and Eddo-Lodge reveals its nefarious influence in all aspects of British life. In addition, the ability to call out racism is often muffled by assertions of reverse racism and she convincingly points to the backlash that occurred following comments made by Diane Abbott (a black MP) regarding the Stephen Lawrence murder trial in 2012. My only quibble is that Eddo-Lodge’s case studies referencing ‘Jessica’ and Jennifer Krase don’t substantially add to the story she’s already telling………. but that’s only secondary to the main theme and its development.

Neutral is white. The default is white. Because we are born into an already written script that tells us what to expect from strangers due to their skin colour, accents and social status, the whole of humanity is coded as white. Blackness, however, is considered the ‘other’ and therefore to be suspected. (Page 85)

This suspicion is amplified when it comes to the presence and portrayals of non-whites in the entertainment industry, especially with reference to movies, books and television. Eddo-Lodge asserts that ‘white is the default assumption’ for an audience and that black characters really only portray supporting roles as victims of subjugation or conduits for comic relief.

But it is her comparison of two speeches that really grabbed my attention. One was made by Enoch Powell in 1968 (Rivers of Blood) when he said about immigration to Britain, ‘In this country in fifteen or twenty years’ time, the black man will have the whip hand over the white man.’

Fast forward to 2014 where Nigel Farage cranks it up….

‘The fact is that in scores of our cities and market towns, this country in a short space of time has frankly become unrecognisable. Whether it is the impact on local schools and hospitals, whether it is the fact in many parts of England you don’t hear English spoken any more. This is not the kind of community we want to leave to our children and grandchildren.’

Both addresses promote a fear of impending doom via tidal waves of non-whites washing over a once great motherland. The fact that they are separated by almost half a century attests to racism’s tenacity rather than its supposed decline.

Eddo-Lodge eloquently navigates through this national complication with the suggestion that....

It looks like there is a subtle ethno-nationalism in this discussion, almost worthy of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’. It seems to be a racialised misogyny that is preoccupied with wombs, and urges white British women to fuck for their country while accusing women who aren’t white British of breeding uncontrollably and destabilising the essence of Britain. (Page 173)

The incongruities of activism are likewise highlighted. The failure of Brit feminist groups to acknowledge ‘intersectionality’ (i.e. sexism and racism) has resulted in a schism that shows no signs of being solved in the immediate future. These current groups forge a profile that approximates the agencies, structures and processes that they are in the business of reacting against. Descriptions of white privilege, entitlement and appropriate racial representation appear to go unread or unheard in the battle headquarters of left-leaning engine rooms.

Eddo-Lodge also examines the relationship between class and race. The increasing use of ‘white working class’ as a tag and a target for government social welfare programs within Britain belies an authentic description of what that working class actually ‘looks like’ in 2018.

We should be rethinking the image we conjure up when we think of a working class person. Instead of a white man in a flat cap, it’s a black woman pushing a pram. (Page 201)

Public housing availability, the gentrification of previous working class suburbs and unequal pay packets between white and black employees point to race being a strong determining factor in the composition of what really constitutes the downtown elements of a post-industrial society. Importantly, this correlation between race and class is waxing.

But the author doesn’t abandon hope. While referencing the recent events of Donald Trump’s presidency, Brexit and the rise of reactionary groups and parties like Golden Dawn (Greece), Swiss People’s Party, Party for Freedom (Netherlands), Sweden Democrats and Front National (France) which all feature ethno-nationalism in their platforms, Eddo-Lodge urges… I don’t want anyone of any race, when faced with the insurmountable task of challenging racism, to collapse into despondency. (Page 221)

Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race is a powerhouse of thought, boundary staking and opinion. Eddo-Lodge lays bare a Great Britain that has failed to come to terms with ‘race’ and, while the legal systems, language and social mores may have been tweaked over the last century, the disadvantage and inequity associated with ‘colour’ are still in ‘active’ mode. She articulates and describes the substrata of that racism which make it virulent and, often, invisible.

The book’s utility for the Oz scene should not be underestimated. The media-led rants of a ‘Get over it’ strategy towards our First Nations’ inhabitants, the ever-increasing gap in outcomes pertaining to income, health and education based on race and the often toxic assessments of multiculturalism mean that the audience for Eddo-Lodge’s thoughts here in the lucky country is primed.