What White People Can Do Next

En av de bedre bøkene om rasisme i vår tids drakt. Ofte er slike bøker som ønsker å formidle kritikk mot vestlig og hvites rasisme preget av sinne og moralisme, og som man vet så virker det gjerne mot sin hensikt. Denne boken derimot, er både praktisk og balansert, og gir en veldig god forståelse for folk som ønsker å se kritisk på seg selv hvorfor man som hvit er del av en rasistisk tilnærming til livet. Vår posisjon i verden ér bygd på vår nedverdigende behandling av andre gjennom å definere som mer verdifulle enn de, og gjennom vår utbytting av deres ressurser.

Emma Dabiri skriver avansert og friskt, muntlig og morsomt med et akademisk vokabular, forstå det den som kan. Og det er praktisk, hun gir svar på hvordan vi skal tilnærme oss rasisme. Enkelt sakt, ikke vær alliert, vær en koalisjon. Allierte er ikke likeverdige, det er de som er i koalisjon.

Hva hvite mennesker som meg kan gjøre?

1. Forstå hva en koalisjon er
2. Stopp fornektelsen
3. Kutt ut de falske sammenligningene
4. Utforsk "hvithet"
5. Utforsk kapitalisme
6. Fornekt den hvite frelseren (de fleste av oss)
7. Dropp den dårlige samvittigheten
8. Ikke slutt å plage folk om rasisme
9. Slutt å beskrive svarte endimensjonal
10. Les, les, les - lesing gjør deg klokere
11. Fordel ressursene jevnt
12. Innse at dritten dreper

Jeg har ingen problemer med å ta til meg disse rådene.


1.

In What White People Can Do Next, Emma Dabiri presents a framework for coalition that draws from 20th Century theory (James Baldwin, Audrey Lorde, WEB Du Bois) and 21st Century posthumanist philosophy (Bayo Akomolafe, Ware & Back). The result is playful but cutting, and carries Dabiri's unique style of polemic argument with humour.

The book is short, and could have had a little more input from the author herself alongside the histories and theory she uses. While the sections are well threaded together, at times the stories she uses are cherry-picked to prove a point, so don't quite hit home. But in the end, the book serves as a hopeful offering of how race can be dealt with if we can learn to untangle the messy history of 'whiteness'.

This was a refreshing and necessary book to read. Refreshing because so much of the discourse on race is driven by the USA’s cultural hegemony – whereas this book is rooted firmly in Ireland and the UK. While it does cover some of the US experience, it isn’t exclusively focussed there.

And necessary because gestures widely

The book is written in an intriguing style. It effortlessly blends casual and formal language. It isn’t as dense as some scholarly works of race that I’ve read recently, and that’s a good thing. It is a good mix of history, background, and practical discussion. It also contains some – rightful – rages against the current state of “activism”:

"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. "

Yes! While it may feel great to rant and rave on Twitter – it has almost zero impact. You need to actually go out and do something. Whether that’s lobbying a company, speaking to your elected representatives, or giving to charity. What we can’t do is weaponise class differences – telling people that they have white privilege isn’t sufficient to cause change:

"We might abhor it, but if a tenuous and fragile feeling of superiority over black people or other minoritized people is all Donny has, why is he going to give that up? What is being offered in return?"

I wrote something similar a while ago. As the book makes clear, we have to realise that racism hurts all of us. It isn’t just about those who it targets – it is a poison which corrupts everything.

One of the most startling revelations, for me was the notion of how “European style ‘formal’ education, have all imposed the ‘white gaze’.” It’s quite a concept that our society doesn’t exist in a philosophical “neutral zone”. Just like how the male gaze defines how movies are made and laws are passed, it is fascinating to understand that we have created systems which don’t reflect reality, only a subset of it. I recommend reading “Philosophy of Race: An Introduction” by Naomi Zack for more.

I think the only real flaw is that it doesn’t quite contain enough practical steps. In order to build a treehouse, it isn’t enough to say “buy some wood and assemble”. As the author acknowledges:

"Frankly, there’s a huge gap in terms of what comes next. While we need to identify what to do, it’s important not to fixate on an endpoint or a final destination; such thinking is part of the problem. Rather we have to understand our lives as a dynamic flowing of positions. "

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.

It’s a short, but thoroughly interesting book.