Praise for
Lets Talk Race
Lets Talk Race is a solid and very practical guide to having the necessary conversations that those of us who are white are so reluctant to have with our families, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. This book will motivate you to break white silence and will support you in addressing the racism that engulfs our communities and diminishes all of our lives.
Paul Kivel, educator, activist, author, Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice, 4th edition
Lets Talk Race is wisely conceived and masterfully accomplished. Both a primer on cultural competence and a charge to engage in genuine conversation, this book is candidly honest, brilliantly transparent, and a phenomenal resource. The two authors are grounded in decades of experience, girded with wisdom and courage, and guided by a commitment to illuminate hope in the presence of fear. This is a must read!
Emmett G. Price III, Ph.D., Executive Director, Institute for the Study of the Black Christian Experience, Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary
Lets Talk Race can be part of our national racial reckoning. White motherslike Johnson and Fineraising Black male children straddle double consciousness where racial blindness and liberal platitudes are dangerous. The book intentionally speaks to a white audience. The hard work of talk and struggle are necessary for a white reconciling of historical facts to the current harmful narrative. Lets Talk Race is a step along a long journey to truth and reconciliation.
Tom Shapiro, Pokross Professor of Law and Social Policy, The Heller School for Social Policy, Brandeis University, and author, Toxic Inequality, The Hidden Cost of Being African American, and Black Wealth/White Wealth
Drawing on both the best of interracial communication research and their personal experiences as white women who have navigated countless interracial conversations, Johnson and Fine illuminate the barriers to such conversations and provide practical and accessible strategies for overcoming those barriers. No book is more relevant to everyday life in the socially diverse world of 21st-century America than Lets Talk Race.
Marsha Houston, Professor, Communication Studies, retired, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and co-editor, Our Voices: Essays in Culture, Ethnicity, and Communication and Centering Ourselves: African American Feminist and Womanist Studies of Discourse
Lets Talk Race is a seminal book for this time. It is a desperately needed resource that will help our nation heal and live into its noblest ideals. Four hundred years after the start of slavery, America is having a racial awakening and beginning to reckon with the consequences of founding the nation on genocide, stolen land, and slave labor. As the country shakes off the husks of complacency and indifference, people of all races, creeds, colors, religions, and national origin are discovering an unprecedented opportunity to realize the aspiration of justice in the first sentence of the Constitution of the United States. If justice is to be realized, white America must stand in transformative solidarity with those who face the burdens of structural racism. This book provides a practical yet soul-enriching path forward to move from talk to action with grace, empathy, and a commitment to usher in an era of just and fair inclusion into a society in which we can all participate, prosper, and reach our full potential.
Dr. Michael McAfee, President and CEO, PolicyLink
Ever the teachers, Marlene and Fern take care to scaffold the learning so that readers are able to build a strong foundation upon which to grow. While some of the information seems basic to me as a Black woman, I appreciate the importance of more white folks talking to one another about race because they understand the blind spots, the pit falls, the traps, and what I call trash thinking, that needs to be composted. I hope readers enjoy the personal storytelling, the Dos and Donts lists, and the personal reflection prompts that are included throughout the book. Finally, I hope more of us reach a point when talking about race can be cathartic, healing, and joyful.
Desira Simmons, Co-director, Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice, Ann Arbor, MI
We are 21 years into the 21st century and yet W. E. B. Du Bois pre-science haunts us: the problem of the color line is still here, painful, and seemingly indelible. That line is ever-present, separating those who will live from those who will die by acts of police violence; dividing those to be grieved from those deemed disposable; privileging those who are white while marginalizing and damning those who are Black. Lets Talk Race is a socially, politically, and existentially urgent book that details the painful reality of Americas race evasion. With a call for fearless speech and courageous listening, the authors of this demanding and yet inviting book refuse to be complicit with white silence, apathy, and ignorance. The titles invitation requires vulnerability, signifies a space for collective mourning, and is honest about the profound risks involved. The authors, Fern L. Johnson and Marlene G. Fine, recognize the daring and radical loving requisite for talking about race and facing Americas original sin.
George Yancy, Professor, Samuel Candler Dobbs, Emory University
People of color and African Americans are beyond aware and are experiencing racial fatigue after a lifetime and decades of attempting to educate peers, colleagues, friends, and strangers about the reality of racism and its impact on every aspect of their/our daily lives. We are at a pivotal time in which white people need to become actively engaged in authentic conversations about race. Lets Talk Race is a great resource for these difficult conversations because it contains practical advice while also providing readers with a wealth of vital information grounded in facts and from reliable sources. Our country and world are in dire need of resources such as this, and I am excited to add it to my library and scholarship.
Dr. Tina M. Harris, Professor, Manship-Maynard Endowed Chair of Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy, Louisiana State University, Manship School of Mass Communication
Copyright 2021 by Fern L. Johnson, Marlene G. Fine.
All rights reserved.
Cover design by Diane McIntosh.
Cover art iStock; Sidebar background AdobeStock_91380585 Printed in Canada. First printing April 2021.
Inquiries regarding requests to reprint all or part of Lets Talk Race should be addressed to New Society Publishers at the address below. To order directly from the publishers, please call toll-free (North America) 1-800-567-6772, or order online at www.newsociety.com
Any other inquiries can be directed by mail to:
New Society Publishers
P.O. Box 189, Gabriola Island, BC V0R 1X0, Canada
(250) 247-9737
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Title: Lets talk race : a guide for white people / Fern L. Johnson and Marlene G. Fine.
Names: Johnson, Fern L., author. | Fine, Marlene Gail, 1949- author.
Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.
MARLENE G. FINE