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What White People Can Do Next by @emmadabiri. What a smart, witty and accessible book. Dabiri parses and analyses anti-racism work and allyship, setting a roadmap that calls for coalition. Firmly rooting the definitions of ‘black’ and ‘white’ in its often-obscured historical context, it’s unlike anything I’ve read before on the subject. Clear-eyed and essential.

Emma Dabiri’s first book, Don’t Touch My Hair was an insightful, readable exploration of ‘black’ culture and racism through the lens of black hair. This second, shorter, book, is a more practical exploration of racism born out of responses to the killing of George Floyd and the reckoning with race that followed in the summer of 2020. Equally readable, distilling academic thought through Dabiri’s engaging, conversational style, this book is a game changer for me in how to approach the questions of race, racism, and ‘whiteness’, and should provide food for thought for all who read it.

Beginning with the question of ‘allyship’ and what ‘white’ people can do in response to racial injustice, Dabiri questions the entire framing of the debate in a way other work on this subject I have read has not done. She questions the legitimacy of online activism, which she views as hollow and performative anyway, and sees allyship as just another way for ‘white’ people to see ‘black’ people as inferior and needing our help. In other words, it replicates the racism that it supposedly seeks to dismantle. Dabiri argues that this is because allyship is a product of both the construction of ‘whiteness’ (hence my use of inverted commas throughout) and capitalism, both of which combine to create a world that is inherently unequal.

Dabiri challenges ‘white’ people to interrogate our ‘whiteness’, showing that our perception of our skin colour is just as much a construction as centuries of racist rhetoric about ‘blackness’ is a construction. Somehow, those of us who have been trying to educate ourselves about racial injustice have come to understand this second construction, but, often (and certainly in my case), not that ‘whiteness’ is also a construction, created to divide the people of the earth by their skin tone. ‘Whiteness’, Dabiri reminds us, is not homogeneous. I think we ‘white’ people think it is, or there has been a failure to explore this idea for whatever reason. I know that I have encountered ideas of constructs of race before, but, somehow, I never included my ‘whiteness’ in that understanding. And Dabiri’s statements make total sense: I am not white skinned, but a combination of cream and pink, and other ‘white’ people have varying skin tones too that aren’t white.

This little book is a game changer in that it tackles head on, and in simple, but unequivocal, language, the fact that the debate we are having about race is flawed because we fail to recognise the fact that race itself is a construct, on all sides of the equation. When we begin to understand this, Dabiri suggests, we can move towards coalition instead of allyship, working in groups that are different, but have similar goals, to improve things that are bad for everyone. Instead of the rhetoric of division, which the language of ‘allyship’ perpetuates, Dabiri challenges us to think outside the box about how we might work together collectively for the greater good.

There’s a lot to say about this book. It is so nicely written in how it brings in ‘black’ cultural thought, history, and contemporary ideas, and distils all of this into such a short book in so concise and readable a way. Dabiri is effortlessly able to slip between academic language and a more conversational style, bringing important ideas to the masses in ways that purely academic texts are not always able to do. I also really appreciate her focus on the Irish context, and her reminder that racism in other countries doesn’t look the same way it does in the US, where most of the focus has been centred.

I find the ideas in this book so freeing in terms of the weight of ‘whiteness’ I have carried. I’m sitting with that going forward, and rethinking how I engage with racial injustice, even as I more carefully question and try to dismantle the myth of race itself. I hope other ‘white’ people will read this too.

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.

Emma Dabiri is continuing to be fantastic and bringing us well written though provoking literature (and I don’t mean that in a really white condescending way where anything to do with ‘real issues’ is automatically ‘thought provoking’).

I think it’s great that Dabiri isn’t pandering to her white audience but instead asking them to stop and challenge their notion of the everyday instead of passing out empty social media buzz-posts.

I’d read anything Dabiri writes in the future.

For a relatively small book, it really packs a punch!!!

Emma Dabiri's 'What White People Can Do Next' is essentially a guide on the best steps moving forward following the tragic death of George Floyd last year. The book is not merely about the last year however, it looks at the systems that have existed for centuries that has lead to systemic racism within society, and leads to events like last year. Dabiri offers separate explorations of both UK and US systems, and how moving forward it will be beneficial to view these from different avenues in order to eventually achieve a common resolution.

This book really places emphasis on the importance of coalition moving forward, and how this will be key to breaking down systems, such as Capitalism, in order to achieve a world less concerned about the idea of 'race'.

Overall, this is a thoroughly researched essay, which offers a differing view to what I have previously read. It is powerfully written, and really manages to achieve its overall purpose in a concise and strong manner. I also really liked how Dabiri interspersed her own experiences throughout, which allowed for a personal connection to the author beyond just being the author of this book. I would highly recommend!

This was an intelligent, thought-provoking and educating essay. It looks at what white people need to actually do to create change in relation to racial justice.
This book is unlike any other racial justice books or essays I have read. Emma Dabiri takes a different stance on anti-racism compared to what I have commonly seen, especially during 2020. A focus is put on shared goals, interests, and interrogating capitalism, rather than focusing on privilege. Dabiri argues that no change, or little change can occur without coalition. Her discussions on the biological terms/labels of ‘white’ and ‘black’ and how she believes they should be erased, due to them only reinforcing racism and the exploitation of one group of people, opened my eyes. She disputes allyship and privilege, focusing rather on forming kinships that defy the divisions that were intended to weaken.
I think this book was very well written and researched. It made me think about how I can get to the root of the problem to do better and it enforced how mutuality is so important. Mutuality rather than charity that is so often performed.
I would recommend this book as it offers clear points that cause you to question your behaviour and provides you with new ways of thinking without conforming to the terms and advice of online discourse surrounding anti-racism.
Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Press UK for sending me an arc to review.