This is less of a review and more of a 'what I've learned' from this book. A review denotes an opinion on how 'good' or 'bad' a book is and it seems wrong on a few different levels to do that here. The reason I read the book in the first place is to learn more about what it means to be black, particularly in Britain, and the systems that keep justice and equality at bay.
At the beginning of the book, Reni talks about a blog post she wrote in 2014 about stopping conversations with white people about race because they just didn't get it or understand it, at best, and gaslighting her and question her lived experiences at worst. The book gained momentum and she turned the original post into a book that would educate and inform white people about her experiences and experiences for black people in wider society.
Throughout the rest of the book, she tackles several huge, structural issues such as the place and intersections of race, feminism, and class. She explains structural racism in a way that shows that even though white people may not actively participate in racism, we benefit from its set up. This may seem painful and at odds with white people who live in poverty or who have struggled in their lives, but Reni is not saying white people have never suffered. It's more about that white people have fewer struggles based on their whiteness - e.g. stop and search disproportionately affecting black people; people with white sounding names will be more likely offered job interviews than people with 'black' sounding names etc.
If you are a white person and want to read this book, then please do so with an open mind. It may feel like an attack but it's not. It's a conversation and it's about opening our eyes to our experience versus the experience of black people. For me, I found it an uncomfortable but liberating read. And when one is not defending their experience, but learning from someone else's, it's so much more productive and energy-giving.
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