Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism—and How to Do It [9780063098152]

Overview

“Simply the best book I’ve read on how to have those conversations. Unflinchingly honest, exceptionally well-reasoned and researched, there is so much to admire about Speaking of Race.”—Angela Duckworth, founder and CEO of Character Lab and New York Times bestselling author of Grit

A Boston Globe Most Anticipated Fall Book

In this urgently needed guide, the PBS host, award-winning journalist, and author of We Need to Talk teaches us how to have productive conversations about race, offering insights, advice, and support.

A self-described “light-skinned Black Jew,” Celeste Headlee has been forced to speak about race—including having to defend or define her own—since childhood. In her career as a journalist for public media, she’s made it a priority to talk about race proactively. She’s discovered, however, that those exchanges have rarely been productive. While many people say they want to talk about race, the reality is, they want to talk about race with people who agree with them. The subject makes us uncomfortable; it’s often not considered polite or appropriate. To avoid these painful discussions, we stay in our bubbles, reinforcing our own sense of righteousness as well as our division.

Yet we gain nothing by not engaging with those we disagree with; empathy does not develop in a vacuum and racism won’t just fade away. If we are to effect meaningful change as a society, Headlee argues, we have to be able to talk about what that change looks like without fear of losing friends and jobs, or being ostracized. In Speaking of Race, Headlee draws from her experiences as a journalist, and the latest research on bias, communication, and neuroscience to provide practical advice and insight for talking about race that will facilitate better conversations that can actually bring us closer together. 

This is the book for people who have tried to debate and educate and argue and got nowhere; it is the book for those who have stopped talking to a neighbor or dread Thanksgiving dinner. It is an essential and timely book for all of us.

How can you break the cycle of unproductive arguments and foster genuine understanding?

• Understanding Bias: Learn why everyone—including you—is biased and how to make your unconscious assumptions conscious before they derail a conversation.
• Neuroscience of Communication: Discover what happens in the brain during a heated discussion and use that knowledge to de-escalate tension and keep dialogue productive.
• Strategies for Civil Discourse: Move beyond debate with practical, evidence-based techniques for listening, asking better questions, and finding common ground, even when you fundamentally disagree.
• Navigating Personal Identity: Explore the complexities of race through the author’s own story as a “light-skinned Black Jew,” providing a framework for discussing personal history with honesty and vulnerability.