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In the spirit of We Should All Be Feminists and How to Be an Antiracist, a poignant and sensible guide to questioning the meaning of whiteness and creating an antiracist world from the acclaimed historian and author of Twisted.
Vital and empowering What White People Can Do Next teaches each of us how to be agents of change in the fight against racism and the establishment of a more just and equitable world. In this affecting and inspiring collection of essays, Emma Dabiri draws on both academic discipline and lived experience to probe the ways many of us are complacent and complicit—and can therefore combat—white supremacy. She outlines the actions we must take, including:
Stop the Denial
Interrogate Whiteness
Abandon Guilt
Redistribute Resources
Realize this shit is killing you too . . .
To move forward, we must begin to evaluate our prejudices, our social systems, and the ways in which white supremacy harms us all. Illuminating and practical, What White People Can Do Next is essential for everyone who wants to go beyond their current understanding and affect real—and lasting—change.
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND IRISH TIMES BESTSELLER
"Impactful . . . Emma expertly outlines how the idea of race was constructed to bolster capitalism and explains how, in a divided world, unity and coalition are needed to create a future that works for everyone"
— Cosmopolitan
"Essential . . . accessible and yet so full of scholarship. Witty, insightful, a must-read"
— Owen Jones
"Fascinating, invigorating . . . this book is for everyone . . . we have an academic like Emma Dabiri writing as if James Connolly and Audre Lorde had a love child"
— Jess Kav, Irish Times
"A gamechanging skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism"
— Jason Okundaye, Vogue
"Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next"
— Francesca Brown, Stylist
"A thoughtful, nuanced read that is deftly researched and studded with relevant reflections from Dabiri's own life in Ireland, the UK and the US... Dabiri is on top form when applying her razor-sharp analysis to the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and racism, and how it harms us all"
— Georgina Lawton, iNews
"Vital, needs to be read by as many people as possible . . . One of those rare books that is completely clarifying and that you find yourself referring back to for years to come"
— Ellie Mae O'Hagan (via twitter)
"I really loved What White People Can Do Next: so smart, so readable, so helpful. There is so much I hadn't thought about before - 'whiteness' as a confection, the empty performance of online rhetoric, the impossibility of transferring privilege - and so much that I had somewhere in the back of my mind but that I'd struggled to articulate."
— Nick Hornby, author of Just Like You
"Refreshing . . . A nuanced and historical analysis of post-colonialism, anti-racism and collectivism. The sharpest of any book out on 'race' in recent years"
— Good Readers Club
"Vitally important and written with intelligence and insight, this book is an essential companion for anyone seeking to understand racism, on the journey towards an anti-racist future"
— Jeffrey Boakye
"Fantastic . . . a wonderfully concise deconstruction of race and racism Emma is challenging the inherent power dynamics in the concept of allyship, arguing instead for coalition when it comes to how people can confront the structures of racism"
— The Blindboy Podcast
About the Author
Emma Dabiri is an Irish-Nigerian author, academic, and broadcaster. Her debut book, Don't Touch My Hair, was first published in 2019.
Dabiri is a frequent contributor to print and online media, including The Guardian, Irish Times, Dublin Inquirer, Vice, and in academic journals. She is known for her outspokenness on issues of race and racism.
She now lives in London, where she is completing her PhD while also teaching and continuing her broadcast work.
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
