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COAST-TO-COAST BOOK CLUB WALKS THE WALK
By Joanie Jacobson

“You’re going to screw up royally. More than once.

“I’m sorry, I wish I could say that reading this book would guarantee that you’d never leave a conversation about race feeling like you’ve gotten it all wrong and made everything worse. But I can’t. It’s going to happen….  

“So now that I’ve thoroughly bummed you out, let’s work on what we can do  to lessen the number of times we screw up, minimize the damage and maximize the benefit to all involved.”

“So let’s all get a little uncomfortable. If my mom and I can do it, so can you.”

Straight from the pages of the New York Times Best Seller, "So You Want To Talk About Race" by award-winning author Ijeoma Oluo. The author tells us how difficult conversations about race can be, and how we should have those conversations anyway, as she did with her white mom. Oluo is the interracial Black daughter of a Nigerian immigrant father and a white mother from Kansas.  

The Miriam Initiative is proud to feature this book at the Coast-To-Coast Book Club, Tuesday, January 11 from 7:30-8:30 pm via Zoom and facilitated by Susan Witkowski.

"We wanted to do our part in addressing this very important and relevant issue," said Abby Kutler, chairman of Beth El's Miriam Initiative. "And what better way than to invite every woman in the community and across the country to attend. Thanks to Zoom, you can bring your mother, sister, cousin or friend living anywhere in the world!"

“Oluo has a brilliant way of explaining the issues in a conversational way that makes you feel like you’re talking to someone you already know,” Witkowski explained. “It’s like she’s saying, ‘Let’s sit down and talk. How will we learn and how will we know what needs to be done if we’re not willing to talk about it? Looking at ourselves is difficult, I know, but I can help.’ No blaming here. Just honest, kind and respectful conversation from one person to another with the only expectation being that we read with an open heart. It’s a short read with a big impact. You come away from the book with a far greater understanding of what you never knew.”

Oluo’s tone is always gentle but firm. “She poses all the right questions, gives explicit answers, and then gives us the language we can use to take a conversation about race to higher ground. It’s one small awareness at a time but each awareness is mind-blowing.”

Witkowski acknowledged that readers can often feel defensive at first. Even uncomfortable. “Take a deep breath and let it go,” she advised, “because we are all part of a culture that lets racism happen, we just didn’t know the extent of it, until we learned. So, if you’re feeling a little uncomfortable, put the book down for a few minutes, get yourself a cup of coffee and think about what you’ve just read and how it makes you feel. Those moments of discomfort are when we start learning. We are actually in a moment of potential growth.”

Witkowski was quick to point out that acknowledging racism in this country in no way diminishes the seriousness or the danger of anti-semitism. “We need to work on both,” she added, “because they come from the same place. The difference is how quickly people are identified and judged simply by the way they look.  Many Jewish people can go into a restaurant or department store and not be instantly identified as Jewish unless they choose to be visible as Jewish. That’s not meant to deny the great harm that Jewish people have suffered due to antisemitism, but to identify the difference between our experience and the experience of discrimination that black and brown people in this country experience daily.”

“Sometimes it’s difficult to get into a book because of the style. It’s too academic, too esoteric, too slow-moving or just too difficult to grasp the concepts. What sets Oluo’s book apart from many other books is her gentle but smart conversational style and the way she guides us through the learning process. She reminds us always, ‘You didn’t know what you didn’t know.’ But once we know better, we can do better.”

"So You Want To Talk About Race" is available in print, as an e-book, or as an audio book. All formats can also be found at the Omaha Public Library. To make a reservation for the January 11 Coast-To-Coast Book Club, contact rerlich@bethel-omaha.org.