posted on 05 Oct 2023

Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism by Yassmin Abdel-Magied

This is, in many ways, a brave book. Taking on such a massive and important social issue like the roots and consequences of racial discrimination and making it understandable for young adults is not an easy thing to do. And it’s not just because the subject is complex and often controversial but because just explaining how the concept of ‘race’ came into being isn’t sufficient - the fact that it has led to a pernicious level of discrimination and prejudice also has to be confronted.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied’s book is a blend of history and activism that skilfully finds sharp and engaging ways of presenting information in meaningful but bite-sized chunks. She starts off by laying the foundations of the way the concept of ‘race’ emerged. For many people ‘race’ is assumed to be descriptive – something based on physical and cultural characteristics like skin colour, body shape, religious practices. However, here ‘race’ is described as what might be called a social construct based on long-standing power relationships that have their roots in the practice of slavery. The invention of the existence of a hierarchy of different ‘races’ – some more evolved than others – was a piece of pseudo-science designed to camouflage the exploitative inhumanity of the slave trade. The notion that the white European was the top of the evolutionary chain and the black African at the bottom of that chain led to the notion that for one to exploit the other was no different to humans exploiting animals for their gain and convenience.

This way of thinking persisted for long enough to become thoroughly embedded in western culture and in the way all of our institutions have been structured – something we now call racism. It remains difficult for many people to come to grips with this contentious history and there are plenty of people who continue to act consciously and unconsciously as if the hierarchy of ‘race’ is a reality rather than a fiction meant to sustain the power status quo.

As you can see, a book like this in the classroom will offer the opportunity of a class debate on every page!

Having explained the origins of race and racism, Abdel-Magied takes us into activist mode. How can we become informed, sensitive and effective anti-racists? She doesn’t dodge the hard questions like why we should care about what happened many years ago and whether black people can behave as racists too. How can we change our institutions and do it without conflict or confrontation?

For young people coming to some of these issues for the first time, this book will offer answers to potentially difficult conundrums. With books like this you can’t expect to agree with everything the author says and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I have worked to challenge racism for over 40 years and I’ve taught undergraduate students about the legacy of ‘race’ but I’m sure that I don’t have all the answers and that effective anti-racist action requires continual debate and discussion. This book will make a valuable contribution to that debate.

Published by Walker Books, you will be able to get this book from your local independent bookshop – who will be happy to order it for you if they don’t have it on their shelves.

 

Terry Potter

October 2023