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  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141996738
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $22.99

What White People Can Do Next

From Allyship to Coalition




An incisive and deeply practical essay from the acclaimed author of Don't Touch My Hair

Stop the denial
Stop the false equivalencies
Interrogate whiteness
Interrogate capitalism
Denounce the white Saviour
Abandon guilt

We need to talk about racial injustice in a new way: one that builds on the revolutionary ideas of the past and forges new connections.

In this robust and nuanced examination of race, class and capitalism, Emma Dabiri draws on years of academic study and lived experience, as well as personal reflections on a year like no other. With intellectual rigour, wit and clarity, Dabiri articulates a powerful vision for meaningful and lasting change.

  • Published: 1 June 2021
  • ISBN: 9780141996738
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 176
  • RRP: $22.99

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Praise for What White People Can Do Next

Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next

Francesca Brown, Stylist

Essential . . . accessible and yet so full of scholarship. Witty, insightful, a must-read

Owen Jones

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)

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

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

Concise, sure-footed and complete . . . a battle cry against racism for even the most socially aware . . . Dabiri's reflections have been a very, very long time coming

Tanya Sweeny, Irish Independent

A gamechanging skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism

Jason Okundaye, Vogue

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

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