Rev. Joan Pell will be leading a Zoom book study on racism and white privilege. Our first step in advocating for Black lives and Asian and Minority Ethnic lives is to understand or even believe that there is a problem. We will be reading and discussing a book by a black author called Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. The author’s name is Reni Eddo-Lodge and she is a London based, award winning author and journalist. The book is on the Sunday Time’s Best Seller list and Eddo-Lodge is the first black British author to top UK’s best-seller list since the official book chart was launched in 1998.

Sessions will be by Zoom on Thursdays at 10.30 a.m. Contact Rev. Joan Pell for access. We will study one chapter per week beginning with chapter one on Thursday 16th July.

Everyone in our circuit is invited and welcome to attend this study and participate in the discussion. This book was chosen because racism is a white person’s problem. This allows us to be in dialogue with a black person while learning to listen to their perspective without anyone of colour needing to be in the room. Our churches here are full of white people with a small minority of other races and ethnicities. We welcome the participation of all races in this discussion, and would love to hear your perspective; we do not want our siblings of colour to be put on the spot or having to speak on behalf of their whole race.

If you support Black Lives Matter, then come and find out how to be a better ally. If you think we should be saying All Lives Matter or you were raised to be colour blind or if you think racism discussions have no place in the church, then come and find out why those things are problematic. If you have heard the term white privilege or systemic racism and do not know what it means, then come and find out more. These are important and difficult and uncomfortable discussions, but the necessary first step towards advocacy and justice is through learning. Let’s do that together. Come and join us!

You can purchase the book in hardback, paperback or eBook from a number of online booksellers (such as Hive) and additionally in kindle or audio format from amazon.

Here is Reni Eddo-Lodge’s original blog from 2014 that preceded the writing of the book.