YouSaid · the spoken record

Reni Eddo-Lodge

lines on the record: 49
first: 2022-08-08
most recent: 2022-08-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Thank you Thanks, everyone. I want to say thanks for choosing to spend your evening here, everyone. I know it's been really warm and you could be in the park right now, so I really appreciate it”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know there's that phrase all skin folk aren't kinfolk, right? Like, I think that that was a time where there was an incredible amount of goodwill, there's an incredible amount of energy, there was an incredible amount of money that wanted to be directed at anti-racism. And of course, you're going to get some charlatans. Do you know what I mean? All of that mixed in. I was like, I had to make a very quick decision about what to do at that moment in time. Yeah, that's a very long answer to your question.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the journalist Simeon Brown wrote a really great chapter about that time in his book Get Rich or Lie Trying about social media and influences. I was troubled that suddenly there was this moment where everyone was like, okay, I'm black. And so are you doing the work? Where's this money going? Do you know what I mean? So I just knew eyes are looking at me. I know where this money's going. I know who this money is going to support. Let's direct it there, you know. And I think...”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's the earnestness again. We saw a lot of fundraising and go fund me's and this and that at that moment and I think that obviously it was a moment where a lot of people were like suddenly alerted to the depth of what racism really looked like you said in that grotesque spectacle but also we were seeing that reporting around like the type you know the fact that you know it's black and Asian people largely being hit by COVID and stuff you know what I mean and people wanted to do something people wanted to divert funds and I totally understand that But the fact of the matter is that I'm a black middle class person living in London, I'm not at this moment in time. I mean, yes, my speech may be infringed at some point in the near future, but I'm not at the sharp end at that moment in time. I wasn't.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Minneapolis, where the protests were happening, I was like, guys, I was like, I'm going to do this post and share on my social media that I'm making this donation. And I think you should too. I mean, at the end of the day, yes, I've written this book. It analyses structural racism. It might give you some understanding and some tools about what it means to understand this moment, but I'm extremely distant from this. I'm extremely distant from this from this situation, these protests. George Floyd, his family, and I felt this like. Feeling that I don't want to be personally enriched by this moment. And this man's family's devastated and he's murdered on camera. I don't know how else to describe it, you know. So I was like, I've got to use this moment to divert some of these eyeballs at me in that direction. And thank you for the applause.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, at the time, you've alluded to this in some of your questioning. I felt like this huge sense of responsibility and duty, like I could see eyes, even though I was inside my flat, seeing very few people, like I could feel the eyes of my communities around me pointing in my direction, even though I couldn't see anybody, right? I had this sense of responsibility. I could see the book being mentioned everywhere. So I was like, okay, I'm going to divert some of this attention that I'm getting to the organizations who are supporting protesters on the ground. And the Minnesota Freedom Fund, who were basically bailing out protesters in that specific area.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's no wonder that it affected people so deeply. To me it was mentally devastating. I personally couldn't watch it. But screenshots and stuff, and this is what I mean about I'm too sensitive for my own good. The whole situation was frankly horrifying. And then that, and I've sort of spoken about this in public before, that to also then be flip-sided with I'm seeing mentions of my work happening more and more. And because we're all shut inside our home, so it was happening mostly on social media. I could see that people were trying to understand like, how did this happen? And people recommending it. And I'm just like... I knew that that moment was going to transform my life and I kind of didn't want it to, you know, because the circumstances that happened were absolutely horrifying”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That I feel like put me on high alert. It was extremely anxiety inducing. I feel like it was for a lot of people, right? And I feel like, you know, do you remember that during those early days of the pandemic when we were all tuned in every day, everybody would watch the same BBC news broadcasts to the point where people were making TikToks out of the BBC News theme tune. Do you know what I mean? It was like appointment TV, right? And so that high stress, high alert state that I feel like so many of us were in, for then that horrifying video to pierce through that, you know.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, two global things, right? The pandemic and then George Floyd's murder essentially being beamed into all of our... Homes and living rooms. I was mentally struggling with just adjusting to the fact that everybody had to stay inside. It was essentially it was so mentally stressful. Do you know what I mean? Like adjusting from the beginning of 2020 to, I don't know, April, May, like adjusting to the ways in which our world shrank around us. I don't think any of us have ever lived through anything like that before, right?”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First published the book that there would be a concerted political effort to challenge isn't the right word, to defeat this kind of work. Because I was like thinking, oh, you know, we're in Britain, and everybody's just, you know. Everyone's got a right to say what they want to say. I mean, I was wrong. I now understand. Me five years ago was definitely wrong on that front that even with some institutional backing, like this kind of work becomes seriously influential, it will be read as a threat. So that's been a learning journey.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think, yeah, now I expect attacks. I don't really ever know how to prepare for attacks. Do you know what I mean? I also feel quite passionately that you go out and express your opinion, you do your reporting, you do your work. Some people are going to have a problem with it. I've always anticipated that. I think that this is kind of like a bit of an issue of almost like growing up in this kind of like, oh, multiculturalism, post-racial world, you know, like the same sort of atmosphere that I was trying to pierce when I wrote the book is that, you know, it does lull one into a false sense of security of, oh, everybody can have their opinion. And it's all just a debate, you know? So, no, I didn't expect when I...”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think it goes back to not having any expectations initially, not expecting to be noticed, a sense again of that kind of earnestness, that genuine kind of like James Baldwin school of thought of, oh, things are bad, but people just need to know that things are bad. And like I say, with time I'm like, oh wait, no, some people like things being bad. And I mean, it sounds weird. It sounds naive, but also I kind of feel like that's what makes my writing mine. Do you know what I mean? The fact that I don't come to it with this sense of, you know, there's of course expecting Challenges, but I don't come to it expecting attacks, you know. I feel like those two things are different.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I guess I don't value those things in the same way that people who do value them seek to preserve them. I'm of the opinion that more information is good. I don't know why you're trying to suppress it.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't want to preempt the attack, although I do know it's coming. I don't want to make any pre-emptive moves. Know there's a possibility I could be doom and gloom. I doubt it, but this possibility that my reading is completely doom and gloomy.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's a good question. I mean, I don't want to I mean, like I said, I spoke with certainty. I also don't want to move with hypervigilance. I have to wait and see, basically, right? I just have to wait and see. I'm going to just watch for that truck coming closer to me. And every other writer who writes in this sphere. Because I know it sounds weird, right? I kind of feel like My job as a Raya is to keep watching, keep observing. What draws me to it is like a deep sense of Being pulled towards it, right? But there also has to be this kind of level of detachment. And I kind of just... Have to observe it. I mean, I don't know what else to say, Gary. I mean I don't know what else to say”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm going to keep observing this moment. I'm going to keep writing about it, like I said. I expect restrictions on my work. I expect, not unlike something like the hostile environment, which really ramped up under Theresa May's government. I expect that on work like mine in the next few years if we don't have a general election next year, come on. Like, we need a general election in general because it's getting too much now. If we don't get that general election, I do expect it. I don't expect any opposition party to stand up for me or any other black anti-racist writers right to freedom of expression. I don't. I hope English Pen will stick their head over the parapet. And I just have to keep rioting about it.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I do it on my own terms, right? I do it on my own terms as an author, right? And I think... You know, I've had to do a lot of analysing of myself during this time period. And I said at the top of our conversation, I'm just a very earnest person. And that level of earnestness and expecting to be received in good faith that I have, I know it's a problem. Like some people might consider it strength. I now understand it frankly as a weakness, but that is something that's like a personality trait that can't go into politics, right? It just can't. But in that, I mean, I'm now old enough to understand that I can't expect that anymore, but it's always going to be an inclination of mine.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, It's an interesting one. It's an interesting question because for a while in my life I was involved in student politics but at that time people were like oh well you should really go off and try and be a politician and whatnot and I was like no I really like writing like I'm going to do my thing and you know as I've done my thing like I find myself you know questioning that decision but the reason why I knew I couldn't go off and be a politician is because I'm just too sensitive for it I can't all this double crossing and stabbing in the back I can't do it”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you're right. I think this sounds kind of like a bit morbid, but like, yeah, just. I expect restrictions on my work. Like, in the next year, if certain people become ministers, I expect it.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“After failing to change the minds of people, the Conservative Party are just going to implement top-down backlash with positional power in government because they can't change people's minds on the ground. I think that's what's going to happen.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, I'm writing the new chapter, like it was their own book The Prime government's own counter-narrative to the Widely accepted narrative of the Black Lives Matter protests, you know, which is that there is institutional racism. We need to root it out. That was their own response. And I read it closely. And I can... Basically, conclude that their response is there's a few bad apples. There's no, yeah, there's disparities in all of these places, education, employment, housing, but they can be explained for all of these reasons that aren't racism. And parts of it were kind of incoherent, really, when it came to trying to make that case. And I've now come to the conclusion that”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It can't be held against you. That's my speculation, and maybe somebody in the audience is involved in them and you can tell me if I'm wrong on that, you know, this is just me as an observer. But I do think it's absolutely fascinating. So yeah, I think that you're correct that... There's such an interesting juxtaposition that. You know, this book sold a million copies No one's tried to make political capital of the ideas like that. That's fascinating to me. The protest showed us like thousands of people on the streets, people deeply, passionately, care about this topic.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Woke was being seen as the opposition because the opposition ain't doing anything like the literal, the actual Labour Party official policy line on social justice issues is really not much at all. And I was like, that is amazing. There's a backlash against, I mean, yeah, you can pinpoint me and you can pinpoint some other authors maybe, but largely, you know, we're talking about books and people's hearts and minds being changed. We're not talking about any policy proposals or particular challenges from Her Majesty's opposition. And that's why I say it's very disheartening, you know, because I'm a bit like... Yeah, like listen, I'm not involved in party politics in any way, but my speculation is in the pursuit of becoming electable, like the Labour Party just saying very little about it, much at all. If you don't say much, then”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you're so right there. At no point, and I don't expect it because who am I? I'm not a politician or anything, but I think it's really fascinating that at no point have I ever been approached by any senior leadership during this time of me as an author, going around, talking about this book, talking about structural racism, I think that's fascinating. And I think you've hit the nail on the head there because again, like looking at the Tory leadership election, I thought it was fascinating how basically”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think you're right there. And as you say that, I think about the fact that. On the topic of political parties, you know, the opposition, there's just been this report out, the Ford report, which tells you that which reveals to us that during this same time period, not 2020, but during this time period that this book was out gaining momentum, the Labour Party were entrenched in factionalism and using racism and anti-Semitism as a political tool. So it's like doesn't give you I mean, it doesn't give me much hope really pie politics at all. As an author, I feel a bit like, wow, you know. A mess, you know, like it's truly a mess Messages of this broad based movement doesn't seem to have taken root anywhere in any arena where anybody could change policy at all. And even the opposition that claimed to be progressive don't seem to be.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is about an analysis of power, whatever. But I think that speaks to a success of the movement insofar as representation politics, which we know by themselves changed very little, right? But that's stark weirdly enough. And I think that the fact that the next Prime Minister is not going to be a white man also means that that likes representation politics strand has also stuck. And that's totally fascinating to me. I mean, I've always known that the politics of representation alone is not going to change. It's not going to fundamentally restructure the world, end poverty and homelessness, you know. But that's fascinating to me. And I guess it speaks to the fact that... Basically, the least threatening of the storm that uses anti racist and as progressives are pitching. But it's successful, right?”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm gonna share it right, and this is gonna sound a bit strange, right? But I also think that her rise, you know, not just speaks to the success of the movement in an obvious way, but also in a more covert way and the fact that, let's say, the establishment figures in the party didn't say explicitly but supported her kind of tells you that they knew that it wouldn't look good if they said it. Do you know what I mean? I don't know how else to describe it. It's almost like some messages of anti-racism have reached them and have truly bedded in, you know, because Michael Gove, I mean, I don't know, this is just my speculation, knows that it wouldn't look good if he said the things that she was saying and that it would be perceived at least broadly more politically difficult if she's saying it because, oh, it's a black woman saying it, when frankly this is not about the colour of your skin.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know what she has to say functions almost like as a pressure valve for them. And that's why she managed to garner so much support. And I think that's fascinating that iron wasn't verbalized. When we saw a week ago that Michael Govindorster, I thought, that's really interesting because to my knowledge, he's never said anything publicly about his thoughts on anti-racism or racism or anything.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, what I thought that was so fascinating watching that was that Kemi Badenock. Like serves, I think, for a lot of ayah in the Conservative parliamentary party that was frankly not verbalized. We saw those protests, we saw that statue coming down, and I think that there was fury that was frankly not verbalized, right? And then here comes a black woman who... Going to say politically pretty far right, you know, who's saying those things, right? And I think that, like,”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Seriously, because we do not know what's coming up. And I will continue to write and we'll see what's going to come from it. Do you know what I mean? I think you're right about that significant groundswell of support for her in the Conservative party, because let's remember that so far the leadership election is the decision of like less than 300 people, right? Not many people.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's what they claim. But no, you're right. It's something that I've been thinking about a lot recently. I'm here, I'm living in Britain, and I'm thinking to myself, oh, situations like what happened in Turkey with Erdogan, I know Turkish journalists who've lost their jobs because Erdogan doesn't like critics. You think to yourself, oh, that couldn't happen here, but now I'm starting to think you just don't know. You simply don't know. I mean, I still remember when, what's that Hungarian leader? When a Hungarian journalist who I knew said our paper's been shut down, you know? Yeah, I mean guys, watch”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know I think what we've seen from conservatives in the last decade is passionate defenses of free speech. So it would be really interesting if this politician In receipt of significant power seeks to curb that.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I still think it's like really weird and mind blowing that as we're seeing the ascent of this junior minister who's just run for Tory leadership who is now essentially pitching her stall on anti-woke, I'm like, this is kind of such a testament to the success of the movement, do you know what I mean? It really is that this momentum is going on in the Conservative Party really speaks to the facts that like An incredible amount of people's hearts and minds are truly at this point committed to not just anti-racism, but anti-oppression work in general, right? Like a concerted effort from the conservatives shows me that, wow, this is really being considered a threat now, you know?”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People really thinking deeply and challenging like what structural oppression looks like is becoming a threat. It's seriously being considered a threat at this point. And if it wasn't a threat, then there wouldn't really be any effort to denounce it, right? And for some, for years and years before the book came out, I was always doing my writing and a small group of people were reading, but it wasn't really getting very far. So it took me a while mentally to... Accept and adjust that when he loads of people are reading this work now, like way more people than ever before. And that kind of moment, like, you know, it interrupts my day life and it reminds me that, yeah, this work has gone far further than I ever imagined, you know”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Almost the ubiquity of it, you know, the far reaching influence that it has, right? And I kind of always knew, by that point I knew because it was getting post June 2020, like I'd be just going around doing my daily errands in the same areas I've always frequented. And suddenly people recognize me. So I was like, okay, something's changed. I'm not quite sure what's changed, but obviously I knew what changed. I'd seen the broader political environment, but I didn't realize it was resonating with people on that level, right? So I'm getting recognized in the same place as I've been to. So I was like, okay. But I think that mention, like in the spectator who would never mention me in my wife. Work in a million years if it hadn't become so successful was again. Confirmation of Not just my ideas, but”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is kind of fascinating because as a British citizen as well to have my work Guess Considered a threat on that level? I mean, the fact that the spectator would dedicate Space, and like mentioned me in my work in that space, again, speaks to”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, sure. So this sort of came up after June 2020. In that autumn of that year, then junior equalities minister, Kemi Badenok, she gave an interview to the spectator, right-wing political magazine, and was asked about my book as well as some American authors. And the answer was that I'm a segregationist. Well, paraphrasing. Basically the answer was these authors are in favor of segregation. I mean, I don't read the spectator, I'm not gonna lie. But I was alerted to it and I was like, okay, let me go and find a copy of this. Ended up having to go into King's Cross because they don't sell it in East London. Don't applaud me, applaud the newsagents and post offices because I looked. To be honest with you, I think to be mentioned in that way alongside American authors by a Minister is like”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm now the author of a piece of work for whom that's doing that to other people. Like, that's never going to stop blowing me away, I think. And I also, I think that's kind of like why this book is also perceived as dangerous as well, you know. Regardless of how many copies it's sold, regardless of the fact that you can pick it up in Sainsbury's and at the airport when you're on your way to Marbe or whatever, and you can pick it up next to the beech reads, like there's a dangerousness about it because Seriously threatens the status quo. I feel like I just think I'm pretty good at analysing the wider world around me, but when it comes to my own work, I never really did that. And so it still kind of blows my mind, you know what I mean?”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And like that really sticks in my head because that came up for me when I read about Rhianne reading the book and then feeling compelled to bring down that statue. I was like, the power of words like... There's a reason why books have been burnt throughout history like, you know. Effectively communicated ideas are like They're incredibly powerful. And I'm not saying that I can take as the author of this book 100% credit for like... The work that I did that day, but like, you know. I know that I've read work in the past, like really arresting political writing that has absolutely transformed me. And to know that I”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The power of it, like so I remember many years ago I was in Canada like speaking at a conference and I met a writer who was much older and very well respected, somebody whose work I had like grew up on and we were both like speaking at the same thing and I was explaining to her the plot of the film Death Note. I don't know if anyone's seen it. It's a film where basically like the main character gets hold of a notebook and in this notebook like if you write a person's name in it they die like they just die That's a very truncated version of the plot but anyway so I was explaining to her I was explaining to her about Death Note the film and she turned to me and she gave me like this half smile and she was like the power of words”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I remember when I first read the news report, it was actually only the Guardian who picked up from the Colston 4 trial that Rianne, who was one of the people who poured down that slave trader statue, named the book in court. I remember reading that and I was kind of scared, you know, like at the...”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think people saw it and they were like, oh, that's what it is. And then, listen, and I'm speaking about myself here, so you can disagree, but there was a really earnest bit of writing behind that title that was like, here's why I really mean this. I'm not just doing this to be a troll, do you know what I mean? And yeah, I mean, I don't know, I feel like if I was not me, I'd be trying to dissect it in an English class. Like, what is it about this sentence that like sets people off in both a positive and a negative way, right?”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And also, I think for people who absolutely hated the idea that anybody would ever utter that sentence, they were drawn in, you know, because there were... It suggests an explanation That was a really interesting combination, I think, you know. And I think we kind of live in a time now, like it was the case in 2017 and it's becoming even more so now where there's a lot of being provocativeness's sake. I don't know if provocativeness is a word. I just made it up.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think, like, with distance, There's like a mixture of my inclination to be very earnest. Because when I wrote not just the title but the piece of writing that the title came from, which was a blog post, I really meant it. It really came from a place of I'm exhausted by this conversation. I can't do it anymore. So there was that earnestness, but then that was like met also, I think, with a kind of like, The wider world saw it as extremely provocative. Less so as Self expression and more so as a grenade, you know, and that was also something that I was surprised by, I suppose, by the ways in which people received it. I mean, I think that again, there were definitely readers who read that and were like, oh my God, I know where she's coming from on that.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Before, you know, it was even published. I think there was definitely a section of people who for whom the work functioned like that. Me personally, I had no idea. Five years on, I feel like people expect me to be a person who's politically savvy when it comes to me and my work and the position of it in society and that's just not the case at all. I was very much shocked and kind of like still am that It sort of became the book that it became and that it meant so much to people in that way, you know.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The book came out in an environment where a lot of people were reeling from those big seismic political shifts in Britain and America, but also not just those two countries. We were also seeing the elections of some frankly authoritarian demagogues around the world. And a lot of those people were utilizing open racism. I think people were feeling quite shocked. Well, some people. There were also other people who I think had title and immediately resonated with it.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They made quite a lot of sense. There was the election of Donald Trump earlier that year, like the inauguration of him, I should say, which I know that there was a lot of progressives around the world really reeling from that. And also there'd been Brexit at the prior year as well. And, you know, we know that the Yes campaign like really utilize quite a bit of xenophobia in the campaign for leaving the EU. So I feel like”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started writing why I'm, which is my abbreviation for it, because it's like 10 words long. When I was like 25 years old, I was young. And I didn't, to me, the work was the writing. The work was the writing, the working with an editor. And post that day of publication, I had zero expectations for how it might be received in the world. It just wasn't on my agenda. I wasn't on my radar. So I was kind of like a bit knocked sideways in terms of how... Like it gathered momentum so quickly, I think the broader political conditions for it.”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“First off, thank you everyone for being here. I really appreciate it. It's weird stepping out, I think, in public again after post-pandemic. So I want to say thank you all for being here. And thank you to Gary as well. I think sort of doing this almost like reflection event with you of all people is really important to me. Gary's writing is some of my opinion some of the best journalistic writing out there and Gary is one of the people whose work I've always looked up to. So I just wanted to put that out there. In answer to your question, I feel like I have to take ownership to a kind of a level of naivety in myself because”
2022-08-08 · Intelligence Squared · Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, with Reni Eddo-Lodge · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT