Are You Calling Me a Racist?: Why We Need to Stop Talking about Race and Start Making Real Antiracist Change

Product description Review "A searing and compelling critique of the emotional cartography of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and the 'feel-good racial politics' normalized within anti-racism practices in community organizations, social media, universities, and workplaces. Srivastava offers a brilliant analysis of current DEI approaches that focus on individual experiences and attitudinal shifts rather than on concrete practices that transform the conditions that produce racial inequities. A must-read book for scholars and activists involved in meaningful, long-term anti-racist, decolonial social justice work."-- "Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity""Provocative... Srivastava exposes the flaws of 'feel-good' antiracist workshops, instead calling for practical actions and real reforms."-- "Kirkus Reviews""Sharing critical insights from anti-racist interventions in feminist organizations over the past three decades, Srivastava makes a compelling case that racism cannot simply be talked or trained away - and that attempts to do so often come at significant costs, contributing to rather than challenging harmful dynamics and practices. While some institutions, like the police, cannot be made 'anti-racist' because they were created to uphold structural relations of power, "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" offers signposts to a systemic approach to transformation focused on doing better rather than just feeling or knowing better."-- "Andrea J. Ritchie, author of Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies""Srivastava has written a deeply insightful book on the emotional features that all accusations of racism have come to generate. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" offers a penetrating analysis of 'the feel-good politics of race' and introduces novel elements into critical analyses of race and racism, as necessary in taking up anti-racist activism as they are for research and teaching."-- "David Theo Goldberg, author of The War on Critical Race Theory: Or, The Remaking of Racism""Srivastava writes from a first-person perspective as an activist, organizer, and educator on the front lines of the feminist and anti-racism movements. With perceptive insights and razor-sharp analysis, she reveals how 'progressive spaces filled with progressive people committed to fighting sexism and racism' are routinely 'confronted with familiar conflicts over racism, sexism, and diversity.'"-- "CHOICE""The book very clearly distills and, in an accessible style, explores all the things that are problematic with DEI training. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries."-- "Booklist, STARRED""This book is vital reading for anyone interested in understanding not only why feel-good race work has failed us but what we can do about it. Conversations, workshops, meetings, and therapy will never address the structural racism embedded in organizations. Relying on years of personal experience and work with leftist organizations and interviews with activists in feminist organizations, Sarita Srivastava skillfully deconstructs the performative nature of most contemporary diversity work."-- "Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America" About the Author Sarita Srivastava is Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at OCAD University in Toronto.