Editor's Note: I completed the following book review in December 2018 as part of coursework in the pursuit of a Doctor of Education degree from the University of Colorado Denver. I submitted the review to the Journal of Multicultural Education and Midwest Book Review.
Maileen Hamto, MBA, MS
Certified Diversity Professional - Society for Diversity
Ed.D. student, School of Education and Human Development
University of Colorado Denver
Book details: Sue, D. W. (2016). Race talk and the conspiracy of silence: Understanding and facilitating difficult dialogues on race. Hobokken, NJ: Wiley.
Creating space for sustaining authentic and constructive dialogue around cultural and racial realities and experiences is often challenging, especially in the workplace. The ever-increasing diversity of the healthcare workforce, coupled with the current social climate heightens the need for bold conversations around diversity, inclusion and equity issues faced by employees and communities they serve.
Dr. Derald Wing Sue’s 2016 “Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race” challenges readers to closely examine the mechanisms of power and privilege due to the ways in which they impact difficult dialogue about race and racism in the United States. Through first-person narratives, collected over many years of phenomenological and qualitative research, Sue illustrates the clash of racial realities between Whites and people of color, making the case for the “invisibility of Whiteness” and White privilege the main culprit for continuing racial strife.
I evaluated this book from my perspective as a leader of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at a large, complex healthcare organization. In my role, I facilitate cross-cultural dialogues among staff members. The foremost goal of each conversation is to increase cultural self-awareness and competence and understand the importance of content in creating space for self-reflection. I work with clinical supervisors, training directors, program leads and anyone with direct reports in the organization. I incorporate experiential learning activities in facilitation, encourage learners to apply tools for ongoing self-inquiry, and maintain a focus on developing authentic relationships across differences.
Over the last couple of years, however, the increasingly tense and divisive sociopolitical climate has ushered in the need for deeper and more introspective conversations about race and racism, power and White privilege, and how oppression shows up not only in the larger society, but in our work more specifically. In the current sociopolitical climate, “Race Talk” offers pragmatic applications supported by race pedagogy. Written for a readership beyond diversity & inclusion practitioners and workshop facilitators, it contains actionable advice for parents, educators and leaders who are working to nurture space for open, honest and healing dialogue about the ravages of interpersonal and institutional racism.
Sue’s book not only provides concrete tools and approaches with which to approach conversations in an authentic way, but also addresses issues that are key to advancing racial equity in health care. The book answers my own critical questions in advancing this work: How can we develop greater comfort and humility around discussing racial topics? How do we integrate the important conversation on racial power and privilege? How may we influence our organizations to pursue a values-driven approach toward eliminating disparities and advancing racial equity?
Sue’s approach to brokering the conversation about the difficulty of racial dialogues is rooted in decades of research he has carried out on racial, gender and sexual orientation microaggresssions and their impacts on those communities. Serving as a professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology in Columbia University’s Teachers College, Sue’s scholarship is among the most cited in the fields of multicultural psychology and counseling. He has collected extensive counter-narratives of Asian, Latinx, African American and Native Americans and their everyday experiences with race and the excruciating reality of race talk for people of color.
Sue departs from a more generalized anti-oppression lens to spell out the contemporary mechanics of race and racism in U.S. society. He breaks down the reasons why racial dialogues are difficult for both people of color and Whites. Through first-person narratives and case studies, Sue takes great care in amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color in behavioral health contexts.
Throughout “Race Talk,” Sue centers the experiences of people of color in an effort to dismantle societal mythologies that perpetuate racial discord, including the myth of meritocracy, color-blindness and power evasion. He highlights the four fears among Whites that get in the way of honest and productive dialogue and prevent greater racial understanding. These fears include the fear of: appearing racist; realizing their racism; confronting White privilege and; taking personal responsibility to end racism.
By making the invisibility of White privilege visible or “making the invisible visible” – that is, the invisibility of White privilege – Sue offers ways that defensiveness regarding the execution of racial dialogues may be successfully torn down. One particularly memorable “a-ha moment” from my reading stems from Sue’s discussion of perspicacity: how People of color (POCs) must develop a keen understanding of how White people communicate in order to survive and thrive in a White supremacist society. POCs must know how to discern truth and authenticity in how White people communicate, which can be done using nonverbal cues that express true feelings. For me, as a foreign-born woman of color, this validated my experience of learning how to navigate predominantly White institutions in my academic and professional careers.
This book will be a hard read for a White person who hasn’t already begun their journey toward cultural self-awareness, particularly their privileged identity as a White American. But for those who are looking to continue developing their cultural humility and agility to authentically engage in racial conversations, this is a solid read in that it will bring you greater comfort as you explore and question how Whiteness impacts the spaces you inhabit. Sue posits that interracial contact is not enough, because emotionality related to any discussion of Whiteness prevents honest dialogue from flourishing. Cultural – more specifically, racial – self-awareness will enable Whites to enhance their everyday communications and interactions with people of color. By deepening self-awareness as cultural and racial beings offers an opportunity to learn how our racial realities hinder authentic connections.
Why is it important for educators and cultural workers to learn about and break the rules of race talk? It goes without saying that it is vital to focus on systemic solutions to address policy and procedures that develop greater equity in educational and healthcare institutions. Hard-fought legislation affirming the civil rights of communities of color have created advances in equity.
However, the struggle for justice, respect, empathy and compassion is not merely contained in policy manuals and legal action alone. To create lasting and meaningful change, it’s equally important to strategically develop opportunities that illuminate the impacts of our lived racial realities and strengthen each other’s capacity to engage in civil discourse about emotionally difficult topics. In deepening one’s understanding of racial stratification, Sue offers useful strategies for adopting an anti-racist identity that is rooted in intentionality, purpose and action.
Keywords: race pedagogy, Whiteness studies, racial dialogues, teaching race, Whiteness, people of color, racism, race in the U.S., racism in the U.S.
Maileen Hamto, MBA, MS
Certified Diversity Professional - Society for Diversity
Ed.D. student, School of Education and Human Development
University of Colorado Denver
Book details: Sue, D. W. (2016). Race talk and the conspiracy of silence: Understanding and facilitating difficult dialogues on race. Hobokken, NJ: Wiley.
 |
| Derald Wing Sue, Ph.D. |
Dr. Derald Wing Sue’s 2016 “Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Difficult Dialogues on Race” challenges readers to closely examine the mechanisms of power and privilege due to the ways in which they impact difficult dialogue about race and racism in the United States. Through first-person narratives, collected over many years of phenomenological and qualitative research, Sue illustrates the clash of racial realities between Whites and people of color, making the case for the “invisibility of Whiteness” and White privilege the main culprit for continuing racial strife.
I evaluated this book from my perspective as a leader of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at a large, complex healthcare organization. In my role, I facilitate cross-cultural dialogues among staff members. The foremost goal of each conversation is to increase cultural self-awareness and competence and understand the importance of content in creating space for self-reflection. I work with clinical supervisors, training directors, program leads and anyone with direct reports in the organization. I incorporate experiential learning activities in facilitation, encourage learners to apply tools for ongoing self-inquiry, and maintain a focus on developing authentic relationships across differences.
Over the last couple of years, however, the increasingly tense and divisive sociopolitical climate has ushered in the need for deeper and more introspective conversations about race and racism, power and White privilege, and how oppression shows up not only in the larger society, but in our work more specifically. In the current sociopolitical climate, “Race Talk” offers pragmatic applications supported by race pedagogy. Written for a readership beyond diversity & inclusion practitioners and workshop facilitators, it contains actionable advice for parents, educators and leaders who are working to nurture space for open, honest and healing dialogue about the ravages of interpersonal and institutional racism.
 |
Sue’s book not only provides concrete tools and approaches with which to approach conversations in an authentic way, but also addresses issues that are key to advancing racial equity in health care. The book answers my own critical questions in advancing this work: How can we develop greater comfort and humility around discussing racial topics? How do we integrate the important conversation on racial power and privilege? How may we influence our organizations to pursue a values-driven approach toward eliminating disparities and advancing racial equity?
Sue’s approach to brokering the conversation about the difficulty of racial dialogues is rooted in decades of research he has carried out on racial, gender and sexual orientation microaggresssions and their impacts on those communities. Serving as a professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology in Columbia University’s Teachers College, Sue’s scholarship is among the most cited in the fields of multicultural psychology and counseling. He has collected extensive counter-narratives of Asian, Latinx, African American and Native Americans and their everyday experiences with race and the excruciating reality of race talk for people of color.
Sue departs from a more generalized anti-oppression lens to spell out the contemporary mechanics of race and racism in U.S. society. He breaks down the reasons why racial dialogues are difficult for both people of color and Whites. Through first-person narratives and case studies, Sue takes great care in amplifying the voices and experiences of people of color in behavioral health contexts.
Throughout “Race Talk,” Sue centers the experiences of people of color in an effort to dismantle societal mythologies that perpetuate racial discord, including the myth of meritocracy, color-blindness and power evasion. He highlights the four fears among Whites that get in the way of honest and productive dialogue and prevent greater racial understanding. These fears include the fear of: appearing racist; realizing their racism; confronting White privilege and; taking personal responsibility to end racism.
By making the invisibility of White privilege visible or “making the invisible visible” – that is, the invisibility of White privilege – Sue offers ways that defensiveness regarding the execution of racial dialogues may be successfully torn down. One particularly memorable “a-ha moment” from my reading stems from Sue’s discussion of perspicacity: how People of color (POCs) must develop a keen understanding of how White people communicate in order to survive and thrive in a White supremacist society. POCs must know how to discern truth and authenticity in how White people communicate, which can be done using nonverbal cues that express true feelings. For me, as a foreign-born woman of color, this validated my experience of learning how to navigate predominantly White institutions in my academic and professional careers.
This book will be a hard read for a White person who hasn’t already begun their journey toward cultural self-awareness, particularly their privileged identity as a White American. But for those who are looking to continue developing their cultural humility and agility to authentically engage in racial conversations, this is a solid read in that it will bring you greater comfort as you explore and question how Whiteness impacts the spaces you inhabit. Sue posits that interracial contact is not enough, because emotionality related to any discussion of Whiteness prevents honest dialogue from flourishing. Cultural – more specifically, racial – self-awareness will enable Whites to enhance their everyday communications and interactions with people of color. By deepening self-awareness as cultural and racial beings offers an opportunity to learn how our racial realities hinder authentic connections.
Why is it important for educators and cultural workers to learn about and break the rules of race talk? It goes without saying that it is vital to focus on systemic solutions to address policy and procedures that develop greater equity in educational and healthcare institutions. Hard-fought legislation affirming the civil rights of communities of color have created advances in equity.
However, the struggle for justice, respect, empathy and compassion is not merely contained in policy manuals and legal action alone. To create lasting and meaningful change, it’s equally important to strategically develop opportunities that illuminate the impacts of our lived racial realities and strengthen each other’s capacity to engage in civil discourse about emotionally difficult topics. In deepening one’s understanding of racial stratification, Sue offers useful strategies for adopting an anti-racist identity that is rooted in intentionality, purpose and action.
Keywords: race pedagogy, Whiteness studies, racial dialogues, teaching race, Whiteness, people of color, racism, race in the U.S., racism in the U.S.