Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race

Chapter 1 presents Eddo-Lodge’s personal history alongside British history, a structure that invites readers to draw connections between racism in contemporary Britain and the country’s racist past, notably its treatment of colonial subjects. The chapter begins with the author’s first experiences studying Black British history. Eddo-Lodge was introduced to the subject in a course on the transatlantic slave trade during her second year of university. The course not only made Black British history more immediate and relevant to Eddo-Lodge but also drew attention to power imbalances that allow some individuals and groups to negatively impact the lives of others. Eddo-Lodge wanted to continue studying Black British history, but soon learned courses on the subject were rare. The lack of offerings reflects the erasure of people of color from British history as does the absence of Black British history courses from the curriculum of British primary and elementary schools.

Eddo-Lodge interweaves information about the transatlantic slave trade with her university experiences. Britain was directly involved in the buying and selling of Africans for profit. Slaves were expensive commodities, valued for their labor and for their ability to produce more slaves. Eddo-Lodge uses visceral language to describe the conditions on the slave ships:

The space around each slave was coffin-like, consigning them to live among filth and bodily fluids. The dead and dying were thrown overboard for cash-flow reasons: insurance money could be collected for those slaves that died at sea (5).

This vivid description lends an immediacy to slavery, a period some readers may dismiss as part of the distant past. Even before the abolition of slavery in 1833, Brits maintained an emotional distance from the trade because most slaves were sent to the colonies in the Americas and the Caribbean. Eddo-Lodge observed a similar emotional distance in a white university classmate, who dropped out of their Black British history course after questioning the relevance of the material:

I was resentful of her because I felt that her whiteness allowed her to be disinterested in Britain’s violent history, to close her eyes and walk away. To me, this didn’t seem like information you could opt out from learning (3).

Black History Month was instituted in Britain in 1987 to showcase the contributions of Black and Asian people to the UK. Colonial subjects contributed to Britain’s defense during the First World War in return for freedom from colonial rule. Eddo-Lodge relies on statistics to convey the importance of colonial soldiers: Over one million Indian soldiers, or sepoys, fought for Britain during World War I in return for freedom from colonial rule (10). Seventy-four thousand sepoys died in the war, yet the government reneged on its promise of ending colonialism in India (11). The poor treatment of sepoys reflects how little they were valued. Sepoys were not provided with adequate gear. Consequently, some died from exposure even before reaching the battlefields. Those who reached Europe were assigned menial tasks, such as digging trenches and carrying injured soldiers. The conditions were so bad and the pay so low that a sepoy regiment in Taranto, Italy staged a strike that turned into a mutiny. Sixty rebels were killed while many others were jailed and sentenced to death (13).

Eddo-Lodge seeks to dispel the myth that all racial minorities in the UK are recent immigrants. The sepoys who participated in the First World War returned to Britain after the fighting ended. Moreover, although Britain sent most of its slaves to the colonies, some were also brought to Britain. Britain’s growing non-white population became the target of discrimination and violence in the post-war years. Anti-Black sentiments grew alongside unemployment, ushering in a period of racial unrest. The government was aware of the problem but did not take steps to address it. Resistance came from the League of Coloured People, perhaps the first anti-racism organization in Britain. Founded in 1931, the organization aimed to protect and promote the interests of its members, to improve race relations, to cooperate with other groups sympathetic to people of color, and to recruit members worldwide (17).

Britain’s non-white population grew exponentially after the Second World War. Between 1951 and 1961, for instance, Britain’s Caribbean-born population grew from 15 thousand to 172 thousand (22). New labor demands prompted the government to encourage immigration with the British Nationality Act, which gave Commonwealth citizens living in Britain the same rights as white people. Tensions between white and non-white people led to race riots. In Nottingham, for example, riots erupted when white men calling themselves “N-word hunters” randomly attacked Black some men after white people intruded on an argument a Black man was having with his white wife. The situation quickly escalated: The riots stretched on for three whole days. Swastikas were painted on to the doors of Black families. Black people fought back with weapons and makeshift Molotov cocktails” (25). The government dismissed the riots as the work of hooligans, thereby erasing the racial aspect of the incident. As Eddo-Lodge observes, this is of a piece with the erasure of people of color from other aspects of British history, such as their contributions to the war efforts. Most government officials continued to ignore the problem of racism in Britain. Starting in 1960, the Labour Party presented the Race Discrimination Bill nine times to parliament to curb racial violence and promote equity. Each time the bill was defeated (26). It was not until 1965 the government passed the first race-related legislation—the Race Relations Act, which coincided with the establishment of the Race Relations Board, an official body tasked with addressing racial grievances and monitoring incidents of racism.

While the British government was slow to respond to the needs of its non-white population, people of color began to organize and advocate for themselves. Eddo-Lodge uses the example of the West Indian Development Council to make this point. The organization called attention to racist hiring practices at the Bristol Omnibus Company. Although the labor union refused to support them, the group won wide support from students and the national media. On 27 August 1963, the day before Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech in Washington, D.C., Bristol Omnibus Company employees agreed to end the company’s racist hiring practices. By referencing King’s famous speech, Eddo-Lodge contextualizes the events happening in Bristol and demonstrates that anti-racist advocacy was occurring simultaneously in various parts of the world.

The relationship between the British police and people of color became increasingly combative in the 1970s, when police linked Blackness with criminality. Police revived 19th-century sus laws (suspected persons laws). Sus laws gave police the power to stop, search, and arrest suspected criminals. The police did not keep statistics about who they were stopping during this period. Citing anti-racism activists, however, Eddo-Lodge posits that Black people were disproportionately targeted by sus laws. The criminalization of Blackness grew alongside the National Front, a far-right, anti-immigration political party. The National Front capitalized on anti-Black sentiments, organized anti-Black-crime marches, and supported racists who refused to serve people of color. Opposing political parties tried to curb the right-wing rhetoric only to be accused of bending to political correctness. This tactic continues to be employed by the far-right, particularly in the US.

Racial inequities grew during the recession of the 1980s. Eddo-Lodge uses statistics to shed light on this problem. For example, unemployment for Black and Asian men was exponentially higher than for white men after the stock market crashed in 1987: 20% versus 2% (36). Race riots also continued to plague the country in the 1980s. Police responded by increasing their harassment of people of color. They also emulated American policing trends, namely community policing. According to a 1984 report by the Camden’s Committee for Community Relations, community policing and neighborhood watches were implemented for political reasons rather than to benefit communities of color (41). Black activists continued to push back against racist policing. A lecturer at Hendon Police College, for instance, conducted a study to promote the formation of an anti-racism course. Police trainees were asked to produce essays about Black people in Britain. The results were openly racist: “Blacks in Britain are a pest” (44), opined one cadet. Another wrote: “I think that all blacks are pains and should be ejected from society” (44). A third cadet voiced beliefs that remain current today: “If all the blacks were deported back to Africa or wherever [they] came from there would be less unemployment and therefore money for the Government to use for creating jobs” (44). Hendon Police College refused to create an anti-racism course, instead they favored a course on multiculturalism.

Eddo-Lodge ends Chapter 1 where she began: with her personal experiences. Her first exposure to Black British history came in university. Many Brits are never afforded this opportunity. No writer can make up for centuries of erasure. However, Eddo-Lodge’s succinct and accessible overview of centuries of Black British history, bolstered by examples, statistics, and studies, provides a foundation for understanding race and racism in contemporary Britain.