Dabiri’s manifesto for radical change…marries historical context with contemporary commentary and analysis in a direct, accessible style.” — Time
“Both a blazing polemic against the concept of race as anything more than a means to create racism as well as a fundamental route toward active unification…. A must-read for anyone seeking to be an agent of much-needed societal change.” — Kirkus , starred review
"A practical guide to creating an anti-racist world." — USA Today, 5 books not to miss
“A game-changing skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism.” — Vogue UK
“Impactful . . . a manifesto for meaningful and lasting change. And trust us, once you’ve picked it up and started reading, you won’t want to put it down.” — Cosmopolitan (UK)
“Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next.” — Stylist (UK)
“Vitally important and written with intelligence and insight, this book is an essential companion for anyone seeking to understand racism, on the journey towards an anti-racist future.” — Jeffrey Boakye, author of Black, Listed
A game-changing skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism.
Impactful . . . a manifesto for meaningful and lasting change. And trust us, once you’ve picked it up and started reading, you won’t want to put it down.
Dabiri’s manifesto for radical change…marries historical context with contemporary commentary and analysis in a direct, accessible style.
Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next.
Vitally important and written with intelligence and insight, this book is an essential companion for anyone seeking to understand racism, on the journey towards an anti-racist future.”
"A practical guide to creating an anti-racist world."
Dabiri’s manifesto for radical change…marries historical context with contemporary commentary and analysis in a direct, accessible style.
Poignant and thoroughly researched.
Oh, how I wish Twisted existed when I was growing. This book is a must read and more importantly, one that must be taught in schools. Emma Dabiri, a well-researched and talented writer, takes the seemingly insurmountable task of contextualizing the contributions, trials, complexities and beauty of the black hair experience in way that not only allows you to see the world more clearly, but leaves you with a hunger to learn more. And that, in my estimation, is one of greatest powers of literature. Cannot wait to see what Dabiri writes next."
A complex, layered, and full history of Black hair… Dabiri carefully deconstructs this history without pathologizing the Black hair experience.
Bitch Magazine on Twisted
Poignant and thoroughly researched.
A complex, layered, and full history of Black hair… Dabiri carefully deconstructs this history without pathologizing the Black hair experience.
null Bitch Magazine on Twisted
Emma Dabiri narrates with the same clarity, thoughtfulness, and directness with which she wrote this guide to going beyond the nebulousness of “allyship” to the action of building coalitions for change. The Irish-Nigerian author delves into the history of racial formation and its corresponding power and legal structures, and advocates for the need to do away with these structures and build new futures. She drives home her message that any attempts to counter racism must not themselves reinforce racial categories, but must imagine beyond the inherited and restrictive systems of oppression. Dabiri’s compelling writing; warm, accented voice; and smooth, well-paced delivery combine to capture the listener’s attention, making for an audiobook that one will want to return to, and share. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
Emma Dabiri narrates with the same clarity, thoughtfulness, and directness with which she wrote this guide to going beyond the nebulousness of “allyship” to the action of building coalitions for change. The Irish-Nigerian author delves into the history of racial formation and its corresponding power and legal structures, and advocates for the need to do away with these structures and build new futures. She drives home her message that any attempts to counter racism must not themselves reinforce racial categories, but must imagine beyond the inherited and restrictive systems of oppression. Dabiri’s compelling writing; warm, accented voice; and smooth, well-paced delivery combine to capture the listener’s attention, making for an audiobook that one will want to return to, and share. E.E.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
★ 2021-05-04
In this follow-up to her excellent debut, Twisted (2020), Dabiri once again pulls no punches, offering a sharp, relevant critique and deconstruction of racial categorizations, particularly the common assumption of White people as the default norm. “If whiteness is defined as ‘not being the other’ and the subordination of that other,” she writes, “then a reversal of status is deeply threatening to a person’s identity.” Deploying chapter titles like “Stop the Denial,” “Interrogate Capitalism,” and “Redistribute Resources,” the author is consistently direct and urgent in her presentation. Skewering reductive online commentary and hollow performative gestures, Dabiri writes, “we seem to have replaced doing anything with saying something , in a space where the word ‘conversation’ has achieved an obscenely inflated importance as a substitute for action.” The author also describes inherent deficiencies of allyship—“offering charity at the expense of solidarity”—and makes a compelling case for vigorous coalition-building, which requires recognizing shared interests and working together for the greater good. She references scholars and authors such as Angela Davis, Fred Moten, Barbara Fields, George Lipsitz, bell hooks, and Cornel West to support her studied claims and intentional provocations. “In the history of humankind,” she writes, “ ‘white people’ are babies. You have only existed since 1661! (To be fair, so have ‘black people.’)” Dabiri dismisses Whiteness as “a generic term that collapses crucial distinctions in order to consolidate capital.” Related to her argument that the B in black should not be capitalized because it reinforces division instead of dismantling it, she explains that she regularly places quotation marks around “black” and “white” to disrupt “the comfort with which we rely on that terminology.”
A must-read for anyone seeking to be an agent of much-needed societal change.
