Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism—and How to Do It

A Boston Globe Most Anticipated Fall Book

In this urgently needed guide, the PBS host, award-winning journalist, and author of We Need to Talk teaches us how to have productive conversations about race, offering insights, advice, and support.

A self-described “light-skinned Black Jew,” Celeste Headlee has been forced to speak about race—including having to defend or define her own—since childhood. In her career as a journalist for public media, she’s made it a priority to talk about race proactively. She’s discovered, however, that those exchanges have rarely been productive. While many people say they want to talk about race, the reality is, they want to talk about race with people who agree with them. The subject makes us uncomfortable; it’s often not considered polite or appropriate. To avoid these painful discussions, we stay in our bubbles, reinforcing our own sense of righteousness as well as our division.

Yet we gain nothing by not engaging with those we disagree with; empathy does not develop in a vacuum and racism won’t just fade away. If we are to effect meaningful change as a society, Headlee argues, we have to be able to talk about what that change looks like without fear of losing friends and jobs, or being ostracized. In Speaking of Race, Headlee draws from her experiences as a journalist, and the latest research on bias, communication, and neuroscience to provide practical advice and insight for talking about race that will facilitate better conversations that can actually bring us closer together. 

This is the book for people who have tried to debate and educate and argue and got nowhere; it is the book for those who have stopped talking to a neighbor or dread Thanksgiving dinner. It is an essential and timely book for all of us.

But how do you start a conversation when you’re afraid of saying the wrong thing?

• Acknowledge Personal Bias: Learn why everyone—including you—is biased, and how accepting this fact is the first step toward more honest communication.
• Master Difficult Conversations: Move beyond the fear of saying the wrong thing with specific, science-backed techniques for talking to neighbors, family members, and coworkers without starting a fight.
• Listen with Empathy: Discover how to listen for understanding, not just to respond, and create the kind of connection that debates and arguments can never achieve.
• Develop Communication Skills: Go beyond talking points with practical strategies drawn from neuroscience and journalism to facilitate conversations that actually bring people closer together.