Emma Dabiri

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Don't Touch My Hair

What White People Can Do Next

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Essential . . . accessible and yet so full of scholarship. Witty, insightful, a must-read

Fascinating, invigorating . . . this book is for everyone . . . we have an academic like Emma Dabiri writing as if James Connolly and Audre Lorde had a love child

A gamechanging skewering of social-media discourse with a historically grounded analysis of anti-racism, collectivism, neoliberalism, and post-colonialism

Deftly and wittily deconstructs allyship and white saviour tropes to give an unblinkered takedown of what needs to happen next

A thoughtful, nuanced read that is deftly researched and studded with relevant reflections from Dabiri's own life in Ireland, the UK and the US... Dabiri is on top form when applying her razor-sharp analysis to the symbiotic relationship between capitalism and racism, and how it harms us all

Vital, needs to be read by as many people as possible . . . One of those rare books that is completely clarifying and that you find yourself referring back to for years to come

I really loved What White People Can Do Next: so smart, so readable, so helpful. There is so much I hadn't thought about before - 'whiteness' as a confection, the empty performance of online rhetoric, the impossibility of transferring privilege - and so much that I had somewhere in the back of my mind but that I'd struggled to articulate.

Refreshing . . . A nuanced and historical analysis of post-colonialism, anti-racism and collectivism. The sharpest of any book out on 'race' in recent years

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

Fantastic . . . a wonderfully concise deconstruction of race and racism Emma is challenging the inherent power dynamics in the concept of allyship, arguing instead for coalition when it comes to how people can confront the structures of racism

Concise, sure-footed and complete . . . a battle cry against racism for even the most socially aware . . . Dabiri's reflections have been a very, very long time coming

A scintillating, intellectual investigation into black women and the very serious business of our hair, as it pertains to race, gender, social codes, tradition, culture, cosmology, maths, politics, philosophy and history

The Times Literary Supplement 'Books of the Year'

FASCINATING, educational, personal, humble and engaging. I urge you to read it!

Groundbreaking, rich, heartbreaking . . . a highly charged history

From Allyship to Coalition

Brought to you by Penguin. 
 
An incisive - and deeply practical - essay from the acclaimed author of Don't Touch My Hair 
 
Stop the denial 
Abandon guilt 
Interrogate capitalism 
 
When it comes to racial justice, how do we transform demonstrations of support into real and meaningful change? With intellectual rigour and razor-sharp wit, Emma Dabiri cuts through the haze of online discourse to offer clear advice. 
 
© Emma Dabiri 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Emma Dabiri is a teaching fellow in the African Languages, Cultures and Literatures section of the African department at SOAS, a Visual Sociology PhD researcher at Goldsmiths and the author of Don't Touch My Hair, which was an Irish Times bestseller. She has presented several television and radio programmes including BBC Radio 4's critically-acclaimed documentaries Journeys into Afro-futurism and Britain's Lost Masterpieces.

Stop the denial 
Stop the false equivalencies 
Interrogate whiteness 
Interrogate capitalism 
Denounce the white Saviour 
Abandon guilt 
 
We need to talk about racial injustice in a new way: one that builds on the revolutionary ideas of the past and forges new connections. 
 
In this robust and nuanced examination of race, class and capitalism, Emma Dabiri draws on years of academic study and lived experience, as well as personal reflections on a year like no other. With intellectual rigour, wit and clarity, Dabiri articulates a powerful vision for meaningful and lasting change.

What White People Can Do Next

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