Ask anybody: to be fluent in a language, you have to study abroad. Today, I’m grateful for all my experiences, because they were all a kind of lesson. But I started to wonder: If I, a first-generation-American black man, could be taught to believe distorted things in such a short time, how much easier is it for a white person to believe them? Finally surrounded by so many different expressions of blackness, I knew I was fine the way I was. I had been fed the same stereotypical stuff about black people as the white kids around me, and I hadn’t been immune: they had me under the impression that the only real way to be black was to be Nelly circa 2002, minus the Band-Aid under the eye. Part of this meant realizing how my childhood had given me misguided impressions about my own people. Those early college years were the first time I understood what it means to be a black man in America. You know when Tarzan finally met some humans and was like, "Oh, I’m a human"? It was like that. You should’ve seen me when I got to the University of Texas and found myself surrounded by more black people than I ever had been. but then, are you saying black people can’t be smart? Let me tell you, kid Emmanuel was working on an identity complex. I was offended, but I also thought- Maybe they’re right? Maybe I’m not black enough? Thank you if you’re telling me I sound smart. Or the ever-popular You’re like an Oreo: black on the outside, white on the inside. Like, for example, the uncountable times some kid in elementary school or middle school or high school plopped down at my lunch table and, after hearing me recount some playground feat, said, You don’t even talk like you’re black, or You don’t sound black, or You don’t even dress like you’re black. It wasn’t that overt, call-you-the-N-word-to-your-face racism. There might not have been any Lost Cause soldiers terrorizing my neighborhood, but from the time I was nine or ten years old, I knew I’d experienced racism. It’s a day that, among other things, calls attention to the state’s long Confederate history. My home state, as you may know, is the birthplace of Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the day enslaved people in Texas discovered they’d been set free-the last group of black people to find out. I became Manny to all the kids who decided my real name was too foreign. My surroundings, meanwhile, were disproportionately white, from my upper-class suburban neighborhood to the private school I was fortunate to attend. My homelife was steeped in Nigerian culture, rather than black American culture I only got that on Sundays and on Wednesdays at church. I’ve been navigating the lines between whiteness and blackness all of my life-starting with growing up in Dallas, Texas, as the son of Nigerian immigrants. My heart, too.īefore I get into more of what to expect from the book, I want to share a few things about myself. For all of you who lack an honest black friend in your life, consider me that friend. The room where this table sits is a safe space, by which I mean a space to learn things you’ve always wondered about, a place where questions you may have been afraid to ask get answered. It’s a special table-but don’t worry, this isn’t one of those uptight, where’s-your-VIP-reservation places, rather a come-as-you-are joint for my white brothers and sisters and anyone else inclined to join us. Pull up a chair.Ĭonsider this book an invitation to the table. Read moreĭear white friends, countrypersons: welcome. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity – but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the anti-racist fight. In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series of the same name a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation and ‘reverse racism’. In Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, Emmanuel Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white people are afraid to ask – yet which everyone needs the answers to, now more than ever. Emmanuel Acho dives into important subjects like cultural appropriation and white privilege, urging you to find a way to join in the fight against racism’ – Cosmopolitan 'What Emmanuel Acho has to say is important' – Matthew McConaughey 'I really love this' – Jada Pinkett Smith An urgent primer on race and racism, from Emmanuel Acho, an American Football Legend and host of the viral hit video series Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.
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