Reni Eddo-Lodge wins Jhalak prize for British writers of colour

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race praised for ‘holding up a mirror to contemporary Britain’

Reni Eddo-Lodge has won the Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour. Her book, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, was praised by judges as a “clarion call for action”, which “not only holds up a mirror to contemporary Britain but also serves as a warning”.

Eddo-Lodge’s collection of essays began as a blogpost of the same title in 2014. Opening with her statement: “I’m no longer engaging with white people on the topic of race,” Eddo-Lodge wrote she could “no longer engage with the gulf of an emotional disconnect that white people display when a person of colour articulates our experiences. You can see their eyes shut down and harden. It’s like treacle is poured into their ears, blocking up their ear canals like they can no longer hear us.”

The book unflinchingly confronts a country where racism is at an all-time high, but there are no identifiable racists

Related: Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race

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