‘She is no-joke changing the world and, for what it’s worth, the way I live my life.’ – Anne Hathaway
How can white people challenge racism — whether in the form of their own unconscious biases or the wider systems of white supremacy?
In this week’s How To Academy Podcast, Hannah MacInnes meets author, influencer and activist Layla Saad, whose Instagram challenge #MeAndWhiteSupremacy encouraged people to own up and share their racist behaviours. She was looking for truth, and she got it. Thousands of people participated in the challenge, and over 90,000 people downloaded her Me and White Supremacy Workbook.
Awareness leads to action, and action leads to change. Listen to this week’s podcast and find out what you can do to make the world a better place.
Praise for Layla Saad:
‘America needed this book yesterday. In fact, America has always needed this book. Layla Saad is one of the most important and valuable teachers we have right now on the subject of white supremacy and racial injustice. With keen intelligence and tireless patience, she is working to remove our collective cultural blindspots, and to help – at last – to change minds and transform society. I have the deepest respect for her. Buy this book for yourself, your family, your students. Don’t put it off, and don’t look away. It’s time.’ — Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls
‘Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy is an indispensable resource for white people who want to challenge white supremacy but don’t know where to begin. She moves her readers from their heads into their hearts, and ultimately, into their practice. We won’t end white supremacy through an intellectual understanding alone; we must put that understanding into action. My fellow white people often tell me about the antiracism books they have read. My question is, “How will BIPOC know that you have read that book?” As Saad makes clear, if you have read and followed this book, BIPOC will know.’ — Robin DiAngelo, author of New York Times bestseller White Fragility
‘For well-intentioned white people, it is near impossible to know where to begin unlearning our role in upholding white supremacy – because how can you address what you can’t even see? White supremacy is the air we’ve breathed and the milk we’ve drunk since birth. Enter Layla Saad. Her work is personal, practical, reflective, applicable, difficult, effective, and imperative. For the millions of us begging to know where to begin – where to begin to counteract our ugly history, and where to stand during this historical moment of polarization and hate – Layla answers: Begin with me. Begin with you. Me And White Supremacy is an answer to a question every conscionable person is asking.’ — Glennon Doyle, author of #1 New York Times bestseller Love Warrior and founder of Together Rising
