How to Talk About Race

By: Anita Foeman, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Professor Anita Foeman

Length: 5 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

There was a time, not too long ago, when talking openly about race was considered in poor taste. If you had good manners, you just didn’t talk about politics, religion, or race—not with your family or friends, and certainly not with your coworkers. Even now, many people feel the topic of race is better left alone. What if we say something that’s misunderstood? What if we’re labeled a racist?

Professor Anita Foeman understands those worries. In How to Talk about Race, she addresses those specific concerns and others, giving common-sense guidance and step-by-step instructions you can employ to develop safe and productive dialogue about race. Having spent her professional life researching, teaching, writing, and facilitating conversations about race, Dr. Foeman believes the ability to engage in a productive dialogue is an important start—even if we can’t solve every problem.

It’s impossible to understand race and culture in the United States without listening to individuals tell their unique stories. In this course, you’ll meet many fascinating people who have agreed to share their stories. As you get to know them, you might realize that your assumptions about their lives—if you had made those assumptions based only on their race—would have been far afield from their actual lived experiences. As you learn to better listen and dialogue about race, most likely, you’ll never see racial issues the same way again.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 The Great Courses (P)2023 The Teaching Company, LLC

An Unanswered Question

Professor Foeman endeavors to conduct this course in an even-handed, generalized sort of way so that listeners of all races and political leanings can benefit from her communication strategies. Several recorded interviews are used effectively to share the perspectives of a racially diverse group of speakers, and the need for openness, empathy and tolerance is stressed throughout.

Having said that, this course is most definitely "woke" in its sensibilities and many of the assumptions underpinning Critical Race Theory (i.e., that the United States is a systemically racist, white supremist society) are treated as settled matters of fact. Perhaps for the sake of balance, Foeman does allow one or two dissenting voices to be heard, such as in Lecture 4 where her Asian colleague Bessie draws attention to those among us who approach the issue of race dogmatically. Says Bessie, “There is a subset of people who care very, very deeply about race and social class and injustice who are, I would call them ideological purists, who would just feed on conflict and divisiveness, and [who] believe that for me to succeed, or for one group to get justice, everybody else, or the others, need to be taken down.”

The reason I did not rate this course more highly is that Professor Foeman doesn’t address Bessie’s analysis in any meaningful way. She offers a lecture focused on conservatives (Lecture 10), but the important question of how to engage with ideologues on the left goes unanswered. As another of Foeman’s speakers - Jeff, a Black conservative/libertarian - points out, true courage can be defined as a willingness to “call out people on your own side” of an issue. More courage from Professor Foeman would have made this a better, more authentically balanced course.