The Violent Falsehood Of Whites | Writer Otegha Uwagba

On this slightly different episode of Storyteller, host Lisa Golden speaks to writer Otegha Uwagba about her new essay Whites: On Race And Other Falsehoods.

The essay explores Uwagba’s impressions and discomfort as the Black Lives Matter movement reignited a conversation about race all over the world, as she disentangled social media reactions, anti-racist reading lists and a lifetime of experience of dealing with white people.

Lisa and her best friend Zandi reflect on the lessons and warnings posed by Whites as friends who have had an ongoing conversation about how the tensions around race express themselves in their relationship.

There are a lot of caveats to be made, most importantly of which is this is not a normal straight-forward interview to explore the ideas from a new book. Using Uwagba’s astute reflections on the time we are living in, Lisa and Zandi use it as a starting point to have the kind of nuanced, empowered and clear-eyed discussions around racism and whiteness that are so desperately needed. 

Show notes:

You can order Whites from Bookshop.org (which is now open in the UK! Support independent bookshops!) Or if you must, from Amazon.

You can follow Otegha Uwagba on Twitter and Instagram. 

Send Lisa your thoughts about the show on

Twitter @lisajozi or @storytellerpod1

Instagram @lisagoldenjozi or @storyteller_pod

Or drop her an email at [email protected] for a shout on in the following week's episode!

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