5 things I learned from reading ‘The Conversation’ by Robert Armstrong
Introduction
The Conversation is written by Robert Armstrong, a lecturer at Harvard University and is a book about anti-racism, aimed at organisations. I came across this book when it was covered by the Journey Further bookclub in February (this is an ace business bookgroup that gives me so many ideas on what to read!). I then read and studied it alongside Danae Shell and then spoke about it at 5Things (an awesome wee event organised by Andy Irvine).
It’s a fantastic book, filled with so much information, research and facts. I keep coming back to it to look things up and so I wanted to share some learnings that you might find useful too. These aren’t all the learnings, and I’m also pretty sure, if I read it again, I’d pick out something different, but these are somethings that might be useful for you.
PRESS Model
The basis of this book comes from an article that Robert Livingston wrote in 2020 in which he identified what he calls the PRESS model. Laid out below, the book follows each of the actions to achieve results.
- This is a book for white people to talk to and challenge other white people.
Let’s face it, white people are the main problem when it comes to racism — so it should be obvious that we should be part of the solution. The author (who is Black btw) remains optimistic that things can get better (with work). When it comes to anti-racism work, there’s evidence that suggests that white people learn better from other white people — which in my opinion is pretty sucky and full of white fragility. However, it remains a fact, and it means that we have a job to do! We, white people, can teach others and help them reduce their biases. - It’s OK to read!
This book gave me permission to keep reading on the subject. Early on in the book, the author refers to an Albert Einstein proverb (can I say proverb?) where he once said if he was given an hour to fix all the world problems, he would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes on the solution.
Last year, when there was a lot of hurt and out roar of the deaths of people like George Floyd and Brianna Taylor — we were all stuck in our homes, trying to stop the infection of COVID-19. I felt pretty awful — I wanted to do something, and I felt a bit helpless. I also felt like I didn’t have the confidence or knowledge to step and say something truly genuine (and I certainly didn’t want to be performative).
This book reminds me to sharpen my axe — to build my armour and build my confidence as a tangible action. - People are different, so different anti-racism tactics work.
Armstrong draws on the research that says people broadly fall into three categories. Pro-self (or individualist), pro-social or competitive. He then explains that these categories mean that different ‘tactics’ are needed to encourage anti-racism. Pro-self or individualists need convincing of the facts that will benefit everyone (including themselves) — kind of like the carrot from the carrot/stick analogy. Pro-socials work well with moral appeals, being told what they are doing is right. Competitors might need a stronger nudge (ie the stick) which might come from legislation or regulations. I found this interesting, because being strongly pro-social myself, I often find it hard to understand why others don’t follow suit! Now I know to try different tactics to convince. - Empathy is important — but a focus on ‘conscious and deliberate commitment to help others’ is more important.
This is personally so useful because I’m a pretty empathetic person usually and I can get very caught up in horrors of what white supremacy has done and it can make me pretty paralysed (another form of white fragility). This is a reminder, that understanding or empathising is not the most important thing. The most important thing is trying to do good. Next time I start to spiral, I’m going to remember this and keep moving forward.
Further reading suggested (which I’m going through right now) is Against Empathy by Paul Bloom. - You can build your own anti-racism actions
The author suggestions that you work on 3–5 actions first and when working outwards. This called to mind BJ Fogg and Tiny Habits. Building something into routine and practice and then ‘adding on’. It’s about follow through. Instead of picking 100s of things and doing them badly, work out what is going to work for you and start there. I picked myself three actions to start on: 1. Keep my reading and learning up. Knowledge for me is power and give me confidence to stand up when it counts. 2. Surround myself in Black people — reading, historical figures, movies, music, learning from — evidence suggests that spending your time with people not like you decreases your biases, and that can only be a good thing! 3. Start speaking up and speaking out more! As mentioned, I spoke about this event earlier this month and I’ve also set up a wee buddy read for White Tears, Brown Scars. I will keep looking at opportunities to speak (in an environment where it will be useful of course!)
Final Thoughts
I really really loved this book. I found it full of facts, so easy to read and super clear. I think it was the first time I wrote notes about a book without really understanding why.
I do however think that the author is too kind to white people. We have perpetrated great wrongs against People of Colour and we have a long way to fixing it. Sitting with our discomfort is part of this process — followed by actions to dismantle white supremacy. Always.
I would follow up this read within the following:
- Me and White Supremacy by Layla F Saad
- Caste by Isabel Wilkerson
My wee talk as part of 5Things can be found here.
I hope you found this useful. I’d love to hear what you think and about your own learnings. Please feel free to comment or DM me on Twitter (also, if I’ve got anything wrong here, and you want to correct me, please feel free — as Brene Brown says ‘I’m here to get it right not to be right’).
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