Are You Calling Me a Racist? - by Sarita Srivastava (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Diversity and anti-racism work is too often reduced to training, therapy, education, and policy, or what the author calls "Feel-Good" approaches that focus on emotions and morality and prevent us from taking collective action for racial justice, decolonization, and equity in our organizations and communities"--

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2025 Canadian Sociology Book Award, given by the Canadian Sociological Association

Shows why diversity workshops fail and offers concrete solutions for a path forward

Despite decades of anti-racism workshops and diversity policies in corporations, schools, and nonprofit organizations, racial conflict has only increased in recent years. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" reveals why these efforts have failed to effectively challenge racism and offers a new way forward.

Drawing from her own experience as an educator and activist, as well as extensive interviews and analyses of contemporary events, Sarita Srivastava shows that racial encounters among well-meaning people are ironically hindered by the emotional investment they have in being seen as good people. Diversity workshops devote energy to defending, recuperating, educating, and inwardly reflecting, with limited results, and these exercises often make things worse. These "Feel-Good politics of race," Srivastava explains, train our focus on the therapeutic and educational, rather than on concrete practices that could move us towards true racial equity. In
this type of approach to diversity training, people are more concerned about being called a racist than they are about changing racist behavior.

"Are You Calling Me a Racist?" is a much-needed challenge to the status quo of diversity training, and will serve as a valuable resource for anyone dedicated to dismantling racism in their communities, educational institutions, public or private organizations, and social movements.

Review Quotes

"Srivastava writes from a first-person perspective as an activist, organizer, and educator on the front lines of the feminist and anti-racism movements. With perceptive insights and razor-sharp analysis, she reveals how 'progressive spaces filled with progressive people committed to fighting sexism and racism' are routinely 'confronted with familiar conflicts over racism, sexism, and diversity.'"-- "CHOICE"

"The book very clearly distills and, in an accessible style, explores all the things that are problematic with DEI training. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries."-- "Booklist, STARRED"

"A searing and compelling critique of the emotional cartography of Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) efforts and the 'feel-good racial politics' normalized within anti-racism practices in community organizations, social media, universities, and workplaces. Srivastava offers a brilliant analysis of current DEI approaches that focus on individual experiences and attitudinal shifts rather than on concrete practices that transform the conditions that produce racial inequities. A must-read book for scholars and activists involved in meaningful, long-term anti-racist, decolonial social justice work."-- "Chandra Talpade Mohanty, author of Feminism Without Borders, Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity"

"Sharing critical insights from anti-racist interventions in feminist organizations over the past three decades, Srivastava makes a compelling case that racism cannot simply be talked or trained away - and that attempts to do so often come at significant costs, contributing to rather than challenging harmful dynamics and practices. While some institutions, like the police, cannot be made 'anti-racist' because they were created to uphold structural relations of power, "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" offers signposts to a systemic approach to transformation focused on doing better rather than just feeling or knowing better."-- "Andrea J. Ritchie, author of Practicing New Worlds: Abolition and Emergent Strategies"

"Srivastava has written a deeply insightful book on the emotional features that all accusations of racism have come to generate. "Are You Calling Me a Racist?" offers a penetrating analysis of 'the feel-good politics of race' and introduces novel elements into critical analyses of race and racism, as necessary in taking up anti-racist activism as they are for research and teaching."-- "David Theo Goldberg, author of The War on Critical Race Theory: Or, The Remaking of Racism"

"This book is vital reading for anyone interested in understanding not only why feel-good race work has failed us but what we can do about it. Conversations, workshops, meetings, and therapy will never address the structural racism embedded in organizations. Relying on years of personal experience and work with leftist organizations and interviews with activists in feminist organizations, Sarita Srivastava skillfully deconstructs the performative nature of most contemporary diversity work."-- "Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America"

"Provocative... Srivastava exposes the flaws of 'feel-good' antiracist workshops, instead calling for practical actions and real reforms."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

About the Author

Sarita Srivastava is Professor of Sociology and Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science at OCAD University in Toronto.