Book Review - The Clapback: Your Guide to Calling Out Racist Stereotypes by Elijah Lawal

Racist stereotypes have long been a stain on our society which sadly persists to this day. They are often hidden in jokes with people defending them as “just a bit of banter” or framing them as positive stereotypes which through some mysterious alchemy beyond my understanding makes them “ok”. Over time this has led to many stereotypes not even being recognised as stereotypes anymore, instead being considered facts of life, like the idea that all Black men are well endowed, or that all Black people know how to dance. These are ideas that are not based on any objective empirical evidence yet are treated as true by many. In fact, actual empirical evidence would in some cases suggest the contrary. The Clapback: Your Guide to Calling Out Racist Stereotypes by Elijah Lawal is a book which does exactly what it says on the tin. As the title suggests, it blows up many of these stereotypes around Black people. It holds them under a microscope, deconstructs them, and explains clearly why they are wrong, and why they are harmful using extensive research.

One thing which struck me when reading this book was that a lot of the stereotypes covered by Lawal have their roots in slavery both here, and in America. Seeing it come up over and over again, really hammers home how massive of an impact the legacy of slavery has had and continues to have to this day. There are many people, white people in particular, who say slavery was ended over one hundred years ago why can’t people just get over it and be done with it? As a white man I understand that impulse, I want to be done with slavery too. However, the fact that chattel slavery was ended over one hundred years ago and stereotypes made during that time to hurt Black people are still prevalent today means while we may be done with slavery, slavery isn’t done with us. I would like to think over my time reading and writing these reviews that I’ve expanded my thinking and opened my mind, and yet I was today-years-old when I found out from this book that the stereotype that all Black people love fried chicken, and watermelon has its origins in slavery. It was certainly a stereotype I was aware of, and knew it was offensive, but I had never stopped to ask why of all the foods in existence was the stereotype fried chicken, and watermelon specifically? This book answered a question I had never thought to ask by taking stereotypes and tracing them backwards to their points of origin and refuting them.

Lawal also does a good job defining, and explaining terms like systemic racism, white privilege, and unconscious bias in a way which is clearly, and easily understandable for the reader. These are terms which have been deliberately misunderstood by some, or had their meanings co-opted or warped. Lawal cuts through that obfuscation explaining the true original meanings of these terms and more. This is the fifteenth book I have read for review as of the time of writing, and it is one of the most accessible and digestible thanks to Lawal’s informal, and conversational writing style. When books rely on statistics and hard data a lot, as this one often does, they can fall into the trap of coming across as cold and removed, reading more like a series of statistics. It would be easy for the people these stereotypes affect to be reduced to just a set of numbers printed on a page. Lawal avoids this by including his own experiences, and how each of the stereotypes featured have impacted him. These personal stories from his life help illustrate the harm these stereotypes can do and helps hammer home the point that they can’t be allowed to pass unchallenged.

While these are all positive things, the simple fact that a book like this is still needed in 2022 (it was published in 2020) is depressing. I didn’t feel anger in the pages as I read, but I did feel an almost resigned tiredness from this book. It felt like there was an element of, ‘Fine, we’ll go through this again. Here’s why it’s not ok to ask where a person of colour is ‘really’ from’. As a white person I can’t fully understand how much it must wear on people of colour every time a white person says something like, ‘I don’t know about this stuff, educate me’. The response I have seen more and more frequently is, “It’s not my job to educate you”, is completely reasonable. You’re right, it’s not your job, and you shouldn’t be expected to put in the emotional labour, pain, and trauma it can take to debunk all of these stereotypes, and to do so for free. The problem with this perspective is a refusal to educate white people with questions just acts to cede ground to white supremacists. They don’t have any problem explaining their warped version of ‘truth’ to anyone who will listen. Talking about all their twisted hate filled theories and radicalising people to their cause is one of their favourite things to do after racial harassment. When someone tells a clueless white person ‘it’s not my job to teach you this stuff’ it leaves an opening for a white supremacist to put an arm around that person’s shoulder and lead them to extremism saying “Hey come over here, I’ll tell you the real truth. You know how you feel bad all the time, well you’re right to feel like that, you are the victim and I’ll tell you why.” It’s not right, and it’s not fair but it happens. The importance of this book is that it helps dispel the stereotypes, explain and educate, and importantly Lawal got paid for his time and work.

Ultimately of all the books I have read for review so far, this is probably the one I would recommend most to the hypothetical clueless white person I mentioned above. It achieves its goal of providing the reader with clapbacks against common stereotypes by dismantling them. Thanks to Lawal’s writing style he doesn’t come across like an unapproachable professor lecturing the reader from on high while wagging a finger in disapproval. He comes across more like a peer who is gently taking the reader to one side and explaining why these stereotypes are not ok and shouldn’t be perpetuated. I’m not naïve enough to think that one book can completely change someone’s worldview, especially if it’s one they’ve held all their life. It is true that there are people out there who can’t be reached. People for whom there can never be enough evidence and will argue in bad faith with talking points about “Black on Black crime”, and how “all lives matter” (both of which are also points which Lawal provides clapbacks for). However, there are also people who are so stuck in their own bubble they believe in the myth that the UK is a post racial society. I should know, for the first eighteen years or so of my life I was one of them thinking that racism used to be a problem, but we passed some laws a few decades ago and now things are fine. It wasn’t until I went to university, and into adulthood that I started meeting people and learning things that challenged that perspective. If this book had been available to me back then, and if I had read it then it might not have completely dispelled that myth for me, but I think it would have left a big impression.

You can buy this book here: https://tinyurl.com/mu2wbycd