I Talk About It All the Time

Camara Lundestad Joof (Author), Noble Olivia Gunn (Translated by), Monica L. Miller (Introduction by), Nana Osei-Kofi (Introduction by)

9780299348540

Paperback / softback, published 23 July 2024

120 pages
21.6 x 14 x 0.8 cm, 0.454 kg

“Beautifully, immersively written, these everyday and reflective snapshots from the life of a Black, queer Norwegian woman are searing, insightful, and so recognizable for other women in the Black European diaspora.”—Gloria Wekker, author of White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race

“A stunning memoir told in illuminating fragments. Joof’s devastating narrative captures what it costs to navigate spaces where you are constantly treated as if you do not belong.”—Ethelene Whitmire, author of Regina Anderson Andrews, Harlem Renaissance Librarian

“This gemlike book relentlessly dramatizes the particularities of Norwegian racism. The power of Joof's observations increases in proportion to their understated precision. Her gentle voice is wholly deceptive. She slices through the delusions, denials, and defensiveness that distinguish the unthinkable racism of Scandinavian society.”—Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

In this biting, lyrical memoir, Camara Lundestad Joof, born in BodØ to Norwegian and Gambian parents, shares her experiences as a queer Black Norwegian woman. Joof’s daily encounters belie the myth of a colorblind contemporary Scandinavia. She wrestles with the fickle palimpsest of memory, demanding communion with her readers even as she recognizes her own exhaustion in the face of constantly being asked to educate others about racism.

“I regularly decide to quit talking to white people about racism,” writes Joof. Discussions with white people about racism often feel unproductive, the occasional spark of hope coming at enormous personal cost. But not talking about it is impossible, a betrayal of self. The book is a self-examination as well as societal indictment. It is an open challenge to readers, to hear her as she talks about it, all the time.

• Introduction: Let’
  s Talk about Race
• Monica L. Miller and Nana Osei-Kofi
• Dear Brother
• Quitting
• What’
  s in a Name?
• Friend First
• National Costume I
• A Less Significant Event
• Whiteness
• Quid Pro Quo
• Pavlov’
  s Bicycle
• Going Out
• Brownness for Sale
• The Stupidity of Youth
• Stockholm—
  Oslo—
  Copenhagen
• Stop
• Mass Effect
• African Time
• Pillow Talk
• Low-Frequency Feelings
• A Little Man
• Playing the Victim
• Cultural Capital
• Traveling by Plane
• Traveling by Train
• The Arts and Culture Center for Nynorsk
• Tequila
• Blabbermouth
• Gratitude
• Youth, First
• New Sweater
• Loop
• He Hit First
• The Rope
• Mania
• Source Critique
• Mom’
  s Memory
• Red
• Apolitical
• Someone Else’
  s Brother
• You’
  re on the Wrong Train, Sir
• Avalanche
• National Costume II
• Mom Is a Superhero
• Your Silence Will Not Save You
• Epilogue
• Translator’
  s Note and Acknowledgments
• Olivia Noble Gunn