Structure

So You Want To Talk About Race is written as a series of 17 essays. There is also an introduction to contextualize the book as a whole. Each essay focuses on a separate issue to do with race and/or racial injustice, and therefore contains its own internal structure. There is no overarching narrative or storyline to this book, but the interconnectedness of all the essays in terms of topic and theme create a cohesive structure. The 17 essays vary in length, though none are extremely long. By dividing the book's structure by topic, So You Want To Talk About Race could be read from start-to-finish, or it could be read as a reference text with readers diving into the essays in almost any order.

Most of the essays have a similar internal structure. They typically begin with a personal narrative, story, or anecdote from the author's life. This...