Twelve Cups of Coffee
Twelve conversations about race
Twelve Cups of Coffee is structured as a dozen accessible conversations, unpicking racism by using real-world examples. It uses memorable examples – often from news, movies or celebrity gossip - to highlight and demystify complex ideas around race and provide readers with the tools to start having these conversations with confidence. Above all, it offers a balanced discussion of controversial topics that are difficult to talk about, and does so in a way that can be adopted in real life.
In a world where identity politics is screaming at us from every side – the news, the internet, television and even in our workplace – it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. To feel as if the world is a murky mess of anger and divisiveness that is impossible to understand. Having a calm, honest conversation about race or identity feels as if it’s a million impossible miles away… Twelve Cups of Coffee is a book that can offer you that calm honesty. Written with the goal of offering clear, practical tools in a calm and honest way, each of the Cups in this book will guide you to understand an aspect of the struggle against racism with clarity and ease. If you’ve ever wondered:
How to know if something is cultural appropriation?
What is representation really?
Has blackface ever been okay?
How can I ask people where they are from without being racist?
Twelve Cups will provide you the tools to answer all these questions, and much more.
The intended audience – This is aimed at anyone interesting in actively understanding and discussing racism: it makes a special effort to avoid subjective autobiographical examples, and in that sense stands apart from other contemporary books on the topics of identity, race and culture.
‘What qualifies the author to write this book?’ and ‘what else have they published like this?’ - The answer to both of these questions is actually the same: I was the lead author for the Rubicon Review, an independent piece of academic work considering the ‘impact of ignoring class-race intersectionality in the charity sector’. This report launched in August 2020, raising pointed questions about the UK third sector and making a formal complaint to both the Charities Commission and the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Whilst the report itself received only limited national press, the Chief Exec of the charity we focussed on stepped down the day after launch, and the report itself has since been cited in other academic publications. Since then I’ve been working on this much less academic and more accessible piece of work, informed by my own experiences as a person of colour living in the UK.
I’ve worked and volunteered in the area of equalities in the UK for two decades, receiving multiple awards – national and international – for my achievements in supporting vulnerable communities (not just BAME groups). The book is especially informed by the racism I have experienced first-hand from both white people and within my own BAME community, although the book generally leans away from personal examples.
On that note, I have published under a pen name as I’m keen to maintain my privacy as much as possible. The fact that I’m choosing to publish under a pen name that isn’t reflective of my racial identity is another topic that the book itself actually covers when discussing representation (in the Fifth Cup), as I’m actually South Asian with an Arabic name.
SYNOPSIS
Twelve Cups of Coffee is 260,000 words in length, structured into twelve sections or ‘Cups’. It is written in an informal, non-academic and accessible style, with each chapter containing twelve chapters, and each chapter being approximately 1200 words in length. Each chapter ends with a single ‘key point’ – no longer than a tweet – and then has a counterpoint from a voice referred to as the ‘reversal reader’. Overall, the tone is of an informal dialogue or conversation, framed as one that could be had over a cup (or twelve) of coffee.
The book provides a frank and balanced exploration of racism, dissecting commonly misunderstood terms and providing clear rules of thumb for discussing race. The book is extremely accessible - written in a conversational style and full of contemporary pop-culture references - but also tackles rarely-discussed and stigmatised topics about race as well.
Cup One – Getting comfortable has an opening chapter using an example from my own lived experience about racist language in non-racist settings: this shocking opening then leads into a series of chapters setting the terms of the book to follow, including outlining the structure, discussing the concept of safe spaces, and explaining why I am refraining from using personal examples as much as possible (and am publishing under a pen name). It ends by examining whether it is ever possible to be a bystander to racism.
Cup Two – The basics spends time drilling down into the nomenclature of the conversation on race. It considers terms such as BAME and POC, and introduces the key concepts of multiple identity and intersectionality.
Cup Three – Privilege, guilt and fragility is devoted to unpicking these three concepts in detail.
Cup Four – The five types of racism is a section that introduces readers to the four newer types of racism distinct from the ‘obvious’ form we are all instinctively familiar with, and also provides the reader with a key tool for assessing this rapidly themselves.
Interlude – How to build a racist utopia is the first of two interludes playing devil’s advocate, applying the concepts we have learned in order to see how structural racism is able to persist today.
Cup Five – Representation considers complex issues such as affirmative action, tokenism and passing. As usual, contemporary and relatable examples are used throughout.
Cup Six – Words you can and cannot say is the section that finally revisits the opening chapter of the first cup, and – equipped with our new concepts and terms – guides the reader to understand the nuance of racist slurs in respect of their context and saliency.
Cup Seven – The tyranny of virtue is something of a departure. This cup barely discusses racism, and instead focusses on the negative impact that social media has had on our ability to debate and learn. Key terms and tools are introduced here to allow us to dive into more complex areas around race later.
Cup Eight – The painful truth about stigma takes the bold route of highlighting taboo and lesser-known prejudices within BAME communities, such as colourism.
Cup Nine – Gatekeepers builds on the preceding section by considering the impact of multiple identity within BAME communities. It highlights the problematic situation we find ourselves in of only hearing a small number of non-representative but vocal figures that purport to speak for the whole community.
Interlude – How to build a gatekeepers utopia is another devil’s advocate chapter, but this time considering the risks in allowing non-representative BAME voices to dictate the conversation on race.
Cup Ten – I know what you mean moves us back into more familiar territory, specifically considering the micro-aggressions inherent in asking people ‘where they are from’ and in mispronouncing names of BAME people.
Cup Eleven – Cultural appropriation brings together all the terms and concepts we have learned to this topic, equipping readers with tools to understand appropriation with confidence.
Cup Twelve – Common grounds provides a sense of closure and summation, touching on topics such as George Floyd and future activism, as well as providing clear next steps for positive action the reader can take.
Appendix One – Recommendations lists dozens of TV shows, YouTube videos, books and other pop-culture content that flesh out the ideas discussed in the book.
Appendix Two – References contains academic references (including research papers and documentaries) specific to each chapter in each Cup.