This month, we invite Rasha Barrage, the author of Say No to Racism to talk about how she approached the research required for her book. Over to Rasha...
Before writing a book, I had never really understood what it meant to be a "Writer”. As a former lawyer, I had written hundreds of essays, a 40,000-word thesis, endless contracts and countless trusts. I was quietly confident in my research and drafting skills. Little did I know that writing a non-fiction book for a public audience is a wholly different, and humbling, ball game.
At the age of 36, I decided to pursue writing as a potential new career. I was fortunate enough to start working with Summersdale Publishers on a new title called Say No to Racism. The brief was clear – I needed to introduce the topic and galvanise readers into action, all within 128 pocket-sized pages!
But with a subject as huge and challenging as racism, where do you even begin?
I decided to take a legal approach: to unpick the statement and define every word. So, I put aside any assumptions and experiences I had and started at the beginning. What exactly is “racism”? Is “saying no” only about reaction rather than prevention?
The first stage was to write nothing at all. I read books and articles, watched seminars, talks and documentaries, and listened to podcasts.
I tried to be broad and consider as many angles as possible, from psychology and education to history and media. I was a woman obsessed and I didn’t want to miss a thing. I collated all the information and identified different topics. I wrote some possible headings down and created a rough outline for each chapter.
When it came to sitting down and writing the first draft, I was drawn to starting with the negative; the history and impact of racism. I searched for the latest statistics regarding issues such as employment, healthcare, and imprisonment. I wanted to expand the readers’ awareness beyond the commonly known areas.
The challenge was to distil my research into small, easy to understand sections within strict word limits. As the different issues became clearer, I selected examples to bring each point to life as well as direct questions for readers to consider regarding their own lives.
Beyond the history and realities of the topic, I also researched how we can overcome racism, of which there was comparably far less information.
Creating a list of practical actions required me to find the strengths and opportunities in every relationship or system that I had addressed earlier in the book.
Having delved deeply into various forms of racism, I was able to consider how those very problems came to be and how they might be prevented in future. It was the most rewarding part of writing the book; the breadth of research had allowed me to make connections and identify the subtle tools that many of us have to dismantle racism every day.
I now see that a writer may steer the direction of a non-fiction book, but the journey of discovery is shared with its readers and can continue far beyond its pages.
Rasha Barrage is a mother of three with an interest in writing books that empower children and young people, particularly those that are often marginalised in mainstream publishing. She is the author of Say No to Racism: Tips and Advice on How to Be Anti-Racist published by Summersdale in 2021.