Season 2 Episode 5: Talking About Race With The FBC Rome

Both The FBC Paris and The FBC Rome, founded in 2019 by Lily Scarponi, have always had the intention of creating a safe space for book club members to play as active a role in the discussions as they would like and to be vocal allies of communities that experience social injustices first-hand, one of which is racism. The tragic deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor in the United States, has sparked a global conversation and movement that is saying very clearly: enough is enough. Camille, Lily and myself wanted to take a moment to check in with each other, as white women who run book clubs that focus on intersectional feminism and who will never have to directly experience racism. We are sitting with ourselves and figuring out how to be better anti-racist allies, both within and outside of book club sessions. We acknowledge that we have and we will mess up when it comes to being anti-racist but we want to hold ourselves accountable. We understand that this is something we have to work at actively day in and day out, and are grateful for all the resources that are available to us in many formats. We see that we need to get uncomfortable and talk more about white supremacy. We hope that you can get something out of this conversation and invite you to share your thoughts with us on the episode: let’s all be accountable together.