Necessary Risks: Challenges Privileged People Need to Face

by Teresa McDowell Ott

Good people of privilege are increasingly aware of racial injustice but unsure what to do about it and afraid to venture into challenging dialogues and spaces. Necessary Challenges Privileged People Need to Face encourages readers to value risk-taking as the path toward a more equitable and just world. Building on skillful, memoir-like stories, Teri McDowell Ott explores ten risks--including learning, teaching, leading, following, going, and staying--with which she has wrestled in her work with diverse populations as the chaplain of a liberal arts college and as a volunteer in a men's state prison. Ott then reflects on how these experiences, including mistakes in often tense settings, have forced her to confront and wrestle with the systems and structures that have privileged her as a white Christian woman. With humility, she relates how risk-taking has led to profound changes in herself and her community. These necessary risks are also informed by Ott's study of authors, theologians, and scholars of color, such as Martin Luther King Jr., James Baldwin, bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa, Ada María Isasi-Díaz, and Eddie Glaude Jr. Demonstrating that in the face of injustice, white silence and inaction are not neutral, Necessary Risks leads readers to feel less fearful and more capable in diverse settings and ultimately to contribute to personal and communal learning and growth, change and transformation.

206 pages, Paperback

Published March 15, 2022

Reviews

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the focus of this book on "risks" - I hadn't thought before of how many things in our racially charged nation entail risk for us privileged people and are worth thinking more deeply about. Ott addresses the risks of: going, staying, following, listening, speaking, failing. The book is about Ott's journey but actually centers the experiences of her students - she's a college chaplain and a prison instructor. The stories about her conversations and interactions with them are the heart of the book, and often moved me to tears. She is frank about her own missteps. She draws on writers of color - Baldwin, King, hooks, Rankin - to push herself further. This book is beautifully written, deeply thoughtful, and excellent for continued study and journeying, for White individuals or small groups.

[Debra Merillat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 This book challenges the privileged to tackle fear and prejudice. It encourages you to learn and embrace the struggle to love and come to understand the marginalized population whether the unequal power relationship stems from political, social, cultural or economic elements. It emphasizes the need to free ourself from racial prejudice and open ourselves to understand the marginalized (black, LBGTQ+, Latinas to name a few) for a true start to liberation.

[Elizabeth Felicetti · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't have time to read this book this week but did anyway because it's gripping. Ott powerfully writes about privilege and weaves in her own experiences, including compelling volunteer work in a men's prison. She offers recommendations of resources. Great book for groups--I think it may be the summer book for my church's book club.