What’s for dessert? | Books | Weekly style

Richmond native Saira Rao talks quickly as she sips water at a West End cafe. She talks about her new book, co-authored with Regina Jackson from Colorado, which is outspoken and provocative about white women’s privilege. There is also a documentary film called “Deconstructing Karen”.

The co-authors use their book, which is due out Nov. 1 from Penguin Random House, as well as the film, directed by Patty Ivins Specht, and perhaps most controversially, their high-priced private dinners with white women, as tools in an ongoing culture war.

Rao and Jackson are American Indian and Black, respectively. They want to expand current feminist thinking into something far more progressive than what they say currently exists. Their film was released in Canada and has already drawn strong denunciations from right-wing media, including Fox News and The New York Post.

Rao, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress while living in Colorado, takes a “take no prisoners” attitude. “I want to break up the Democratic Party,” she says, viewing current party members as too shy, centrist and unproductive.

The book she co-wrote, “White Women: Everything You Already Knew About Your Own Racism and How to Do Better” is a quick read notable for its candor about the feminist movement. It’s not going to please everyone.

The book states, “One of the reasons white feminism is so insidious—and why white feminists might claim color blindness more often (compared to white women who don’t necessarily care about feminism)—is that feminists white women like to think they live in a fantasy world where every woman is equally oppressed.

Another quote: “Privilege is power. By ignoring your white privilege, you ignore your white power. When you ignore your white power, you maintain white supremacy. It’s white feminism. White feminism. East. White supremacy.”

Rao’s parents emigrated from India and she was born and raised in Richmond. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree and holds a law degree from New York University.

For years, Rao has been baffled by attitudes about her race and gender. “Talk about race and see what happens,” she says, noting that she and Jackson have been inundated with negative comments and on social media and other media.

The co-authors began working together in the Denver area.

According to the book, Jackson, a Chicago native, has a background in business administration. She got a job at a subsidiary of telecommunications company AT&T, but quickly believed there was some sort of racial filter. She wanted to go into administration but felt pressured to become a telephone operator because that’s where they put black employees. It took him years to progress.

In 2017, Rao, then living in the Denver area, decided to run for Congress against Diana DeGette, a moderate Democrat who had been in office for some time. Rao described her as a “white woman who had done exactly nothing”. The more Rao was exposed to Colorado’s so-called liberal circle, the more disenchanted she became. She felt they could do much more to make incomes fairer, expand health care and improve education.

Rao lost the primary but won a partner in Jackson, who had been a campaign worker. They thought about a book and, later, a documentary film. But in the meantime, another idea popped up.

Both wanted to have serious conversations with white women about racism. So they created a program called “Race2Dinner” in which they and six to eight women would have two-hour sessions that included cocktails, dinner and talks. The dinners initially cost $2,500 split among attendees. The price is now $5,000.

The goal is to help white women understand that they might be racist. Once that happens, they can find ways around it. Some big problems with white women, Rao and Jackson write, are that they are shy, want to be too nice, and avoid conflict that might actually bring about change.

Unsurprisingly, Rao and Jackson get a lot of attention, not to mention some backlash. The film recently aired on Canadian television and right-wing media were quick to push it aside.

Fox News commentator Jesse Watters gave the film a scathing review. He said: “The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has funded and aired a new documentary called ‘Deconstructing Karen’. It’s about two American peddlers named Regina Jackson and Saira Rao who charge self-hating white women thousands of dollars for the privilege of being called racist over dinner.

The New York Post ran a similar article titled, “Shocking: Women Reprimanded for ‘Advocating White Supremacy’ in New Movie ‘Karen.’

Still, Rao says they received a lot of positive feedback on social media, especially among black attendees. The film has had 10 million views, she said.

In the meantime, Jackson and Rao prepare to market the book, movie, and expensive dinner parties. She adds that “no one was more surprised than me” when she and Jackson landed a contract with Penguin Random House, a New York-based Big Five publishing house.

Rao and his family returned to their home in Richmond this summer.

“I like its diversity,” she says.