Their innovative, interactive approach is a fresh (and fun) take on a critical topic.
Author Kate Schatz has a perfectly succinct, spot-on description for her latest project: “It’s funny, but it’s not f*cking around.”
It’s called Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book, and it’s unlike any other reading you’ll find about our country’s long history of racism and oppression. Co-authored by Schatz and comedian W. Kamau Bell, Do the Work! approaches its heavy subject matter with a sense of childlike discovery that strikes the perfect balance for a conversation that’s tough, but essential.
“It’s like the workbooks that you give your kids in the summer so they don’t forget everything they learned during the school year, but it’s for adults,” Schatz tells KCM. “It’s intended to engage people around racism, antiracism, white supremacy, and change-making in ways that are fun and unexpected, hopefully challenging, and also hopefully entertaining.”
Tricky topics such as those may not seem like obvious candidates for a humorous take, but it makes total sense when you read the book — and the tone speaks to a crucial part of how Bell has responded to discrimination for his entire life.
“A lot of people think racism is not funny, but my whole career has been built on making fun of racism and making fun out of racism,” he says. “If you’re a person who experiences racial oppression in this country, one of the key ways to deal with that oppression and survive and thrive is to make fun of that oppression — or make fun of the oppressor.”
So what exactly does that look like? Do the Work! combines thoughtful dialogue between Bell and Schatz with tactile activities like word searches, games, and coloring pages, all of them visually absorbing and deeply informative. Highlights include a privilege checklist with which you can literally check your privilege and a color-by-numbers activity that exposes the harsh reality of redlining, which has continued to influence the makeup of economically disadvantaged neighborhoods for decades.
We asked Bell and Schatz to walk us through some of these activities and what they hope you’ll take away from them, which you can see in this video:
While the book is chiefly targeted at white readers, it’s really meant for everyone for an important reason: “White supremacy messes with all of us,” Bell and Schatz write. But white people have just as much to gain from changing these oppressive patterns as anyone else.
“As my friend, Pastor Michael McBride, always says, white people have to understand that an antiracist world is actually better for them, too,” Bell explains. “A lot of times white people think that we don’t want racism because it hurts Black people, indigenous people, Latinx people, Asian people, people of all shades of color. But actually, an antiracist society benefits all of us.”
Schatz and Bell make great collaborators, not just because of their backgrounds — Bell is a stand-up comic who hosts CNN’s United Shades of America and directed the Showtime documentary series We Need to Talk About Cosby; Schatz is the bestselling author of books like Rad American History A-Z and Rad Girls Can — but also because their dialogue as a Black person and a white person is exactly the kind of conversation they hope Do the Work! will encourage.
“There are parts in the book where Kamau shares something very personal, very intense, very real, and in my response, I really thought about modeling what it looks like to just listen as a white person, especially to hear something difficult,” Schatz says. “Not to immediately respond with wanting to solve the problem or apologize or feeling guilty or defensive or shameful, but to show what it can look like to say, ‘I hear you. Wow. Thank you for telling me that.’”
The fear among many white people, Bell points out, is that if they have conversations about racism, they will eventually mess up and say the wrong thing. But that’s to be expected, he says, and Do The Work! acknowledges that reality and prepares the reader for it.
“A lot of white people feel like talking about race is a minefield, and yes, it is kind of a metaphorical minefield, and you’re going to step on some mines. But luckily, they’re metaphorical mines,” he explains. “So just embrace the fact that you’re going to mess up, but you can recover.”
For anyone who’s ever felt paralyzed by how to make a substantive difference, the book offers copious options for taking effective action right away. Whether that’s going to a protest or a march or taking smaller but equally impactful gestures that are localized to your community, Schatz says the takeaway message can be boiled down to two words: “Do something.”
It also includes extensive recommendations and resources for continuing to do the work long after you’ve finished this activity book, which Bell tells us is a critical step.
“If there was a fast solution to creating an antiracist America, believe me, I would have invented it and sold it already,” he says. “But there’s no fast solution, and it’s not just about any one book. If you want to talk about eating healthier, you can’t say, ‘I ate healthy on Monday, so I’m done.’ You have to keep these things up if you actually want to create a healthier lifestyle and a healthier America.”
But Do the Work! is an excellent place to start, and if you’re not yet convinced that you should pre-order it immediately, the authors have one last pitch.
“The book has stickers!” Bell says. Schatz adds: “There are stickers, there are pull-out sections, there’s a giant sign that says ‘end white supremacy,’ there are lift-the-flaps, there are paper dolls. There’s all kinds of fun stuff in there.”
