Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

An urgent primer on race and racism written by Emmanuel Acho.

“You cannot fix a problem you do not know you have.” So begins Emmanuel Acho in his essential guide to the truths Americans need to know to address the systemic racism that has recently electrified protests in all fifty states. “There is a fix,” Acho says. “But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations.”

In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask―yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and “reverse racism.”

In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader’s curiosity―but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight.

Emmanuel Acho grew up in Dallas with his three siblings, the son of Nigerian immigrant parents. In 2012 he was drafted into the NFL by the Cleveland Browns, and later played with the Philadelphia Eagles, while earning a master’s degree in sports psychology at the University of Texas in the off-seasons.

In 2016 Emmanuel left the football field, but he didn’t leave the game. He put down the ball and picked up the microphone to began his broadcasting career. He is now a Fox Sports analyst and the creator of the ongoing online video series Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.

Emmanuel Acho’s Video Series

Our nation and world have again been confronted with its greatest ongoing pandemic, Racism. Racism is not a virus of the body; it is a virus of the mind, and unfortunately, it can be lethal.

But you cannot fix a problem that you do not know you have. And if “ignorance is bliss,” in this case, bliss has caused bondage and pain for others. But there is a fix.

We can all access the life-saving medicine that will cure the world’s most ailing, long-lasting pandemic. But in order to access it, we’re going to have to have some uncomfortable conversations. Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man, is a safe place to have the uncomfortable conversations about race that many white people have never been able to have.

I want to remove the barriers for why we’ve never had these conversations. I want to provide a free space for curious white people to answer the questions they’ve always had but have been too nervous to ask. Like, “How can I have white privilege if I’m not wealthy?,” or “is racial profiling ok if black people tend to commit more crimes,” or my personal favorite from a 19-year-old girl from rural Alabama named Amy who asked, “if black people can say the ‘N’ word, why can’t I?” And many, many more.

Many have thought these questions without realizing the key to mending the racial divide in our world lie within the answers, and that white people DO have the power to affect sweeping change, and short circuit racism within their own lives and communities. The cure for what ails us—all of us—lies within these, Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.