London-born writer Reni Eddo-Lodge has just become the very first black British author to take the No. 1 spot on the UK's official book chart.
Her extremely powerful and popular book, Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race, topped the Neilsen BookScan's Top 50 for the week ending June 13. This makes Reni the first black British author to top the chart since Neilsen began recording book sales in 2001.
Published back in 2017, the book was first enjoyed by many in the form of a blog that began in 2014. The blog posts stated the reasons why Reni no longer converses with "the vast majority" of white people about race, because they "refuse to accept the legitimacy of structural racism and its symptoms.".
After being awarded the No. 1 spot, Reni took to Twitter and said it "feels abosolutely wild to have broken this record" and that her work "stands on the shoulders of many black British literary giants."
The only other black author to share the achievement with Reni is America's former First Lady, Michelle Obama, after she topped the chart in 2018 with her book, Becoming.
Research has shown that a writer is more likely to make it into the bestseller charts if their name was David than if they were from an ethnic minority. With this being said, it appears that times are really changing after Reni announced her bestselling book is also officially a New York Times best-seller.
