IT WAS the late US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who courted mockery for his explanation of the difference between “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns”. He made a good point, though, and this is the territory of Genelle Aldred’s new book about unconscious bias and the way in which it impedes social justice — not least the human struggle to live together harmoniously.

Drawing on her experience as a broadcast journalist and communications strategist, Aldred sets out the terrain of the unknown unknowns that, were they better understood, would smooth interactions in everything from multicultural discourse and social media to the ways in which news is reported and charities fund-raise. She challenges readers to consider their blind spots, open themselves up to new voices and influences, approach news coverage questioningly, and understand how privilege works and where power is played out in the society.

This is more a topographical description than a road map. The active verbs in the title, and the Venn diagram on the cover, imply a how-to book. Instead, though, it is an extended reflection in which much is asserted but little is evidenced beyond the author’s observations in her own family life and workplaces. Readers of a more pragmatic or activist mindset may become frustrated by the lack of clear solutions to the problems cited, beyond some fairly abstract and generic advice, while those who might wish to see where her thinking is set within a wider theology or canon (e.g. Burnham and Roper-Hall’s Social Graces model to help name power differentials) will be disappointed.

Aldred writes as a Black woman with her lived experience to the forefront, helpfully so when describing the forces and experiences that shaped her. The book is at its most readable when, for example, she explains how her mother’s guidance to keep schooling and social life separate was carried forward into her professional career — something that her colleagues may misunderstand or misinterpret. At other times, accounts of conversations in the workplace used to illustrate an underlying point occasionally have the whiff of settling old scores by having the last word.

Nevertheless, Aldred writes as someone on her own journey of understanding. “I don’t pretend to have written this book as someone who has fully rounded vision,” she says. “I wrote it because I want to explore how our lack of honest communication prevents progress.” There is little to argue with here. She confesses to her own blind spots while encouraging us to figure out where our own lie, and offers some good pointers towards them. Readers who have not given much thought to these issues may find Communicate for Change helpful in making some of their own unknown unknowns known.

The Revd Fraser Dyer is the Vicar of St Anne and All Saints, South Lambeth, in south London, and author of Who Are We to Judge? Empathy and discernment in a critical age (SPCK, 2015).

Communicate for Change: Creating justice in a world of bias
Genelle Aldred
SPCK £12.99
(978-0-281-08557-6)
Church Times Bookshop £11.69