How to Lose Friends and Influence White People

A guide through the balancing act of activist, advocate and ally, remembering that just because others are learning you don't need to be the teacher, from the dynamic and sharp co-founder of Media Diversity Australia, Antoinette Lattouf.

Poignant, inspiring, funny and most importantly authentic, How to Lose Friends and Influence White People explores how to make a difference when championing change and racial equality.

A powerful and personal guide on how to be effective, no matter who you’re trying to influence. Whether it's the racist relative sitting across the table at a family function, or the CEO blind to the institutional barriers to people of colour in the workplace, award-winning journalist and vivacious leader Antoinette Lattouf has some tips and advice on what to do. Unlike Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, it won’t advise you not to 'criticise, condemn or complain' but instead explores the fallout when you do just that. With searing insights into the popularity contests you’ll forgo, and how to decide which races are worth running -- and crucially which simply aren’t worth time or energy.

With wit and warmth, drawing on her own experiences and some very public missteps others have taken, Antoinette Lattouf shows us that a world of allies and advocates will be a better place for all of us – you just need to learn how to make (and keep) them!

About the Author

Antoinette Lattouf is a media personality, diversity advocate, author, mum of two girls and terrible at reverse parking. The multi-award winning journalist is the co-founder of Media Diversity Australia — a not for profit organisation working towards increasing cultural and linguistic diversity in the media. In 2019, Antoinette was named among AFR’s 100 Women of Influence. In 2021 she was awarded a Women’s Agenda Leadership Award and B&T Women in Media’s Champion of Change.

She’s worked in television, online and radio at Network 10. SBS, ABC and triple j. She’s been a guest panelist on ABC’s Q&A, SBS Insight, Sky News, Network 10’s The Project Studio10 & The Feed. Antoinette regularly writes columns for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and Mamamia. Antoinette is also an Ambassador for parent’s mental health organisation Gidget Foundation after experiencing debilitating post natal depression and anxiety. She now quite likes both of her children.