It’s a defining moment in American history. There have been protests, white people reckoning with their privilege, and stark changes happening in police departments and governments nationwide. I can only hope we maintain this momentum and don’t give up until we see real change (and real justice for George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor and countless other Black men and women). This is not about being political. Your politics don’t matter here. It’s about fighting racism and injustice, and not being ok with police murdering Black people.
It’s been a time of reflection for me, of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, of having real conversations with friends and loved ones. I’ve been thinking about where my voice belongs or if it even belongs here at all. But I think that’s the problem. White people have been silent for far too long, unwilling to have uncomfortable conversations and uncomfortable feelings. It has to stop. We have to actively fight racism. And the best way I know how to do that (other than lifting up Black voices and donating my money) is through books. Reading is an escape for me, yes, but it’s also how I gain a wider worldview and educate myself. And that’s why I’m sharing these books today. Because no, I’m not the first person to share a book list (Lord knows they’re everywhere), but it’s something small I can do, and hopefully it helps at least one person.
Friendly note: If you’re going to buy any of these books, might I suggest choosing a Black-owned bookstore? Here’s a list. And if there isn’t a Black-owned bookstore near you, adopt one from somewhere else. I’ve “adopted” Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery in Chicago and I’ve linked all of the books below to their Bookshop.org page.
5 Nonfiction Titles I Recommend
1) White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
I’ve talked about this book frequently because it had such a lasting impact on me. I hesitate to put a white author on this list because I believe that we need to center Black authors and their work first, but this one makes the cut because it is so powerful and filled with uncomfortable truths. I highlighted and sticky-noted the hell out of this book, and it’s one I know I will return to again and again.
“White equilibrium is a cocoon of racial comfort, centrality, superiority, entitlement, racial apathy, and obliviousness, all rooted in an identity of being good people free of racism. Challenging this cocoon throws off our racial balance. Because being racially off balance is so rare, we have not had to build the capacity to sustain the discomfort. Thus, whites find these challenges unbearable and want them to stop.”
2) Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson
It’s time to get uncomfortable, white people, and Dyson’s book will do just that. He touches on white privilege and white fragility, recounts all of the times he has been stopped by police, and urges people to learn and understand Black grievances. In order to make real progress in this country, in order to stop othering Black people, we must face our own uncomfortable truths and the implicit biases we have about Black people. Dyson’s writing is out of this world, and there were so many times I had to stop and sit with his words because they made such a resounding impact.
“You cannot know the terror that black folk feel when a cop car makes its approach and the history of racism and violence comes crashing down on us. The police car is a mobile plantation, and the siren is the sound of dogs hunting us down in the dark woods.”
3) Rest in Power: The Enduring Life of Trayvon Martin by Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin
Oh man, this book is heavy. It’s written by the parents of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black boy who was shot and killed coming home from a convenience store by George Zimmerman. It’s a senseless tragedy, one that happens way too often to Black boys and men. But we need to feel this pain. We need to sit with it, to try to imagine what it feels like. This book talks about Trayvon’s life, the difficulty Tracy Martin had in bringing his son’s killer to justice, and the trial of George Zimmerman. It’s a tough, emotional read, but so important to understand the people behind these senseless tragedies and their families.
4) Black Man in a White Coat: A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine by Damon Tweedy, M.D.
This book takes a look at systematic racism in a different way: how it affects the health struggles Black people face and the way they are treated by doctors. Dr. Tweedy entered medical school at Duke University, hoping to carve out a better life for himself, only for one of his first professors to mistake him for a janitor. Throughout the book, he grapples with what it means to be a Black doctor, the racism that is prevalent in the medical community (both from doctors and patients), and the disproportionate health struggles facing Black people. It’s an illuminating look at the medical profession from the lens of Blackness, and it’s one I encourage folks to read.
“The stereotype of black intellectual inferiority was so ingrained that for a black person to do as well, or better, than whites and Asians, they had to be “exceptionally bright”—earnest admiration and condescension wrapped in the same package.”
5) Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward is a prolific author, and she penned this book after five young Black men in her life died—either by suicide, due to addiction, or due to the effects of being poor and Black. It’s an honest look at the history of racism and the economic struggles of Black people, and how both of those things can foster a life of addiction, anger, and dissatisfaction.
“Both of us on the cusp of adulthood, and this is how my brother and I understood what it meant to be a woman: working, dour, full of worry. What it meant to be a man: resentful, angry, wanting life to be everything but what it was.”
5 Nonfiction Titles I Want to Read
1) The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
Like many of you, I’ve been hearing a lot about police reform and defunding police departments. It seems like a really crazy idea at first, but once you dig into the truth behind what this really means—funneling more money and resources to community-based organizations—it makes a whole lot of sense. I’ve ordered this book to learn more about the subject.
This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice— even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
2) Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
This book has been all over anti-racist book lists and from the synopsis, it sounds like it will be an incredible—and incredibly uncomfortable—read.
Americans like to insist that they are living in a post-racial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, racist ideas in America have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit.
3) How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Another Kendi book on the list, and another one that’s showing up on just about every antiracism book list. Fostering an antiracist society is what we should be actively fighting for, and I believe this book offers a good primer for it. I’ve ordered a copy of this one.
In this book, Kendi weaves together an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science, bringing it all together with an engaging personal narrative of his own awakening to antiracism. How to Be an Antiracist is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond an awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a truly just and equitable society.
4) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Facts pulled from the NAACP website: 34% of the incarcerated population is Black, Black people are incarcerated 6 times at the rate of white people for drug charges, Black children represent 32% of children who are arrested. We have a problem in this country when it comes to mass incarceration and the Black community. I’ve had this book on my TBR for a while but I’ve been so hesitant to pick it up because I know it’s going to be a difficult read. But there’s white privilege for you—the ability to not live the experience but to read about it. (And decide not to read about it because of the subject matter. Sigh. I have a lot of learning to do.)
By targeting black men and decimating communities of color, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of color blindness. The New Jim Crow challenges the civil rights community–and all of us–to place mass incarceration at the forefront of a new movement for racial justice in America.
5) White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
I don’t know too much about this book—I’ve seen it on antiracist reading lists and the synopsis fascinated me. I can’t wait to read this one.
Carefully linking these and other historical flashpoints when social progress for African Americans was countered by deliberate and cleverly crafted opposition, Anderson pulls back the veil that has long covered actions made in the name of protecting democracy, fiscal responsibility, or protection against fraud, rendering visible the long lineage of white rage.
To conclude this post, I want to encourage people to seek out novels featuring Black characters. Black joy and happiness are important! Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid, the “Reluctant Royals” series by Alyssa Cole, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, The Mothers by Brit Bennett, Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson.
Also consider memoirs and essay collections from Black people. I recommend We’re Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union, Roxane Gay’s entire line of work, You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson, and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah.
And I sincerely hope this post didn’t come off as holier-than-thou, I-am-so-great-at-reading-books-about-BIPOC. I am not. My average is abysmal when it comes to reading books by and about BIPOC—around 30%. I’m committed to doing better. But the point is, Black people have been telling us their stories and educating us on racial issues for a long time. There is plenty of work to choose from. We only have to seek it out.
