On January 15th, your Twitter feed was probably oversaturated with MLK quotes preaching peace and justice. These are the same Twitter feeds that were probably tweeting about how “disgraceful” it was that Colin Kaepernick knelt during the pledge and how Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group.
So instead of just tweeting out empty words take this time to read and become educated about the problems that are still prevalent in Black communities.
1. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that Barack Obama's election was not a signal of the end of racism but simply the restructuring of it in her novel. Through the War on Drugs, the US criminal justice system has destroyed black communities and families much like the Jim Crow laws did. Alexander's no bullshit writing style pulls the reader in and demands a call to action.
2. Citizen by Claudia Rankine
Citizen is a personal and disjointed account of what it is like being black in America. The story is told in pieces. Whether it's a slur at Starbucks or a long piece on the excellence of Serena Williams, this poetic novel will inevitably leave the reader with a better insight on the effects of racism.
3. Pushout by Monique W. Morris
In a world where black women's issues are pushed aside, Morris forces us to see and understand the challenges young black girls face, from hypersexualization to incarceration in the juvenile justice system.
Simply tweeting #MLK does nothing to further progress in our society. Instead, take time to understand the nuances and injustices of our society. In the words of Martin Luther King, "The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education."