As we grapple with the nationwide protests that have occurred over the past week, we must realize that marching through the streets, signing petitions, and posting on social media is not enough. Until we are all able to fully understand the underlying reasons behind racism in this country, we will never be able to move forward.
By educating ourselves on these issues however, we take the first step towards acceptance and unity.
Below, I have listed 5 books I personally feel are key to understanding the correlation between the racist ties of our past and the modern day racism we see to this day.
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth Of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
Amazon
It is so easy to grow up in this country and revert back to the belief that racial injustices are in the past. I mean, when we grow up thinking that America is the greatest country in the world, we forget about the modern-day race problems that surround us. In White Rage, a critically acclaimed book, Anderson shows how the backlash from all sides against racial progress have shaped every aspect of our history, political spectrum, media coverage, and perspectives on communities of color. From the Civil War and Reconstruction Era to the KKK and modern day police brutality, this book brings to light the incidents that have shaped the racial divide we are surrounded by today in order to prove that action is required first, before permanent change is to come.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Amazon
Race has always been a difficult subject to talk about. But, as we have truly learned over the past few weeks, race is embedded into everyday conversations we have with friends, families, peers, and even ourselves. In So You Want To Talk About Race, Oluo guides readers of all identities towards the honest conversations we need to have about race and racism and how they infect every aspect of American life. Beautifully written, this book explains the difficult and complex topics we don't talk about regularly.
Understanding race and privilege is difficult, particularly for white people who will never have to question their racial identity to the extent people of color will; however this book acknowledges that, the personal struggle, but also the national discord and strife that needs to be addressed in order to move forward.
To move forward, we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. This book does just that.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
Amazon
Once in a while, a good book comes along that can transform the way you look at systems. The New Jim Crow is that type of book. In 2008, the first black President was elected and with this win, many thought that a new era of colorblindness was upon us. However this book refutes that claim in that, instead of getting rid of this caste system, Alexander argues that "we have merely redesigned it."
Mass Incarceration is the most important yet hidden issue we face as a country. This book challenges all of us to place this issue at the forefront of the new movement that we are witnessing right now in the streets as we work towards racial justice in America. The lasting impact of racist thinking which has led to an increasingly higher percentage of black people, specifically black men, held in prisons nationwide, denied civil rights, and trapped in a system that will never set them free becomes apparent. This book argues that it's just as legal now to discriminate against convicted criminals as it was to discriminate against African Americans during the Jim Crow era and that is the difference, with all of the progress we have made, in some ways we still are at square 1.
Stamped From The Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas In America by Ibram X. Kendi
Amazon
A National Book Award winner, Stamped From The Beginning is a tribute to how racist ideas are formed, created, spread, repeated, and deeply rooted into American society. People continue to voice that these racial injustices are now, however we can trace these formative issues that happen today, all the way back to the founding of this country.
How do we expose racist thinking when it becomes entrenched into every day American lives? This is the question Kendi brings front and center.
Using the lives of five major American indivudals to drive the entire history of anti-black thinking: Puritan minister Cotton Mather, Thomas Jefferson, abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, W.E.B. Du Bois, and activist Angela Davis, Kendi chronicles racial discrimination like never before through acknowledging the power, but also the problem that we do have when the actions of the few are put into the spotlight.
Between The World And Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Amazon
Written in the form of a letter, Between the World and Me is a book from Coates to his teenage son, an African-American male growing up in 2015. While this is not a book that will clearly explain the black experience to white people, it is a raw and honest piece of writing from a father to a son. A father, like so many across our nation, who shares his worry and fear for his son in a world where he will grow up watching, experiencing, and witnessing violence towards his people.
Coates keys in specifically on the black body in America and how it is rooted into our system to destroy the black body purely because it is in our legacy and tradition to do so. The idea that African American parents have to worry that their children will be brutalized, murdered, even lynched in the 21st century is valid and too often never addressed until tragedies hit the media circuit and explode. This piece of work is a triumph if you wish to understand the pain, sorrow, and regret black parents feel as their children become adults.
We have a duty, as the next generation in this country, to mobilize, stay active in our communities, and move towards progress.
While reading can only do so much, books that transform the way that we think about race can challenge our belief systems, question our morals, and in the end, make our country a better place for all.
