Five anti-racism books you should read. There are no links if you click on any of these books. To purchase, consider alternatives to Amazon and Audible. Also, consider ordering from bookstores owned by people of color.
1. Do Better Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts. Antiracism requires deep, constant, and painful self-interrogation, inner healing, and action. Ms. Rickets breaks it all the way down to how to do this well.
2. The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness by Michelle Alexander. This is the most in-depth and well-researched exploration of systemic racism in the criminal justice system. If you have struggled to understand systemic racism, proof of its existence, and its major impacts, this book is going to make it abundantly clear.
3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo. This is an excellent introduction to all things race and racism, especially if you’re a white person who’s new to these concepts and you need help understanding why this stuff is so important.
4. White Rage The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson. This book is the reason why I don’t use the phrase white fragility to describe white reactions to black equity and progress anymore. These reactions are not a frail, passive sensitivity to be handled with delicate hands. It’s passionate anger. It’s violence, it’s active, it’s destructive and targeted. This book illustrates why it’s so important to know that.
5. What if I say the wrong thing? 25 Habits for Culturally Effective People by Renee Myers. This book is so practical and easy to apply when it comes to improving our ability to communicate effectively as an antiracist. It’s super approachable and specific in ways that few books that deal with inclusive communication.
As we seek to advance racial equity and dismantle white supremacy, we must prioritize learning from the people most heavily impacted by those systems. That means that black, indigenous, and other people of color must be your primary teachers and sources for antiracist education.