Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during the past tumultuous decade – including the presidency of Barack Obama and the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and too many more – and describes his efforts to come into his own in a world that denied his humanity. Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching by Mychal Denzel Smith The author and poet recalls the anguish of her childhood in Arkansas and her adolescence in northern slums. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou The activist and scholar illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Ward gathers America’s most original thinkers and writers to speak on contemporary racism and race to shine a light on the darkest corners of the country’s history, wrestle with its current predicament, and imagine a better future envisioned as a response to The Fire Next Time.įreedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y.
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesmyn Ward, ed.
Self-described as “critical homegirls,” the authors tackle life stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture while hating patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism.īaldwin’s intensely personal and provocative document consists of two “letters,” written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. To address the void of relevant, real conversations about how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events, the Crunk Feminist Collective started a blog. The Crunk Feminist Collection by Brittney C. Rankine includes essays, poetry, and images that expose the racial tensions in twenty-first century life, highlighting the slights, slips of the tongue, and intentional offensives that pervade the home, school, and popular media. Tyson draws on previously untapped firsthand testimonies and recovered court transcripts to present a scholarly account of the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till and its role in launching the civil rights movement.Ĭitizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
The author presents a history of racial discrimination in the United States and a narrative of his own personal experiences of contemporary race relations, offering possible resolutions for the future. The black leader discusses his political philosophy and reveals details of his life, shedding light on the ideas that enabled him to gain the allegiance of a still growing percentage of the black population.īetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley Wallis looks at the state of race relations in America and the thread of racism running through American society and offers guidance on how Christians can work to overcome its pernicious influence. Hooks examines the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the historic devaluation of black womanhood, black male sexism, racism within the recent women’s movement, and black women’s involvement with feminism.Īmerica’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America by Jim Wallis With me? Here are books I need to read ASAP about being black in America.Īin’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks Michael Eric Dyson’s Tears We Cannot Stop : A Sermon to White America came out last month and, let me just tell you, it is making me seriously think about my privilege as an upper-middle-class white lady, living in a liberal part of a liberal state. In an interview for The New York Times Magazine, Dyson states that the book’s ideal audience is “the ocean of white folk I encounter who are deeply empathetic to the struggles of minorities - they are the ones who ask me, “What can I do, as a white person?” This is my attempt to address them in the most useful and, hopefully, edifying manner.” As one of those white folk, it’s my job to seek out and listen to black and POC voices, to hear what they are saying and understand.