How to Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi
Historian and New York Times best-selling author Ibram X. Kendi uses a mix of personal experiences, history, and science to show how a person can go from being racist to anti-racist, and how we can all build a new anti-racist society. Kendi’s book is at the top of almost every list we’ve seen.
White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
In her book White Fragility, anti-racism educator Robin Diangelo examines how white defensive responses to conversations about race and racism reinforce inequality and prevent meaningful dialogue. She then offers ways white people can work against white fragility to engage in more constructive ways.
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
Ijeomo Oluo’s New York Times best seller shows people of all races how to have constructive and useful conversations about race in America. It answers questions about confronting friends and family members while providing a comprehensive education on this country’s racist heritage.
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad$26
What started as an Instagram challenge and a downloadable anti-racist workbook encouraging people to examine their own privilege and racist behaviors now comes in book form with historical context, expanded definitions, and more resources. It has been widely recommended for white people who want to make change but don’t know where to start.
Recommended by: Flicker and Klein put it on their Google doc of anti-racism resources, as did anti-racist educator Joe Truss of Culturally Responsive Leadership and Harriett’s Bookshop. $26 AT MAHOGANY BOOKS
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander’s award winning book delves into mass incarceration and the truth about the United States’ thriving racial caste system. Ibram X. Kendi describes The New Jim Crow as “the spark that would eventually light the fire of Black Lives Matter.”
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittany Cooper
Author and professor of Gender and Africana Studies at Rutgers University, Brittney Cooper uses her own experience to talk about the power of black female rage and how it can drive revolution and change the world.
Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth by Dána-Ain Davis
Dána-Ain Davis looks into why black women have higher rates of premature birth and higher maternal death rates than other women in America. She places racial differences in birth outcomes into a historical context, revealing that ideas about reproduction and race today have been influenced by the legacy of ideas dating back to slavery.
I’M STILL HERE by Austin Channing Brown
In a time when nearly all institutions (schools, churches, universities, businesses) claim to value “diversity” in their mission statements, I’M STILL HERE is a powerful account of how and why our actions so often fall short of our words. Austin writes in breathtaking detail about her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice, in stories that bear witness to the complexity of America’s social fabric–from Black Cleveland neighborhoods to private schools in the middle-class suburbs, from prison walls to the boardrooms at majority-white organizations.