10 Books About Race To Read Instead Of Asking A Person Of Color To Explain Things To You

[StarfishSaver]

In today's current political and cultural climate, it's crucial that everyday Americans are engaging in important conversations about race, bias, discrimination, and privilege. For people of color, these conversations are nothing new; they are a requirement in communities where experiences of racism, bias, and bigotry are a part of everyday life. But for many white people who have never been burdened by a system built specifically to keep us down, these conversations can seem confusing, uncomfortable, and awkward, which is makes them even more necessary. If you're not sure how to talk about issues of race in America, try picking up one of the many incredible books about race instead of asking people of color to explain it to you.

If you really want to be a better ally, if you really want to be on the front-lines in the war against racism and discrimination in the United States, you have to take the initiative to educate yourself. It isn't up to people of color to inform or reform white people. As "White people, stop asking us to education about racism," a collective piece from an African American voice on Medium, so clearly explains. "Don’t ask us to provide the information for you. Instead, participate in your own education. We’ve already given you enough of our free labor. Don’t ask us for anymore." https://www.bustle.com/p/10-books-about-race-to-read-instead-of-asking-a-person-of-color-to-explain-things-to-you-8548796

[irisblue]

1. So You Want to Talk About Race' by Ijeoma Oluo

Excellent book!

[KPN]

2. Awesome. Thanks. Bookmarked the article and

will definitely order at least a couple.

[hibbing]

3. recommend n/t

[DinahMoeHum]

4. OK, I've got one for you sports fans. . .

https://www.michaelbennettbook.com/

Michael Bennett
Things That Make White People Uncomfortable

(also by The Nation's sportswriter Dave Zirin)

forward by Martellus Bennett (brother)

[MagickMuffin]

5. This is absent from the list: Birth of a White Nation by Dr. Jacqueline Battalora

This book was suggested to me by one of my very dearest African American friends.

Synopsis
Birth of a White Nation is a fascinating new book on race in America that begins with an exploration of the moment in time when "white people,” as a separate and distinct group of humanity, were invented through legislation and the enactment of laws. The book provides a thorough examination of the underlying reasons as well as the ways in which “white people” were created. It also explains how the creation of this distinction divided laborers and ultimately served the interests of the elite. The book goes on to examine how foundational law and policy in the U.S. were used to institutionalize the practice of “white people” holding positions of power. Finally, the book demonstrates how the social construction and legal enactment of “white people” has ultimately compromised the humanity of those so labeled.

[DiverDave]

6. Black like me

White man colors his skin black in the 1960's.
I read it as a young teen, it opened my eyes.

[Wednesdays]

7. Reccing and bookmarking. nm

[Tipperary]

8. So... I guess this is to inform us not to talk about race.

Good to know.

[Codeine]

17. Sigh.

That sort of pat answer is precisely why posts like the OP are necessary.

[mokawanis]

9. ...James Baldwin - The Fire Next Time

[tishaLA]

10. Amazing book

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde deserves a place on the list, too

[lostnfound]

11. Bookmarking, good list nt

[TheBlackAdder]

13. For a historical perspective of the life and abuses of slavery, my AA Studies Professor suggested:

.

Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself. Ed. Jean Fagan Yellin. (Harvard UP, 2000) ISBN: 978-0674035836


===


I recommend the following additional research:


Dale, Elizabeth. “Getting Away with Murder.” The American Historical Review, vol. 111, no. 1,
2006. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/ahr.111.1.95.

Daly, John Patrick. “Answering Abolitionists, Defending Slaveholders.” When Slavery Was
Called Freedom: Evangelicalism, Proslavery, and the Causes of the Civil War,
University Press of Kentucky, 2002. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130j3j9.7.

Ferguson, SallyAnn H. “Christian Violence and the Slave Narrative.” American Literature, vol.
68, no. 2, 1996. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2928299.

Hammond, J. H., and C. K. R. Bleser. Secret and Sacred: The Diaries of James Henry
Hammond, a Southern Slaveholder. Oxford University Press. 1988.

Harrill, J. Albert. “The Use of the New Testament in the American Slave Controversy: A Case
History in the Hermeneutical Tension between Biblical Criticism and Christian Moral
Debate.” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation, vol. 10, no. 2,
2000. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1123945.

Snay, Mitchell. “Slavery Defended: The Morality of Slavery and the Infidelity of Abolitionism.”
Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South, University of
North Carolina Press, 1993. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616155_snay.6.

Snay, Mitchell. “Slavery Sanctified: The Slaveholding Ethic and the Religious Mission to the
Slaves.” Gospel of Disunion: Religion and Separatism in the Antebellum South,
University of North Carolina Press, 1993. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469616155_snay.7.

Stevenson, Brenda E. “WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT? CONCUBINAGE AND
ENSLAVED WOMEN AND GIRLS IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH.” The Journal of
African American History, vol. 98, no. 1, 2013. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/10.5323/jafriamerhist.98.1.0099.

Vitz, Paul C., and Jennifer M. Meade. “Self-Forgiveness in Psychology and Psychotherapy: A
Critique.” Journal of Religion and Health, vol. 50, no. 2, 2011. JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/41349785.


Update: Removed page numbers, as they were specific to a certain subject. Anything that Mitchel Snay contributes to will be very enlightening reads.
.

[DeminPennswoods]

14. Taylor Branch's trilogy of the history of MLK and the Civil Rights

movement. Despite living through this era, it gave me a far deeper understanding and true appreciation of the bravery involved.

[Spider Jerusalem]

15. Also

Ibram X. Kendi - Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

[Lars39]

16. Thank you, StarfishSaver

And to everyone else posting recommendations,too.

[mcar]

18. Thank you for this

I just came back from a new book club, started by members of my Democratic Women's Club. We discussed, "Hum If You Don't Know the Words," an excellent novel set during South Africa's apartheid.

Two of the women there are African American and I have gotten to know them pretty well in the last few years. Their perspective on the book, and on how SA apartheid and USA Jim Crow were very similar, was compelling. But I felt like this article says:

White people, stop asking us to education about racism," a collective piece from an African American voice on Medium, so clearly explains. "Don’t ask us to provide the information for you. Instead, participate in your own education.

I want to participate in my own education.