Learning about racism + a book list for others whose education was lacking

Racism is all around us. But for people who grew up like me, we never had to notice it. I think it’s time to fill in the gaps in our education.

I don’t remember when I first became aware of race and what that meant for me and the opportunities I would be given. I remember playing at a park with my siblings and hearing my mom yell, “All White kids get in the car!” and then her flustered explanation after everyone’s heads turned that White is our last name. Interactions like these taught me that race was not something that we spoke about explicitly. And while I don’t remember having blatantly racist things said around me, certain beliefs were ingrained in me all the same.

I learned that racism ended with the Civil Rights Movement.

I learned that “sketchy” neighborhoods were where all the black people lived.

I learned that welfare was bad, and that everyone who used it was just too lazy to work. And somehow, I could sense that “everyone” really meant black people.

I learned that if you really wanted to, you could work hard and pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

I learned that America was a country of equal opportunity for all.

I understood that black people and other minorities lived down the road in the poorer apartment complex, but they were not found in our church.

Much later, I became aware of how wrong the beliefs I was socialized into were. When I talked to real people who needed welfare, those who could not get ahead no matter how hard they worked, I realized that my worldview had actually been small after all. I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. I realized that I had never had a pastor, doctor, or manager who was not white. It hit me that I had never been in a situation where I was a minority.

One of the resources that kickstarted my process of learning about racism was Peggy McIntosh’s “White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.” Because of her essay, my eyes were opened to numerous problems that Black people face in America & I became hungry to learn more. I learned that “I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed” and that “I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race” – both things I. literally. never. had. to. think. about. before. I wanted to believe that I had worked hard for everything I had, but I had to come to terms with the reality that there were opportunities and resources that I had access to because of my white skin.

I still have to check my biases often and ask myself the hard questions: why do I automatically assume that the Black man doing yard work was hired to do it and isn’t the owner of the house? The burden is on me, not on my friends of color, to fill in the gaps in my education. I believe that it is ultimately my responsibility to be learning, rather than speaking. I am committed to helping other white people understand and own their privilege, and to using my own privilege to help those who are marginalized because of their race.

For people who grew up like me, I think it’s time to fill in the gaps in our education. America isn’t what we were taught it was. This shining beacon of hope, freedom, and opportunity has been riddled with oppression all along. What so many white people were shocked to see in the rise of Trump, Charlottesville, police brutality, etc. is not new. It’s always been there, but we don’t know enough about our own history to recognize that without some serious searching.

Over the last year and a half, I’ve pored over these 55 books, and my heart has been transformed. Am I perfect? Have my biases been erased? Nope. But there’s grace for each of our transformational journeys as we make uncomfortable and sometimes hurtful mistakes.

***Disclaimer: these books come from a variety of different backgrounds & views on the construction of race and racism, but all were helpful for me in educating myself.

Classic Black literature

• The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
• A Mercy – Toni Morrison
• Home – Toni Morrison
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
• Mom & Me & Mom – Maya Angelou
• Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now – Maya Angelou
• Taking the Arrow Out of the Heart – Alice Walker
• The Color Purple – Alice Walker
• Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston

Slave narratives

• Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – Harriet Jacobs
• The Narrative of Sojourner Truth – Sojourner Truth
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Frederick Douglass
• Sold as a Slave – Olaudah Equiano
• Cane River – Lalita Tademy

Civil Rights Movement

• At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance — A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power – Danielle L. McGuire
• Strength to Love – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• The Measure of a Man – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Coretta: My Life, My Love, My Legacy – Coretta Scott King
• Quiet Strength – Rosa Parks
• Rosa Parks: My Story – Rosa Parks

Jim Crow + segregation

• Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases – Ida B. Wells
• The Red Record – Ida B. Wells
• The Blood of Emmett Till – Timothy B. Tyson
• Blood Done Sign My Name – Timothy B. Tyson
• Warriors Don’t Cry – Melba Pattillo Beals

Mass incarceration

• A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law – Sherrilyn Ifill, Loretta Lynch, Bryan Stevenson, & Anthony C. Thompson
• Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson
• Rethinking Incarceration – Dominique Dubois Gilliard
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
• Inside This Place, Not Of It – Robin Levi & Ayelet Waldman
• The Sun Does Shine – Anthony Ray Hinton
• Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption – Jennifer Thompson-Cannino & Ronald Cotton

Modern Black literature (non-fiction & novels)

• Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
• We Were Eight Years in Power – Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
• The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
• On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope – DeRay McKesson
• Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• The Thing Around Your Neck – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Kindred – Octavia E. Butler
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry – Mildred D. Taylor
• The Twelve Tribes of Hattie – Ayana Mathis

Christianity & race

• Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Bryan Loritts & John Perkins
• White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to be White – Daniel Hill
• I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness – Austin Channing Brown
• The Myth of Equality: Uncovering the Roots of Injustice and Privilege – Ken Wytsma

Non-fiction

• White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – Robin DiAngelo
• Discourse on Colonialism – Aimé Césaire
• Deep Roots: How Slavery Still Shapes Southern Politics – Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, & Maya Sen

Memoirs

• Becoming – Michelle Obama
• Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama
• All the Colors We Will See – Patrice Gopo
• Brown Girl Dreaming – Jacqueline Woodson

I hope you pick a few of these books on racism to dig into. Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable – that’s when you know you’re being challenged to grow.