Carver County Library Suggests - Readings on Racial Equality

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Carver County Library Suggests
 Readings on Racial Equality
   A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota by Various Authors
   In this provocative book, sixteen of Minnesota's best writers provide a range of
   perspectives on what it is like to live as a person of color in Minnesota. They give
   readers a splendid gift: the gift of touching another human being's inner reality,
   behind masks and veils and politeness. They bring us generously into experiences
   that we must understand if we are to come together in real relationships.
   Minnesota communities struggle with some of the nation's worst racial disparities.
   305.8009 GOO 2016

   A Sin by Any Other Name by Rob Lee
   A descendant of Confederate General Robert E. Lee chronicles his story of growing
   up with the South's most honored name, and the moments that forced him to
   confront the privilege, racism, and subversion of human dignity that came with it.
   Lee examines how many white Christians continue to be complicit in a culture of
   racism and injustice, and how after leaving his pulpit, he was welcomed into a
   growing movement of activists all across the South who are charting a new course
   for the region.
   305.8009 LEE 2019

   Between the World and Me by Tah-Nehisi Coates
   Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's
   history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a
   falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women
   and men--bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today,
   threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion.
   305.8009 COA 2015

   Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt
   Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt offers us the language and courage we need to face one of
   the biggest and most troubling issues of our time. She exposes racial bias at all
   levels of society--in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces, and criminal justice
   system. Yet she also offers us tools to address it. Eberhardt shows us how we can
   be vulnerable to bias but not doomed to live under its grip.
   303.385 EBE 2019

   Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard,
   Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness by Jennifer Hawes
   On June 17, 2015, twelve members of the historically black Emanuel AME Church
   in Charleston, South Carolina welcomed a young white man to their evening Bible
   study. He arrived with a pistol, 88 bullets, and hopes of starting a race war. The
   massacre of nine innocents during their closing prayer horrified the nation. This is
   the story of how, beyond the headlines, a community of people begins to heal.
   364.1523 HAW 2019

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How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to
the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Racism
intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and
value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle
of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help
readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work
to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
305.8009 KEN 2019

I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
by Austin Channing Brown
From a leading voice on racial justice, an eye-opening account of growing up Black,
Christian, and female that exposes how white America's love affair with "diversity"
so often falls short of its ideals. In a time when nearly every institution claims to
value diversity in its mission statement, Austin writes in breathtaking detail about
her journey to self-worth and the pitfalls that kill our attempts at racial justice.
921 BROWN 2018

Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a
Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
This new edition teaches readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves
so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color,
and in turn, help other white people do better, too.
305.809 SAA

My Vanishing Country: A Memoir by Bakari Sellers
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the
youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the
rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America's forgotten
black working-class men and women. Part memoir, part historical and cultural
analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past,
present, and future.
921 SELLERS 2020

Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson
Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the
colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth
century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, "a small region of
Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege
and plenty." Reckoning with the strictures and demands of Negroland at crucial
historical moments--Jefferson brilliantly charts the twists and turns of a life
informed by psychological and moral contradictions.
305.896 JEF 2015

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The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: a Brilliant Young Man Who Left
Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs
A heartfelt, and riveting biography of the short life of a talented young African
American man who escapes the slums of Newark for Yale University only to
succumb to the dangers of the streets-and of one's own nature-when he
returns home. This book encompasses the most enduring conflicts in America:
race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and
love.
921 PEACE 2014

So You Want to Talk About Race by Iljeoma Oluo
In So You Want to Talk About Race, Editor at Large of The Establishment,
Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in
America, addressing head-on such issues as privilege, police brutality,
intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the
"N" word.
305.8009 OLU 2018

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow
by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Gates uncovers the roots of structural racism in our own time, while showing
how African-Americans after slavery combatted it by articulating a vision of a
'New Negro' to force the nation to recognize their humanity and unique
contributions to the United States.
973.0496 GAT 2019

Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race by Debbie Irving
For twenty-five years, Debby Irving sensed inexplicable racial tensions in her
personal and professional relationships. Then, in 2009, one "aha!" moment
launched an adventure of discovery and insight that drastically shifted her
worldview and upended her life plan.
921 IRVING 2014

When I Was White by Sarah Valentine
At the age of 27, Sarah Valentine discovered that she was not, in fact, the white
girl she had always believed herself to be. She learned the truth of her
paternity: that her father was a black man. In this memoir, Sarah details the
story of the discovery of her identity, and asks: why? Her entire family and
community had conspired to maintain her white identity. The supreme
discomfort her white family and community felt about addressing issues of
race- her race-is a microcosm of race relationships in America.
305.4889 VAL 2019

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When They Call you a Terrorist by Patrice Khan-Cullors
Raised by a single mother in an impoverished neighborhood in Los Angeles,
Patrisse Khan-Cullors experienced firsthand the prejudice and persecution Black
Americans endure at the hands of law enforcement. In 2013, when Trayvon
Martin's killer went free, Patrisse's outrage led her to co-found Black Lives
Matter with Alicia Garza and Opal Tometi.
921 Khancullors 2018

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
by Robin Deangelo
In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist
educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility
and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people'
(Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make
when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as
anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence.
These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and
prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration,
DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial
inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
305.8 DIA 2018

White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
As Ferguson, Missouri, erupted in August 2014, and media commentators across
the ideological spectrum referred to the angry response of African Americans as
'black rage,' historian Carol Anderson wrote a remarkable op-ed in the
Washington Post showing that this was, instead, 'white rage at work. With so
much attention on the flames,' she writes, 'everyone had ignored the kindling.'
Compelling and dramatic in the unimpeachable history it relates, White Rage will
add an important new dimension to the national conversation about race in
America.
305.8009 AND 2017

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
by Beverly Daniel Tatum
For people of color, the development of a constructive racial identity requires
being able to recognize and reject the bombardment of negative stereotypes
and to embrace a history of resistance and empowerment rather than passive
victimization. For Whites, the challenge is to engage in a process of racial
identity development which leads to an awareness of White privilege and a
determination to actively work against injustice. For many, this is uncharted
territory. This book provides a road map for those who want to make the
journey and better understand the racial dynamics of their daily lives.
305.8009 TAT 2017