We can all learn more about antiracism.
Use these books and resources to interrogate, expand, and transform your perspective.
Antiracist reading is …
a process of dialogue
between what we understand about
the social and historical habits of language
(the structural)
and our personal and internal habits
(the individual)
Asao B. Inoue
Articles
Get started with your antiracist literacy practice by reading these articles, which explore various aspects of structural racism in America.
- Ahmed, Sara. The Non-Performativity of Anti-Racism.
- Boeskool, Chris. When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels like Oppression.
- Bonner, Hannah Adair. From White Guilt to White Responsibility.
- Cooper, Marianne. The False Promise of Meritocracy.
- Greenburg, Jon. Curriculum for White Americans to Educate Themselves on Race and Racism–from Ferguson to Charleston.
- Kristof, Nicholas. When Whites Just Don’t Get It.
- Kur, Ellie Ade. How To Support Blacademics: For Non-Black Faculty and Grad Students Teaching Black Faces in White Spaces
- Martínez, Tiffany. Academia, Love me Back.
- Muñoz, Paola. Emotional Labor from Students of Color Ain’t Free, Cornell.
- Nathman, Avital Norman. Concrete Ways to be an Actual Ally to Black People.
- Nguyen, Thu Anh. The Things They Made Me Carry: Inheriting a White Curriculum.
- Popescu, Irina. The Educational Power of Discomfort.
- Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ). Talking to Our People: Talking to White People in the Moment of Trump.
- Wampole, Christy. My Syllabus, My Self.
- Wexler, Ellen. How to Talk About Diversity in the Classroom.
- Williams, Goyland. Teaching while Black.
- Varon, Jamie. Why White People Can’t See There is a ‘White Reality’ and ‘Everyone Else’s Reality’.
- Yancey, George. The Ugly Truth of Being a Black Professor in America.
- Yancey, George. I am a Dangerous Professor.
Books
General Antiracism Research and Discussion
Dive deeper into your study with these books, which provide a detailed analysis of the history of racist structures, as well as how we can confront them today.
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- Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
- Baldwin, James. I am Not Your Negro
- Brown, Austin Channing. I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
- Campt, Tina. A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See
- Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
- Eddo-Lodge, Reni. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race
- Harris-Perry, Melissa. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America
- Hill, Daniel. White Awake: An Honest Look at What it Means to be White
- Hill, Jane H. The Everyday Language of White Racism
- Kendi, Ibram X. How to Be an Antiracist
- Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning
- Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me
- Metzl, Jonathan. Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland
- Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America
- Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
- Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk About Race
- Takaki, Ronald. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America
- Walker, Anders. The Burning House: Jim Crow and the Making of Modern America
- Ware, Vron. Beyond the Pale: White Women, Racism, and History
- Yancey, George. Look, A White!: Philosophical Essay on Whiteness
- Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States
Autobiographies from People of Color
Reading the lived experiences of people of color across history and the spectrum gives us the opportunity to connect with their stories on a personal level.
- Arenas, Reinaldo. Before Night Falls: A Memoir
- Bell, W. Kamau. The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6′ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian
- Coates, Ta-Nehesi. Between the World and Me
- Diakité, Jason. A Drop of Midnight: A Memoir
- Gay, Roxane. Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
- Hurston, Zora Neale. Dust Tracks on a Road: An Autobiography
- Laymon, Kiese. How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America
- Khan-Cullors, Patrisse. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
- Obama, Michelle. Becoming
Poetry and Prose by People of Color
We’ve selected books from some of our favorite writers of color, but each of these writers has deep bibliographies. Fiction and poetry illuminate elements of the human condition that transcends categories such as race while demonstrating the unique cultural gifts conferred upon artists who grew up in racist societies.
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. Americanah
- Allende, Isabel. Island Beneath the Sea
- Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower
- Castillo, Ana. So Far From God
- Cisneros, Sandra. Loose Woman
- Gyasi, Yaa. Homegoing
- Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God
- James, Marlon. A Brief History of Seven Killings
- Jemisin, N.K. The Broken Earth Trilogy
- Lorde, Audre; Gay, Roxane. The Selected Works
- Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. One Hundred Years of Solitude
- Okorafor, Nnedi. Binti: The Complete Trilogy
- Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric
- Shange, Ntozake. Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo
- Walker, Alice. In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose
- Ward, Jesmyn. Sing, Unburied, Sing