Diversity. With over seven billion people on the planet, you’ll be hard-pressed to exclusively interact with people who look and act just like you. The content we consume influences us in ways we don’t realize and it’s important to be critical of the way our media interacts with people from other races and religions – especially if there are no other races or religions present.
Is it realistic that Friends, a TV show set in New York City, had nearly an all-white cast? Is it a coincidence that almost every Black-centric film nominated for an Oscar was about slavery or segregation? As race issues continue to dictate media coverage, it’s important to work on learning what our individual biases are so that unlearning them can become a priority.
Not sure where to start? Check out the following women-authored books on race and give them a read.
1) Tar Baby, Toni Morrison
Although Toni Morrison’s Tar Baby is a work of fiction, the motifs, themes, characters, and ideals are all too real. In Tar Baby, we see how race and class intersect and learn about what it means to be a Black woman.
Get your copy: Tar Baby, Toni Morrison
2) The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the time of Colourblindness, Michelle Alexander
The New Jim Crow is a book that proves racism is more than just an act on an individualistic level. Civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander explains that racism is so deeply ingrained in the American legal system that laws disproportionately target Black men. Alexander takes readers through decades of American history to explain how the legal system functions as a method of racial control as well, making The New Jim Crow essential reading for anyone wanting to learn about systemic racism.
Get your copy: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the time of Colourblindness, Michelle Alexander
3) Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches, Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches is an incredible collection of short writings by Audre Lorde. In just under 200 pages, Lorde takes readers through her experiences as a Black lesbian. Her identity exists through different pillars of her life: homophobia, ageism, racism, classism, sexism, feminism, imperialism, activism, and her fight against cancer. Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches is not only a book about race, but an example of the unflinching chaos that exists when your identity is constantly neglected and rejected.
Get your copy: Sister Outsider: Essays And Speeches, Audre Lorde
4) Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria E. Anzaldùa
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria E. Anzaldùa is a semi-autobiographical account that dives into issues of heritage, imperialism, and race surrounding the U.S. border crossing over Indigenous Mexican land. Overall, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza is a book about race that will resonate not only with people of mixed heritage, but anyone who finds themself struggling with their identity due to mass colonization and loss of culture.
Get your copy: Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, Gloria E. Anzaldùa
5) Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Chandra Talpade Mohanty
In Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, author Chandra Talpade Mohanty notions that feminists must focus on decolonizing their practice. To truly achieve equality under the feminist movement, feminists must become critical about the American basis of capitalistic equality. Mohanty discusses her Indian upbringing and discusses the need for feminism and race to intersect. Readers are urged to create unity across borders by critiquing the class-based rift that exists in U.S. based feminism. A great book about race and refocusing feminism for women all around the world.
Get your copy: Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity, Chandra Talpade Mohanty
6) Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, bell hooks
bell hooks‘ Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism is a groundbreaking piece of race and feminist theory. hooks carefully examines the way womanhood intersects with slavery in the U.S. and gives a compelling argument about criticizing culture, the impact of Black male sexism, and racism within the feminist movement. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism reveals that oppression isn’t a singular pillar: it can move and grow depending on race, capitalism, stereotypes, and morality. It also shows how early suffragettes actively excluded Black and poor women from feminism, all under the guise of equality.
Get your copy: Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, bell hooks
View this post on Instagram
Read up, babies. This fight is not a new one. #angeladavis #blacklivesmatter #activism #acab
7) Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
Angela Davis has been a leader in the movement towards world justice for decades. Freedom is a Constant Struggle is one of her most recent books, tackling the unity that comes from people experiencing racial injustices around the world. Davis highlights the protests against police brutality in Ferguson and state-sanctioned violence against Palestine, and how interconnected things like structural racism and violence truly are.
Get your copy: Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Angela Davis
8) Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach, Dr. Tanya Golash Boza
In Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach, Dr. Tanya Golash Boza details the history of systemic racism in America and how individuals can work to change it. The book is highly acclaimed by scholars and professors for how comprehensive it is and was designed for instructors to think critically with their students about how racism develops.
Get your copy: In Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach, Dr. Tanya Golash Boza
You must be logged in to post a comment Login