You’ve seen the lists all over social media, but have you started working your way through them?
I’m currently reading Layla F. Saad’s Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor.
Last night, I watched I Am Not Your Negro. I’d been familiar with James Baldwin’s work for years, but those 90 minutes put it all in a context that helped me see it in new ways.
Sometimes I’m looking for straight up documentary and intellect. That’s when I lean toward a movie like I Am Not Your Negro. Or maybe 13th. When I’m more in the mood for storytelling drama, maybe Selma or Just Mercy.
I’ve put together my own list of suggestions. Most of them I’ve vetted on my own. A few of them come highly recommended by others and I’ll work my way through them as well. You might love one and not another. You might have others to suggest that aren’t on my list. Feel free to leave comments and add your own favorite resources.
What to read
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F. Saad
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In The Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
White Rage; the Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson
What to watch
13th
Just Mercy
Malcom X
Selma
I Am Not Your Negro
Do the Right Thing
Whose Streets?
The Hate U Give
12 Years a Slave
Fruitvale Station
Dear White People
What to listen to (podcasts)
1619
Code Switch
Seeing White