Five Anti Racist Books You Should Know About

George Floyd. Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor are just a hand full of people that were murdered by the police. How does that vicious cycle go again? Trauma>invisibilization>normalization, repeat? Whenever a new shooting happens involving a black person, we automatically go through this cycle and go on with our lives until it happens again. But before you move on, let this time be a little different. Its time to educate ourselves about their history and the many paths they’ve walked. The best way to show our commitment to the black community is by being engaged and learning more about their experiences, and that starts with books.

James Baldwin once said, "It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive." Below is a list of five books written by the greatest black authors, thinkers, and leaders.

· "Recitatif" by Toni Morrison. This short story, written in racial writing, was described by Morrison as “the removal of all racial codes from a narrative about two characters of different races for whom racial identity is crucial.”

· Possessive Investment In Whiteness by George Lipsitz. This story discusses white privilege, and takes an extensive look at white privilege in social, political, and economic areas.

· Divided Sisters by Midge Wilson & Kathy Russell. This story is for all of the white women working to be allies who don’t fully comprehend their relationships with black women. Since black women carry a lot of pain from former generations, in order to bridge these gaps, you must first understand a black woman’s experience.

· The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. Fannon discusses the reason why we haven’t eradicated racism (since most people underestimate it) and discusses the blueprint to have us all come together, unified.

· For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange. This series of poetic monologues reads like a play and talks about seven Black women and their experiences with society sexism, and racism, as well as their experience with oppression from Black men.

Report: Woo Jong Kim