It is time to stop expecting people of colour to help us (white people) to understand racism today and start educating ourselves. Books to educate yourself on racism should definitely be part of that.
These books will help all of us learn and unlearn all the complexities and horrors that surround racism today. If you’re looking for books for children, click here.
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Books to educate yourself on racism
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race (£7.99)
The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race is for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain.
Minor Feelings: A Reckoning on Race and the Asian Condition (£12.99)
The daughter of Korean immigrants, Cathy Park Hong grew up in America steeped in shame, suspicion, and melancholy. She would later understand that these “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality.
The New Jim Crow (24.99)
This book shows readers how the mass incarceration of a disproportionate number of black men amounts to a devastating system of racial control. And how this exists in the UK just as much as the USA.
So You Want To Talk About Race (£16.99)
Editor at Large of The Establishment Ijeoma Oluo offers a contemporary, accessible take on the racial landscape in America. It addresses issues as privilege, police brutality, intersectionality, micro-aggressions, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the “N” word. Oluo answers the questions readers don’t dare ask, and explains the concepts that continue to elude everyday Americans.
How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality (£10.50)
Stereotypes and myths about race are expressed not just by overt racists, but also by well-intentioned people. Experience and cultural baggage steer them towards views that are not supported by the modern study of human genetics. This is a manifesto for modern understanding of human evolution and variation, as well as a timely weapon against the misuse of science to justify bigotry.
Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire (£7.30)
Covering everything from the police, education and identity to politics, sexual objectification and the far right. Natives speaks directly to British denial when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain’s racialised empire.
Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America (£23)
What happens to a country that tells generation after generation of white men that they deserve power? What happens when success is defined by status over women and people of colour, instead of by actual accomplishments?
Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World (£12.99)
Teaching readers how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop inflicting damage on people of colour. And, hopefully, and in turn help other white people do better, too.
How To Be an Antiracist (£8.70)
Ibram X. Kendi, founding director of the Antiracism Research and Policy Center, shows that when it comes to racism, neutrality is not an option. Until we become part of the solution, we can only be part of the problem.
This Book is Anti-Racist (£7.30)
Examine the concepts of social identity, race, ethnicity and racism. Learn about some of the ways people of different races have been oppressed. From indigenous Americans and Australians being sent to boarding school to be ‘civilized’, to the modern day Windrush scandal.
Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women White Feminists Forgot (£12.99)
All too often the focus of mainstream feminism is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. Meeting basic needs is a feminist issue. Food insecurity, the living wage and access to education are feminist issues. The fight against racism, ableism and transmisogyny are all feminist issues.
