Anti-Racist Smart Thinking Books
Black Lives Matter. That cannot be said enough. If you are looking to educate yourself about the situation, and if like me you are white and want to learn more about white privilege, these books can help. Learn how to recognise your privilege, see how good people fight bias, realise that bad education is used to create racism, commit to speaking out against racism and read about how the Black Lives Matter movement started. Check out some short reviews of each below, combined with affiliate links to a number of online bookshops where you can buy each book.
Review from Waterstones:
Layla Saad is one of the most important and valuable teachers we have right now on the subject of white supremacy and racial injustice. With keen intelligence and tireless patience, she is working to remove our collective cultural blindspots, and to help - at last - to change minds and transform society. I have the deepest respect for her. Buy this book for yourself, your family, your students. Don't put it off, and don't look away. It's time.
(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing) Review from Book Depository:
An inspiring guide from Dolly Chugh, an award-winning social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business, on how to confront difficult issues including sexism, racism, inequality, and injustice so that you can make the world (and yourself) better.
(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing) Review from Book Depository:
Race is real because we perceive it. Racism is real because we enact it. But the appeal to science to strengthen racist ideologies is on the rise - and increasingly part of the public discourse on politics, migration, education, sport and intelligence. Stereotypes and myths about race are expressed not just by overt racists, but also by well-intentioned people whose experience and cultural baggage steer them towards views that are not supported by the modern study of human genetics. Even some scientists are uncomfortable expressing opinions deriving from their research where it relates to race. Yet, if understood correctly, science and history can be powerful allies against racism, granting the clearest view of how people actually are, rather than how we judge them to be.
(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing) Review from Book Depository:
In this rousing and deeply empathetic book, 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.
(All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing) Review from Book Depository:
Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, three women - Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Khan-Cullors - came together to form an active response to the systemic racism causing the deaths of so many African-Americans. They simply said: Black Lives Matter; and for that, they were labelled terrorists.
(All links earn commission from purchases that help fund this site. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Me and White Supremacy: How to Recognise Your Privilege, Combat Racism and Change the World
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Book Depository €9.01
Waterstones £8.99
The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias
Many of us believe in equality, diversity, and inclusion. But how do we stand up for those values in our turbulent world? The Person You Mean to Be is the smart, "semi-bold" person's guide to fighting for what you believe in.
Dolly reveals the surprising causes of inequality, grounded in the "psychology of good people". Using her research findings in unconscious bias as well as work across psychology, sociology, economics, political science, and other disciplines, she offers practical tools to respectfully and effectively talk politics with family, to be a better colleague to people who don't look like you, and to avoid being a well-intentioned barrier to equality. Being the person we mean to be starts with a look at ourselves.
Buy On:
Book Depository €16.78
Waterstones £20.00
Wordery $24.72
How to Argue With a Racist: History, Science, Race and Reality
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Book Depository €14.54
Waterstones £12.99
How to Be an Antiracist
Using his extraordinary gifts as a teacher and story-teller, Kendi helps us recognise that everyone is, at times, complicit in racism whether they realise it or not, and by describing with moving humility his own journey from racism to antiracism, he shows us how instead to be a force for good. Along the way, Kendi punctures all the myths and taboos that so often cloud our understanding, from arguments about what race is and whether racial differences exist to the complications that arise when race intersects with ethnicity, class, gender and sexuality.
In the process he demolishes the myth of the post-racial society and builds from the ground up a vital new understanding of racism - what it is, where it is hidden, how to identify it and what to do about it.
Buy On:
Book Depository €10.01
Waterstones £16.99
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir
In this empowering account of survival, strength and resilience, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and award-winning author and journalist asha bandele recount the personal story that led Patrisse to become a founder of Black Lives Matter, seeking to end the culture that declares Black life expendable. Like the era-defining movement she helped create, this rallying cry demands you do not look away.
Buy On:
Book Depository €11.18
Waterstones £12.99
Image Copyrights: Quercus Publishing (Me and White Supremacy), HarperCollins Publishers Inc (The Person You Mean To Be), Orion Publishing Co (How To Argue With A Racist), Vintage Publishing (How To Be an Antiracist), St Martin's Press (When They Call You A Terrorist)
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