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What are the best books you've read on the topic of racism?
There are a ton of recommendation lists out there right now, each with a ton of titles. While it's nice to see that the topic is being addressed by so many different voices and from so many different angles, it can also make it so that it's difficult to know where to start or where to go next.
I'm curious as to which books about racism people here would recommend. Please share not only what the books you've chosen are about specifically, but why you are choosing to recommend them.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and seconarily, any of his actual speeches. To this day, this is one of the 4-5 most influential books in my life.
Spike Lee's film adaptation is also excellent, and I'd recommend seeing it as well ... but read the book, first.
(American-centric)
Black Boy, Richard Wright's (somewhat?)autobiography. Not only does it deal with the racism doled out by whites experienced by a poor black person in the South, but also the feelings of alienation from other blacks experienced in the North. Richard Wright was an autodidact and intellectual and couldn't find any place to really fit in. His perseverance and quest for knowledge is inspiring, but his plight is ultimately pretty fuckin' sad.
Set the Night on Fire by Mike Davis and Jon Wiener is a fairly recent book written about the work of social justice groups in '60s Los Angeles. Gives a good overview of the systemic issues the groups faced and it occasionally compares/contrasts movements in Los Angeles with contemporaneous U.S. cities. There's a really good reference list, so it's a great starting point for further research.
Hmm... well it's not strictly a book on racism, I think Evicted by Matthew Desmond is a "must-read" if you want a broader understanding of one of the most important pathways systemic racism takes to deny people power: housing.
I just finished The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin , and while I still need time to completely process it and maybe reread sections, I can say that it is amazing and concise and eye-opening.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wretched_of_the_Earth
Not on racism per se, but enlightening on the psychological effects and mechanics of racism, as well as the roots of European racism.
I also stan all Robin DiAngelo's work on whiteness
I was going to recommend The Wretched of the Earth as well. Frantz Fanon is an excellent author, and the analytical approach he takes to describing colonialism and its aftermath in particular fascinates me. The entire book is truly an eye-opening read, but I was especially gripped by the section "On Violence." Reading such things, I'm strongly reminded of how my class influences my take on non-violence in the context of social change. I'd also recommend Black Skin, White Masks, which focuses more on internalized racism than on post-colonialism per se. It's much more sarcastic, but equally damning.
Life on the Color Line: The True Story of a White Boy who Discovered He was Black by Gregory Howard Williams. The book takes place in the 1950s and follows a white boy who found out he was biracial. The autobiography gave personal accounts on how society treated the narrator differently once his race became known. It's a great depiction of white privilege, the color lines and racial identity/acceptance.
“Enjoyed” feels like a really weird and wrong word to use, but I really enjoyed reading Stamped From The Beginning. I’m mostly confident that you’re from the US, but unlike a lot of general racism works, this is specifically looking at (mostly) US history. So while it might be good for people outside the US, it is truly the most impactful for people in the US, especially if you’re like me (Ohio) or my partner (Rural Texas) who come from heavily GOP filtered education systems. I learned a lot about US history, racism, prejudice, and the US education system. Though I know @kfwyre you’ve done a lot more reading on racism than I had when I picked up this book (it was my first book on my anti-racism journey) so it may be less mind-blowing for you than it was for me, who knew racism was bad but my education had really lacked in teaching me the history of racism in the US, either by bias or by complete omission.
I am from the US and wholeheartedly agree that our history is very whitewashed.
There are a lot of different books that tackle this issue from an educational perspective (e.g. Lies My Teacher Told Me), but honestly one of the most valuable reads for me for reframing my understanding was Carol Anderson's White Rage. There's a widespread belief that emancipation was the beginning of a calm detente, and violent and aggressive black people were responsible for continually breaking the peace enjoyed by "civilized" white people. My parents, who still live in the south, still have this belief embedded deep within them and have a deep-seated fear that their peaceful lives might be uprooted by racialized violence from people of color.
White Rage focuses on racialized violence done by white people to black people, as a way of demonstrating how threats and harm have been used as forms of control and disempowerment. Our country isn't just about using laws and peaceful means of subjugation. This is largely absent from our cultural understanding of race relations in America. It's not an easy read, but that's the point of it -- too often our history has been told through "easy" reads about very uneasy topics.
As for Stamped from the Beginning, I agree that it's excellent. I read it a while ago, but I actually just finished with Stamped, the young adult version of the book, which does a really great job of taking the ideas portrayed in the book and making them clear and accessible for kids (I'm a teacher, so I'm also interested in exploring books that I can recommend to students). One benefit of that version is that it's much shorter, so it would also work well for adults who want to read the adult version but don't want to commit to its length.
If you're looking for further reading, Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist is a really great complement to Stamped from the Beginning. It's part cultural commentary and part discussion of Kendi's experiences from his life, and it covers a lot of very important and relevant ground. Plus, it's a lot more personal. That said, probably the most personal and deeply affecting work I've read on racism in America is Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me. He has a way of putting things into words that is absolutely unmatched, and the book has so many powerful moments of truth, clarity, and insight.
I want to thank everyone who has suggested books in this thread! I've added a bunch of titles to my to-read list from your suggestions. Much appreciated!