Get Out of Your Gated Ghetto!

Did the title of this page get your attention? Good!

I am a white American woman, no longer even middle-aged, and have never lived (or ever will) in a wealthy gated community, but I must acknowledge that the color of my skin, all my life, has given me privilege and protection. Growing up in a two-parent family with a college-educated, professional father further cushioned my early entrance into the world. 

Human beings don’t necessarily need fences and gates to live in a ghetto of privilege – or in a ghetto of disadvantage, discrimination, even persecution. Since books are my world, here are a few I can recommend and/or were recommended to me as helping to raise awareness of white privilege many of us have without having to earn it. 

This list is a work in progress. It is a little thing I can do, and I welcome input and further suggestions. 

I also hope that beyond awareness will come action. Here is a place to look for actions you can take: 75 Things White People Can Do For Racial Justice. Some are, as the title suggests, specifically recommended for white people. Others, you’ll find, can be taken by people of any skin color or economic class – anyone who seeks to move the United States of America closer to the ideal of justice, one person, one action at a time.

Racial/Multicultural American History

Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. AN INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

Kendi, Ibram X. STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING: THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF RACIST IDEAS IN AMERICA

Takaki, Ronald. A DIFFERENT MIRROR: A HISTORY OF MULTICULTURAL AMERICA

Zinn, Howard. A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

American Wake-Up Classic Works

THE AUTOBIOBIOGRAPHY OF MALCOM X

Douglass, Frederick. NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

DuBois, W.E.B. THE SOULS OF BLACK FOLK

Baldwin, James. ANOTHER COUNTRY

Ellison, Ralph. INVISIBLE MAN

Gaines, Ernest J. A LESSON BEFORE DYING

Hansberry, Lorraine. A RAISIN IN THE SUN

Hurston, Zora Neale. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD

Morrison, Toni. BELOVED; THE BLUEST EYE; SONG OF SOLOMON

Lord, Audre. COAL

Walker, Alice. THE COLOR PURPLE

20^th Century Works on Race in America

Alexander, Michelle. THE NEW JIM CROW: INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS

Anderson, Carol. WHITE RAGE: THE UNSPOKEN TRUTH OF OUR RACIAL DIVIDE
Brown, Austin Channing. I'M STILL HERE: BLACK DIGNITY IN A WORLD MADE FOR WHITENESS

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME

Edim, Glory. WELL-READ BLACK GIRL: BLACK FEMINISM AND THE COMBAHEE RIVER COLLECTIVE

hooks, bell. KILLING RAGE: ENDING RACISM

Irving, Debby. WAKING UP WHITE, AND FINDING MYSELF IN THE STORY OF RACE

Juanita, Judy. DE FACTO FEMINISM: ESSAYS STRAIGHT OUTTA OAKLAND

McGuire, Danielle L. AT THE DARK END OF THE STREET: BLACK WOMEN, RAPE, AND RESISTANCE

Muhammad, Khalil Gibran. THE CONDEMNATION OF BLACKNESS: RACE, CRIME, AND THE MAKING OF MODERN URBAN AMERICA

Tatum, Beverly Daniel. WHY ARE ALL THE BLACK KIDS SITTING TOGETHER IN THE CAFETRIA? AND OTHER CONVERSATIONS ABOUT RACE

West, Cornell. RACE MATTERS