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
20th 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
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
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