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Topic Guide

JoCoLibrary - Race Reads - The Black Experience

By:

RaceProjectKC

Johnson County Library

Staff-created list

Race Project KC's recommendations for books exploring race issues in the United States.

By:

RaceProjectKC

Johnson County Library

1-25 of 58 items

1-25 of 58 items

Reading While Black

Reading While Black

African American Biblical Interpretation as An Exercise in Hope

by McCaulley, Esau

Book - 2020

Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times....Show more Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times. Demonstrating an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley shares a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. Show less

Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times....Show more Reading Scripture from the perspective of Black church tradition can help us connect with a rich faith history and address the urgent issues of our times. Demonstrating an ongoing conversation between the collective Black experience and the Bible, New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley shares a personal and scholarly testament to the power and hope of Black biblical interpretation. Show less

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Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching

A Young Black Man's Education

by Smith, Mychal Denzel

Book - 2016

How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama; witnessing the dea...Show more How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama; witnessing the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and too many more. Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during these tumultuous years, describing his efforts to come into his own in a world that denied his humanity. Show less

How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama; witnessing the dea...Show more How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men today, it means coming of age during the presidency of Barack Obama; witnessing the deaths of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and too many more. Smith chronicles his own personal and political education during these tumultuous years, describing his efforts to come into his own in a world that denied his humanity. Show less

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Motherhood So White

Motherhood So White

A Memoir of Race, Gender, and Parenting in America

by Austin, Nefertiti

Book - 2019

In America, Mother = White. That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out o...Show more In America, Mother = White. That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster care system. Eager to finally join the motherhood ranks, Nefertiti was shocked when people started asking her why she wanted to adopt a 'crack baby' or said that she would never be able to raise a Black son on her own. She realized that American society saw motherhood through a white lens, and that there would be no easy understanding or acceptance of the kind of family she hoped to build. Motherhood So White is the story of Nefertiti's fight to create the family she always knew she was meant to have and the story of motherhood that all American families need now. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single, Black motherhood, and confronts the reality of raising children of color in racially charged, modern-day America. Honest, vulnerable, and uplifting, Motherhood So White reveals what Nefertiti knew all along: that the only requirement for a successful family is one raised with love. Show less

In America, Mother = White. That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out o...Show more In America, Mother = White. That's what Nefertiti, a single African American woman, discovered when she decided she wanted to adopt a Black baby boy out of the foster care system. Eager to finally join the motherhood ranks, Nefertiti was shocked when people started asking her why she wanted to adopt a 'crack baby' or said that she would never be able to raise a Black son on her own. She realized that American society saw motherhood through a white lens, and that there would be no easy understanding or acceptance of the kind of family she hoped to build. Motherhood So White is the story of Nefertiti's fight to create the family she always knew she was meant to have and the story of motherhood that all American families need now. In this unflinching account of her parenting journey, Nefertiti examines the history of adoption in the African American community, faces off against stereotypes of single, Black motherhood, and confronts the reality of raising children of color in racially charged, modern-day America. Honest, vulnerable, and uplifting, Motherhood So White reveals what Nefertiti knew all along: that the only requirement for a successful family is one raised with love. Show less

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Black Girls Rock!

Black Girls Rock!

Owning Our Magic, Rocking Our Truth

Book - 2018

Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our T...Show more Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our Truth is not only a one-of-a-kind celebration of the diversity, fortitude, and spirituality of black women but also a foundational text that will energize and empower every reader. Show less

Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our T...Show more Pairing inspirational essays and affirmations with lush, newly commissioned and classic photography, Black Girls Rock!: Owning Our Magic and Rocking Our Truth is not only a one-of-a-kind celebration of the diversity, fortitude, and spirituality of black women but also a foundational text that will energize and empower every reader. Show less

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Sister Citizen

Sister Citizen

Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America

by Harris-Perry, Melissa V.

Book - 2011

Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger -- these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women enco...Show more Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger -- these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves, that they do not need help. But as a result, the unique political issues of black women are often ignored and marginalized. In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women's political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States. Show less

Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger -- these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women enco...Show more Jezebel's sexual lasciviousness, Mammy's devotion, and Sapphire's outspoken anger -- these are among the most persistent stereotypes that black women encounter in contemporary American life. Hurtful and dishonest, such representations force African American women to navigate a virtual crooked room that shames them and shapes their experiences as citizens. Many respond by assuming a mantle of strength that may convince others, and even themselves, that they do not need help. But as a result, the unique political issues of black women are often ignored and marginalized. In this groundbreaking book, Melissa V. Harris-Perry uses multiple methods of inquiry, including literary analysis, political theory, focus groups, surveys, and experimental research, to understand more deeply black women's political and emotional responses to pervasive negative race and gender images. Not a traditional political science work concerned with office-seeking, voting, or ideology, Sister Citizen instead explores how African American women understand themselves as citizens and what they expect from political organizing. Harris-Perry shows that the shared struggle to preserve an authentic self and secure recognition as a citizen links together black women in America, from the anonymous survivors of Hurricane Katrina to the current First Lady of the United States. Show less

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A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing

A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing

The Incarceration of African American Women From Harriet Tubman to Sandra Bland

by Hill, DaMaris B.

Book - 2019

For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of wom...Show more For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era's prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%.* For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement--physical, social, intellectual--the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal. In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, Hill presents bitter, unflinching history that artfully captures the personas of these captivating, bound yet unbridled African-American women. Hill's passionate odes to Zora Neale Hurston, Lucille Clifton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, and others also celebrate the modern-day inheritors of their load and light, binding history, author, and reader in an essential legacy of struggle. Show less

For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of wom...Show more For black American women, the experience of being bound has taken many forms: from the bondage of slavery to the Reconstruction-era criminalization of women; from the brutal constraints of Jim Crow to our own era's prison industrial complex, where between 1980 and 2014, the number of incarcerated women increased by 700%.* For those women who lived and died resisting the dehumanization of confinement--physical, social, intellectual--the threat of being bound was real, constant, and lethal. In A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, Hill presents bitter, unflinching history that artfully captures the personas of these captivating, bound yet unbridled African-American women. Hill's passionate odes to Zora Neale Hurston, Lucille Clifton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Grace Jones, Eartha Kitt, and others also celebrate the modern-day inheritors of their load and light, binding history, author, and reader in an essential legacy of struggle. Show less

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Girl Gurl Grrrl

Girl Gurl Grrrl

On Womanhood and Belonging in the Age of Black Girl Magic

by Hunt, Kenya

Book - 2020

From the Deputy Editor of Elle UK, a provocative and humorous collection of essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. From the Deputy Editor of Elle UK, a provocative and humorous collection of essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. Show less

From the Deputy Editor of Elle UK, a provocative and humorous collection of essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. From the Deputy Editor of Elle UK, a provocative and humorous collection of essays on what it means to be black, a woman, a mother and a global citizen in today's ever-changing world. Show less

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Healing Racial Trauma

Healing Racial Trauma

The Road to Resilience

by Rowe, Sheila Wise

Book - 2020

People of color have endured traumatic histories and almost daily assaults on their dignity. Professional counselor Sheila Wise Rowe exposes the symptoms ...Show more People of color have endured traumatic histories and almost daily assaults on their dignity. Professional counselor Sheila Wise Rowe exposes the symptoms of racial trauma to lead readers to a place of freedom from the past and new life for the future. With Rowe as a reliable guide who has both been on the journey and shown others the way forward, you will find a safe pathway to resilience. Show less

People of color have endured traumatic histories and almost daily assaults on their dignity. Professional counselor Sheila Wise Rowe exposes the symptoms ...Show more People of color have endured traumatic histories and almost daily assaults on their dignity. Professional counselor Sheila Wise Rowe exposes the symptoms of racial trauma to lead readers to a place of freedom from the past and new life for the future. With Rowe as a reliable guide who has both been on the journey and shown others the way forward, you will find a safe pathway to resilience. Show less

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Dear Black Girl

Dear Black Girl

Letters From your Sisters on Stepping Into your Power

by Winfrey Harris, Tamara

Book - 2021

From the bestselling author of The Sisters Are Alright comes a book of personal letters written by black women to black girls to nurture healthy womanhood...Show more From the bestselling author of The Sisters Are Alright comes a book of personal letters written by black women to black girls to nurture healthy womanhood and sisterhood, covering topics like identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality. Show less

From the bestselling author of The Sisters Are Alright comes a book of personal letters written by black women to black girls to nurture healthy womanhood...Show more From the bestselling author of The Sisters Are Alright comes a book of personal letters written by black women to black girls to nurture healthy womanhood and sisterhood, covering topics like identity, self-love, parents, violence, grief, mental health, sex, and sexuality. Show less

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Writings on the Wall

Writings on the Wall

Searching for A New Equality Beyond Black and White

by Abdul-Jabbar, Kareem

Book - 2016

Traces the evolution of the author's views on social justice, from his youth in the civil rights era to his current role as a cultural commentator on topics ranging from race and economic inequality to music and the influence of the media. Traces the evolution of the author's views on social justice, from his youth in the civil rights era to his current role as a cultural commentator on topics ranging from race and economic inequality to music and the influence of the media. Show less

Traces the evolution of the author's views on social justice, from his youth in the civil rights era to his current role as a cultural commentator on topics ranging from race and economic inequality to music and the influence of the media. Traces the evolution of the author's views on social justice, from his youth in the civil rights era to his current role as a cultural commentator on topics ranging from race and economic inequality to music and the influence of the media. Show less

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Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man

Uncomfortable Conversations With A Black Man

by Acho, Emmanuel

Book - 2020

In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid ...Show more In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and "reverse racism." In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity--but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight. Show less

In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid ...Show more In Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, Acho takes on all the questions, large and small, insensitive and taboo, many white Americans are afraid to ask--yet which all Americans need the answers to, now more than ever. With the same open-hearted generosity that has made his video series a phenomenon, Acho explains the vital core of such fraught concepts as white privilege, cultural appropriation, and "reverse racism." In his own words, he provides a space of compassion and understanding in a discussion that can lack both. He asks only for the reader's curiosity--but along the way, he will galvanize all of us to join the antiracist fight. Show less

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Why Didn't We Riot?

Why Didn't We Riot?

A Black Man in Trumpland

by Bailey, Issac J.

Book - 2020

An award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be black in Trump Country. In A Black Man in Trumpland, South Carolina-based journali...Show more An award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be black in Trump Country. In A Black Man in Trumpland, South Carolina-based journalist Issac J. Bailey reflects on a wide range of topics that have been increasingly dividing Americans, from police brutality and Confederate symbols to poverty and respectability politics. Bailey has been honing his views on these issues for the past quarter of a century in his professional and private life, which included an eighteen-year stint as a member of a mostly white Evangelical Christian church. This book speaks to and for the millions of black and brown people throughout the United States who were effectively pushed back to the back of the bus in the Trump era by a media that prioritized the concerns and feelings of the white working class and an administration that made white supremacists giddy, and explains why the country's fate in 2020 and beyond is largely in their hands. It will be an invaluable resource for the everyday reader, as well as political analysts, college professors and students, and political consultants and political campaigns vying for high office. Show less

An award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be black in Trump Country. In A Black Man in Trumpland, South Carolina-based journali...Show more An award-winning journalist deals forthrightly with what it means to be black in Trump Country. In A Black Man in Trumpland, South Carolina-based journalist Issac J. Bailey reflects on a wide range of topics that have been increasingly dividing Americans, from police brutality and Confederate symbols to poverty and respectability politics. Bailey has been honing his views on these issues for the past quarter of a century in his professional and private life, which included an eighteen-year stint as a member of a mostly white Evangelical Christian church. This book speaks to and for the millions of black and brown people throughout the United States who were effectively pushed back to the back of the bus in the Trump era by a media that prioritized the concerns and feelings of the white working class and an administration that made white supremacists giddy, and explains why the country's fate in 2020 and beyond is largely in their hands. It will be an invaluable resource for the everyday reader, as well as political analysts, college professors and students, and political consultants and political campaigns vying for high office. Show less

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Between the World and Me

Between the World and Me

by Coates, Ta-Nehisi

Book - 2015

For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries th...Show more For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. In this book, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings--moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. Show less

For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries th...Show more For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear. In this book, Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings--moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police. Show less

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A Peculiar Indifference

A Peculiar Indifference

The Neglected Toll of Violence on Black America

by Currie, Elliott

Book - 2020

In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more ye...Show more In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more years of life from black men than cancer, stroke, and diabetes combined. Even black women are more affected by violence than white men, despite its usual gender patterns. These disparities translate into starkly divergent experiences of life and death for whites and blacks in the United States. Yet aside from occasional flare-ups of violence that periodically hit the headlines, the problem has largely receded into the background of public discussion and has nearly disappeared as a target of public policy. The country has been understandably outraged by the recent spate of police shootings of black Americans. But as acclaimed criminologist Elliott Currie points out, the far more widespread problem of "everyday" violent death and injury in black communities has received much less sustained attention or concern. Yet both kinds of violence reflect the same underlying condition: the continuing marginality and structural disadvantage of many black communities in America today. Our unwillingness to confront those conditions helps to perpetuate a level of preventable trauma and needless suffering that has no counterpart anywhere in the developed world. Compelling and accessible, drawing on a rich array of both classic and contemporary research, A Peculiar Indifference describes the dimensions and consequences of this enduring emergency, explores its causes, and offers an urgent plea for long-overdue social action to end it. Show less

In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more ye...Show more In the United States today, a young black man has a sixteen times greater chance of dying from violence than his white counterpart. Violence takes more years of life from black men than cancer, stroke, and diabetes combined. Even black women are more affected by violence than white men, despite its usual gender patterns. These disparities translate into starkly divergent experiences of life and death for whites and blacks in the United States. Yet aside from occasional flare-ups of violence that periodically hit the headlines, the problem has largely receded into the background of public discussion and has nearly disappeared as a target of public policy. The country has been understandably outraged by the recent spate of police shootings of black Americans. But as acclaimed criminologist Elliott Currie points out, the far more widespread problem of "everyday" violent death and injury in black communities has received much less sustained attention or concern. Yet both kinds of violence reflect the same underlying condition: the continuing marginality and structural disadvantage of many black communities in America today. Our unwillingness to confront those conditions helps to perpetuate a level of preventable trauma and needless suffering that has no counterpart anywhere in the developed world. Compelling and accessible, drawing on a rich array of both classic and contemporary research, A Peculiar Indifference describes the dimensions and consequences of this enduring emergency, explores its causes, and offers an urgent plea for long-overdue social action to end it. Show less

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The Black Presidency

The Black Presidency

Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America

by Dyson, Michael Eric

Book - 2016

Michael Eric Dyson delivers a provocative exploration of the politics of race and the Obama presidency. Barack Obama's presidency unfolded against the nat...Show more Michael Eric Dyson delivers a provocative exploration of the politics of race and the Obama presidency. Barack Obama's presidency unfolded against the national traumas of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott. The nation's first African American president was careful to give few major race speeches, yet he faced criticism from all sides, including from African Americans. How has Obama's race affected his presidency and the nation's identity? Dyson explores whether Obama's use of his own biracialism as a symbol has been driven by the president's desire to avoid a painful moral reckoning on race. And he sheds light on identity issues within the black power structure, telling how Obama has spurned traditional black power brokers, significantly reducing their leverage. Perhaps most movingly, Dyson illuminates the transformative moments, especially in his second term, when Obama has publicly embraced his blackness and used it as a powerful lens onto America, black and white. President Obama's own voice--from an Oval Office interview granted to Dyson for the book--along with that of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and Andrew Young, among others, adds depth to this tour of the nation's first black presidency. Show less

Michael Eric Dyson delivers a provocative exploration of the politics of race and the Obama presidency. Barack Obama's presidency unfolded against the nat...Show more Michael Eric Dyson delivers a provocative exploration of the politics of race and the Obama presidency. Barack Obama's presidency unfolded against the national traumas of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott. The nation's first African American president was careful to give few major race speeches, yet he faced criticism from all sides, including from African Americans. How has Obama's race affected his presidency and the nation's identity? Dyson explores whether Obama's use of his own biracialism as a symbol has been driven by the president's desire to avoid a painful moral reckoning on race. And he sheds light on identity issues within the black power structure, telling how Obama has spurned traditional black power brokers, significantly reducing their leverage. Perhaps most movingly, Dyson illuminates the transformative moments, especially in his second term, when Obama has publicly embraced his blackness and used it as a powerful lens onto America, black and white. President Obama's own voice--from an Oval Office interview granted to Dyson for the book--along with that of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and Andrew Young, among others, adds depth to this tour of the nation's first black presidency. Show less

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Long Time Coming

Long Time Coming

Reckoning With Race in America

by Dyson, Michael Eric

Book - 2020

A passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 4...Show more A passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 43-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night's events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation's history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd's death was certainly the catalyst, (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color) it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg. Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters-each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney-Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life-and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson's exciting new book points the way to social redemption. Long Time Coming is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race. Show less

A passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 4...Show more A passionate call to America to finally reckon with race and start the journey to redemption. The night of May 25, 2020 changed America. George Floyd, a 43-year-old Black man, was killed during an arrest in Minneapolis when a white cop suffocated him. The video of that night's events went viral, sparking the largest protests in the nation's history and the sort of social unrest we have not seen since the sixties. While Floyd's death was certainly the catalyst, (heightened by the fact that it occurred during a pandemic whose victims were disproportionately of color) it was in truth the fuse that lit an ever-filling powder keg. Long Time Coming grapples with the cultural and social forces that have shaped our nation in the brutal crucible of race. In five beautifully argued chapters-each addressed to a black martyr from Breonna Taylor to Rev. Clementa Pinckney-Dyson traces the genealogy of anti-blackness from the slave ship to the street corner where Floyd lost his life-and where America gained its will to confront the ugly truth of systemic racism. Ending with a poignant plea for hope, Dyson's exciting new book points the way to social redemption. Long Time Coming is a necessary guide to help America finally reckon with race. Show less

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Tell Me Who You Are

Tell Me Who You Are

Sharing Our Stories of Race, Culture, and Identity

by Guo, Winona

Book - 2019

Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America....Show more Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America. Spurred by the realization that they had nearly completed high school without hearing any substantive discussion about racism in school, the two young women deferred college admission for a year to collect first-person accounts of how racism plays out in this country every day--and often in unexpected ways. In Tell Me Who You Are, Guo and Vulchi reveal the lines that separate us based on race or other perceived differences and how telling our stories--and listening deeply to the stories of others--are the first and most crucial steps we can take towards negating racial inequity in our culture. Featuring interviews with over 150 Americans accompanied by their photographs, this intimate toolkit also offers a deep examination of the seeds of racism and strategies for effecting change. This groundbreaking book will inspire readers to join Guo and Vulchi in imagining an America in which we can fully understand and appreciate who we are. Show less

Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America....Show more Winona Guo and Priya Vulchi recount their experiences talking to people from all walks of life about race and identity on a cross-country tour of America. Spurred by the realization that they had nearly completed high school without hearing any substantive discussion about racism in school, the two young women deferred college admission for a year to collect first-person accounts of how racism plays out in this country every day--and often in unexpected ways. In Tell Me Who You Are, Guo and Vulchi reveal the lines that separate us based on race or other perceived differences and how telling our stories--and listening deeply to the stories of others--are the first and most crucial steps we can take towards negating racial inequity in our culture. Featuring interviews with over 150 Americans accompanied by their photographs, this intimate toolkit also offers a deep examination of the seeds of racism and strategies for effecting change. This groundbreaking book will inspire readers to join Guo and Vulchi in imagining an America in which we can fully understand and appreciate who we are. Show less

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Busted in New York and Other Essays

Busted in New York and Other Essays

by Pinckney, Darryl

Book - 2019

In these twenty-five essays, Darryl Pinckney has given us a view of our recent racial history that blends the social and the personal and wonders how we a...Show more In these twenty-five essays, Darryl Pinckney has given us a view of our recent racial history that blends the social and the personal and wonders how we arrived at our current moment. Pinckney reminds us that "white supremacy isn't back; it never went away." It is this impulse to see historically that is at the core of Busted in New York and Other Essays , which traces the lineage of black intellectual history from Booker T. Washington through the Harlem Renaissance, to the Black Panther Party and the turbulent sixties, to today's Afro-pessimists, and celebrated and neglected thinkers in between. Show less

In these twenty-five essays, Darryl Pinckney has given us a view of our recent racial history that blends the social and the personal and wonders how we a...Show more In these twenty-five essays, Darryl Pinckney has given us a view of our recent racial history that blends the social and the personal and wonders how we arrived at our current moment. Pinckney reminds us that "white supremacy isn't back; it never went away." It is this impulse to see historically that is at the core of Busted in New York and Other Essays , which traces the lineage of black intellectual history from Booker T. Washington through the Harlem Renaissance, to the Black Panther Party and the turbulent sixties, to today's Afro-pessimists, and celebrated and neglected thinkers in between. Show less

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Grieving While Black

Grieving While Black

An Antiracist Take on Oppression and Sorrow

by Wade, Breeshia

Book - 2021

A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Grieving While Back: An Anti-Racist Take on Opp...Show more A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Grieving While Back: An Anti-Racist Take on Oppression and Sorrow approaches grief as something that is bigger than what's already happened to us--as something that is connected to what we fear, what we love and what we aspire towards. Because grief impacts our relationship with ourselves and each other, and our social location determines the amount of harm we are able to inflict against others, systemic oppression can be interpreted as the result of our unprocessed but inescapable relationship to loss. Show less

A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Grieving While Back: An Anti-Racist Take on Opp...Show more A groundbreaking exploration of grief and racial trauma through the eyes of a Black end-of-life caregiver. Grieving While Back: An Anti-Racist Take on Oppression and Sorrow approaches grief as something that is bigger than what's already happened to us--as something that is connected to what we fear, what we love and what we aspire towards. Because grief impacts our relationship with ourselves and each other, and our social location determines the amount of harm we are able to inflict against others, systemic oppression can be interpreted as the result of our unprocessed but inescapable relationship to loss. Show less

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Something in the Water

Something in the Water

A 21st Century Civil Rights Odyssey

by Waters, Michael W.

Book - 2020

Take an epic journey through America's racist past - and present - with award-winning author, pastor, and civil rights leader Michael W. Waters, From the ...Show more Take an epic journey through America's racist past - and present - with award-winning author, pastor, and civil rights leader Michael W. Waters, From the riverbank where Emmett Till's body was recovered and the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, to sites of recent racial violence like Charleston's Emanuel AME Church massacre and El Paso's Walmart shootings, and his own history-making moments bringing down the Confederate monuments in Dallas, Waters ruminates on sacred spaces and places that have shaped America's racial tension - and our hope that a better day will come. Show less

Take an epic journey through America's racist past - and present - with award-winning author, pastor, and civil rights leader Michael W. Waters, From the ...Show more Take an epic journey through America's racist past - and present - with award-winning author, pastor, and civil rights leader Michael W. Waters, From the riverbank where Emmett Till's body was recovered and the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, to sites of recent racial violence like Charleston's Emanuel AME Church massacre and El Paso's Walmart shootings, and his own history-making moments bringing down the Confederate monuments in Dallas, Waters ruminates on sacred spaces and places that have shaped America's racial tension - and our hope that a better day will come. Show less

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Breathe

Breathe

A Letter to My Sons

by Perry, Imani

Book - 2019

Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistent...Show more Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love--finding beauty and possibility in life--and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience. Show less

Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistent...Show more Explores the terror, grace, and beauty of coming of age as a Black person in contemporary America and what it means to parent our children in a persistently unjust world. Emotionally raw and deeply reflective, Imani Perry issues an unflinching challenge to society to see Black children as deserving of humanity. She admits fear and frustration for her African American sons in a society that is increasingly racist and at times seems irredeemable. However, as a mother, feminist, writer, and intellectual, Perry offers an unfettered expression of love--finding beauty and possibility in life--and she exhorts her children and their peers to find the courage to chart their own paths and find steady footing and inspiration in Black tradition. Perry draws upon the ideas of figures such as James Baldwin, W. E. B. DuBois, Emily Dickinson, Toni Morrison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Ida B. Wells. She shares vulnerabilities and insight from her own life and from encounters in places as varied as the West Side of Chicago; Birmingham, Alabama; and New England prep schools. Breathe offers a broader meditation on race, gender, and the meaning of a life well lived and is also an unforgettable lesson in Black resistance and resilience. Show less

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We Can't Breathe

We Can't Breathe

On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival

by Asim, Jabari

Book - 2018

Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison [calls] the 'master narrative' and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community i...Show more Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison [calls] the 'master narrative' and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community in the face of centuries of racism. In eight ... essays, he explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life; the importance of black fathers and community; the significance of black writers and stories; and the beauty and pain of the black body. Show less

Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison [calls] the 'master narrative' and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community i...Show more Asim disrupts what Toni Morrison [calls] the 'master narrative' and replaces it with a story of black survival and persistence through art and community in the face of centuries of racism. In eight ... essays, he explores such topics as the twisted legacy of jokes and falsehoods in black life; the importance of black fathers and community; the significance of black writers and stories; and the beauty and pain of the black body. Show less

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The Fire Next Time

The Fire Next Time

by Baldwin, James

Book - 1995

Warns citizens to examine the actual state of America, the role of blacks, and race relations after a century of Emancipation. Warns citizens to examine the actual state of America, the role of blacks, and race relations after a century of Emancipation. Show less

Warns citizens to examine the actual state of America, the role of blacks, and race relations after a century of Emancipation. Warns citizens to examine the actual state of America, the role of blacks, and race relations after a century of Emancipation. Show less

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Notes of A Native Son

Notes of A Native Son

by Baldwin, James

Book - 1984\

A Black writer records his response to the conditions of Black life and white racism. A Black writer records his response to the conditions of Black life and white racism. Show less

A Black writer records his response to the conditions of Black life and white racism. A Black writer records his response to the conditions of Black life and white racism. Show less

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Greyboy

Greyboy

Finding Blackness in A White World

by Brown, Cole

Book - 2020

Cole has heard it all before--token, bougie, oreo, Blackish--the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an in...Show more Cole has heard it all before--token, bougie, oreo, Blackish--the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an intersection of race and class that many doubt exists. He needed to get far away from the preppy site of his upbringing before he could make sense of it all. Through a series of personal anecdotes and interviews with his peers, Cole transports us to his adolescence and explores what it's like to be young and in search of identity. He digs into the places where, in youth, a greyboy's difference is most acutely felt: parenting, police brutality, Trumpism, depression, and dating, to name a few. 'Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World' asks an important question: What is Blackness? It also provides the answer: Much more than you thought, dammit. Show less

Cole has heard it all before--token, bougie, oreo, Blackish--the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an in...Show more Cole has heard it all before--token, bougie, oreo, Blackish--the things we call the kids like him. Black kids who grow up in white spaces, living at an intersection of race and class that many doubt exists. He needed to get far away from the preppy site of his upbringing before he could make sense of it all. Through a series of personal anecdotes and interviews with his peers, Cole transports us to his adolescence and explores what it's like to be young and in search of identity. He digs into the places where, in youth, a greyboy's difference is most acutely felt: parenting, police brutality, Trumpism, depression, and dating, to name a few. 'Greyboy: Finding Blackness in a White World' asks an important question: What is Blackness? It also provides the answer: Much more than you thought, dammit. Show less

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