6 anti-racism books to read right now

The incessant injustice that has been going on for several decades in the US along with the rage and violence over the past week has left the hearts of many people both in the country and all across the globe aching. 

The death of George Floyd and innumerable other people of color and the persistent racial divide has left many people helpless, fearful, angry, and sad. As protests around the country against racism and police brutality enter their second week, the silver lining is that many people are asking themselves what they can do to help and in the process educating themselves about racial relations and anti-racism. 

We can never underestimate the power of words, and I truly believe that books can be an indispensable and vital resource for all of us during this time, no matter who we are and where we live, to get a better perspective, cultivate kindness and compassion, and gather resources that equip us to enact change and fix this problem. 

As word weaver and storyteller James Baldwin once said, “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive.”

To help you get started, here is an essential list of books that I have compiled based on recommendations by educators, anti-racist organizations, and black publishers and booksellers:

1. White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
2. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
4. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
5. Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
6. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexandar