Lists
by Powell's Books, February 9, 2018 9:21 AM
There are numerous excellent books about the Black Lives Matter movement, and more broadly, racial injustice and activism, but the ones below — with their formidable integrity, strength, intelligence, and passion — struck a particular chord with us. For more recommended titles on the Black Lives Matter movement, check out this list. For a broader list of titles to read during Black History Month, click here.
When They Call You a Terrorist
by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele
Khan-Cullors’s piercing memoir (cowritten with asha bandele) is an important and sometimes hard reminder that the Black Lives Matter movement was founded out of the lived experiences of BLM’s cofounders. Writing from a position of sadness, alarm, love, and memory, When They Call You a Terrorist is a brave and optimistic book that handily refutes the notion that a movement based on shared humanity could result in anything close to terrorism. As Powell’s bookseller Britney T. notes, “Incredibly personal and also hopeful about the future of intersectional community activism, this is just the book I needed to kick off a new year.”
They Can’t Kill Us All
by Wesley Lowery
Wesley Lowery is an astonishingly young and talented reporter who covers race relations for The Washington Post. They Can’t Kill Us All, his first book, is a deeply researched exploration of the police shootings that sparked the Black Lives Matter movement, and a candid depiction of what it’s like to be a black journalist investigating and often entering into highly charged situations between white officers and the black communities they police. The result is a critical early history of the 21st-century civil rights movement and an exemplar of disciplined and compassionate reporting.
The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace
by Jeff Hobbs
Hobbs gives us the life story of his college roommate, a brilliant scientist from Newark, NJ, who excelled at Yale only to die in a drug-related murder after graduation. This could be a Hallmark Movie tearjerker of a book, but Hobbs is far too talented and self-aware for that. The Short and Tragic Life makes no bones about the violence and deprivation that marked Robert Peace’s childhood, but it also doesn’t absolve him of the anger, pride, conceit, or cultural conditioning that led him to engage in criminal activities despite all of the sacrifices that family, friends and even strangers made so that he could succeed. Hobbs is particularly good at illuminating the tensions between the white and privileged (including himself) and the poor minority students at Yale, who reach what they’ve been told is the top only to discover that real success requires the additional capital and family support needed to go to law and medical school or into elite but nonlucrative careers like teaching and research — money they don’t have, support they may not have, dream careers that seem a lot less pragmatic than the service and other professions of their high school friends and family members. The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace is a harrowing elegy, but it is also an eye-opening examination of inner-city boyhood and the troubling, much too simplistic way we equate success with escape.
The Fire This Time
by Jesmyn Ward
Ward’s desire for an urgent and lasting conversation about racism in the 21st century led her to edit this anthology of contemporary writers on topics ranging from Rachel Dolezal to the poet Phyllis Wheatley to Garnette Cadogan’s experiences of walking while black. Though increasingly common online, it’s still rare — and riveting — to read a book about everyday life from minority perspectives, to be immersed in how pop culture, American mythology, news reports, history, and Twitter scandals are experienced and interpreted by people who don’t control the dominant narrative. As Powell’s bookseller Britt A. writes, “After Trayvon Martin was murdered, Jesmyn Ward went looking for community. She went to Twitter, where she knew people would be outraged. It didn’t last, though; other topics took over. She wanted more. She wanted something she could hold. The Fire This Time is that book. It is a must-read.” We concur.
On the Run
by Alice Goffman
On the Run documents the years Goffman, a sociology professor, spent embedded in one of Philadelphia’s worst neighborhoods, befriending and observing a group of young black men. Goffman’s argument is that the War on Drugs, while ineffective at curbing the illegal drug trade, has allowed a de facto surveillance state to develop in inner-city neighborhoods. In these communities, Goffman suggests, everyone is a suspect and most black youth are considered criminal by association — through older siblings in gangs, friends or parents with criminal records, just for living on a specific street. The constant surveillance and high arrest rates (she tells the story of an 11-year-old arrested for being a passenger in a stolen car) erode community ties and fuel distrust of law enforcement. Her argument is compelling, but what makes Goffman’s book exemplary are her personal anecdotes and the life stories of her friends and subjects. On the Run forces the reader to see statistics as human beings, and the experience is illuminating.
So You Want to Talk About Race
by Ijeoma Oluo
This is the book is for everyone confused about what constitutes a micoaggression, or for whom white privilege is a new or fraught concept. It’s equally a resource for those nervous about engaging in discussions about race for fear of hurting someone or being labeled a racist. Oluo is an excellent guide through the explosive terrain of 21st-century race relations, providing clear explanations of the many ways American society is structured to empower white people, particularly men. Arguing that a person can be complicit in a racist society without being an explicitly bad or racist person, Oluo takes some of the sting out of a conversation that rightly places the onus on white citizens to take the lead in confronting racial discrimination and violence. It’s a tricky balance — not placing blame but demanding recognition and reparation — and Oluo manages it with grace and care.
The New Jim Crow
by Michelle Alexander
Michelle Alexander’s groundbreaking book on mass incarceration and its effects on minority communities is just as maddening and revelatory now as when it was first published in 2010. Alexander argues that the often lifelong penalties imposed on American convicts (limited employment, housing, and educational opportunities, for example) dovetail with a racialized criminal justice system to reimpose a Jim Crow-like state of secondary citizenship on minority communities. Failed policies like the War on Drugs and broken windows policing that overwhelmingly target minority men continue to have dire, long-term effects on family and community stability, reinforcing poverty and, Alexander asserts, reestablishing a post-civil rights racial caste system. As serious as her subject is, Alexander writes fluidly and engagingly, making The New Jim Crow the rare policy book that enthralls as it informs.
Between the World and Me
by Te-Nehisi Coates
If you haven’t yet read Te-Nehisi Coates’s slim 2015 National Book Award-winning memoir about his intellectual and political coming-of-age, take the opportunity to do so now. Coates has achieved national recognition for carefully researched and passionately argued essays like “The Case for Reparations,” but it’s Between the World and Me — a deeply personal and historical exploration of race in America, styled as a letter to his son — that showcases Coates’s intensity, commitment to advocacy, and talent for sharp, evocative prose.
Check out our other recommended reading lists for Black History Month:
Recommended Reading: American History
Recommended Reading: Kids' Books
Recommended Reading: Feminism
Recommended Reading: Arts and Culture
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