'Which Books Do You Pull From Your Bookshelf and Read Again Whenever Racial Discrimination Makes You Feel Like You're Falling Into a Black Hole?'
An answer to a subscriber’s question.
Dear This Precious Dark Skin readers,
Thank you to all new subscribers who subscribed to my newsletter this week! I created This Precious Dark Skin because I believe in all my heart our dark skin is precious. Because we need to talk about our identities. Our hair. Our bodies. Our humanity. Every piece I publish on This Precious Dark Skin celebrates our dark skin. It embraces our humanity.
My newsletter is not just a place where I share my essays. It’s also a place to share your stories, and to ask questions.
Today I’m answering a subscriber’s question I received this week. Here’s my answer to, ‘Which books do you pull from your bookshelf and read again whenever racial discrimination makes you feel like you’re falling into a black hole?’
Before I became a writer, I read a lot. After I became a writer, I still read. I do select books I read. I have a day job. I don’t want to waste my time reading words that do not grab my attention. Also, I want to read every word of the book I’m reading. I don’t want to skim. Skimming is not reading.
The following are books on race and racism that captivated me. I have these books on a hardcover (holding books in my hand and reading them is my favorite way of reading). I recommend these books to friends and family. These are books I pull from my bookshelf and read again whenever racial discrimination makes me feel like I’m falling into a black hole.
Here we go:
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Olou
If you’ve not read this book, make it your priority.
The way Olou writes is so beautiful. I’ve learned a lot from reading this book. Not just about race and racism. But also on how to write about race and racism. Olou’s words pierce injustice and inequality. But her words are also filled with love. With humor. Her words never look down on white people.
Her words are not condescending.
I practice this approach when I write.
I write about race and racism because I have something to say. Not because I want people to think highly of me and witness me in all my mastery, glory, and prowess.
That’s ego.
Writing about race and racism is heavy. But I can write about race and racism without retorting lethal slingshots at white people. Without serving my ego.
I can write about race and racism with humility. With kindness. I can write about my lived experiences as a black woman without sounding condescending. Without provoking white folks. I can write about race and racism with love.
You Don’t Look Like a Lawyer by Tsedale M. Melaku
A lawyer friend recommended this book to me.
This book is about black women and systemic gendered racism in elite white firms in the United States. How black women lawyers are left behind as their white peers are progressing ahead.
Even if you’re not a lawyer, you’ll relate to this book, as working in white institutions feels like we’re left behind again. And again.
Millennial Black by Sophie Williams
If you’re a black woman, I’m sure you have faced the frustrations of covert racism working in white workspaces. Feeling invisible. Experiencing subtle, slippery, and harder to pin down racism.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I the only one who feels alone?” read this book. Williams’s book is full of advice for you. And for every black woman who works in predominantly white spaces.
How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
The Times described this book as “The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the western mind.”
My favorite two sentences from Kendi’s book:
“What is the problem with being “not racist?” It’s a claim that signifies neutrality.”
This book is about how a white person can take action instead of hiding behind passivity. Or hiding behind these words, “I voted for Obama! I cannot and am not a racist!”
This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins
This book is a memoir. Once I started reading it, I could not put it down.
One word that describes this book:
Naked.
Morgan’s words make you want to take your clothes off and appreciate your dark skin. You want to exclaim, “This is my body, and I LOVE it!”
Chapter 9 is my favorite chapter of her book. It’s a manifesto. On how to survive being a black woman living or working in white spaces.
Sway – Unraveling Unconscious Bias by Pragya Agarwal
If you do not like reading research, this one might not be for you. But I recommend Sway to every white person who insists unconscious bias doesn’t exist. Who insists we do not put up walls between ‘us’ and ‘them’.
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad
White friends and colleagues I respect have thanked me for recommending this book to them.
Not all whites, but some will surprise you. Some whites read books like Me and White Supremacy without covering the book. They pick up this book at the bookstore. They share it with family and friends. They self-reflect. They answer uncomfortable questions (Layla’s book has reflective journaling prompts at the end of every chapter).
And now to a few articles, I read this week worth mentioning…
I loved reading this New York Times article, One Last Takeaway From ‘The Slap’: Leave Black Women’s Hair Alone. Especially after publishing 2 Reasons We Still Don’t Take Kindly to Black Women With Natural Hair two weeks ago.
And because I loved watching Viola Davis in How to Get Away With Murder and Fences where she costarred with Denzel Washington, I read Viola Davis, Inside Out.
Reading More Police Would Not Have Stopped The Tragedy in Brooklyn. Here’s Why by Allison Gaines put tears in my eyes.
P. S.
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Thank you.