logo

antiracist reads for everyone

Books about racism for parents, teachers, students, book clubs, and every American

What is Antiracism? A Resource Guide for Every Type of Reader

The worldwide outrage over the May 25, 2020 killing of George Floyd prompted a surge of interest in books on antiracism in the United States. Some books are gut-wrenching personal memoirs about enduring racism in America. Others take a more clinical approach to diagnosing how and why racism emerges across a number of professional and personal contexts. Still others provide broad overviews of the history of racism and its persistence in America, tracing it from the Colonial Era, slavery, and Jim Crow to the present age of the “War on Drugs,” police brutality, and mass incarceration.

What Is Racism? What Is Antiracism?

Whether these texts approach racism from a personal, historical, or legal perspective, they all seek to explain racial discrimination so that we may dismantle it. Doing so requires acknowledging that racism goes far beyond personal, individualized animus toward groups of people. Rather, systemic racism grows out of long-entrenched power structures that create and preserve racial inequity. This concept lies at the heart of antiracism, a philosophy rooted in the earliest abolitionist movements and that has seen a resurgence in the 21st century.

In his 2019 book How to be an Antiracist, author and activist Ibram X. Kendi writes, “The opposite of racist isn't ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’ What's the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.’”  

In other words, antiracism is more than merely the absence of racism. It demands an honest reckoning with the privileges afforded to certain sections of a society and a good-faith effort to expose, confront, and challenge racism wherever it exists.

The titles below present the political, historical, and emotional context necessary to understand the mechanisms that prevent America from working to correct racist systems. At the same time, these books warn of threats to racial equality that have grown in direct response to increasing awareness of racism —including efforts to dismantle voting rights and a rise in White supremacist terrorist groups. The specific works below were chosen because of their cultural and artistic merits, combined with a consideration of each title’s historical and contemporary contribution to the popular discourse on race.

For the Reader Who is New to Antiracism

How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)

The defining text of the contemporary antiracist movement, the book’s central thesis is that the opposite of racist isn’t “not racist.” It’s antiracist.

“‘Institutional racism’ and ‘structural racism’ and ‘systemic racism’ are redundant. Racism itself is institutional, structural, and systemic.” (Read more quotes from How to be an Antiracist )

What others say:“The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind.”- Jeffrey C. Stewart, New York Times

  • Pages: 320
  • Helpful Resource: Learn more about what it means to be antiracist with this great explainer from Vox.
  • Tags: antiracism, slavery, Jim Crow, colorism

For the Book Club Reader

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (2018)

In what continues to be one of most widely-discussed racial justice books of the 21st century, White Fragility explores a tendency among White Americans to react defensively when asked to consider race and racism in the U.S.

“For most whites, however, racism is like murder: the concept exists, but someone has to commit it in order for it to happen.” (Read more quotes from White Fragility)

What others say: “The value in White Fragility lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance.” - Kady Waldman, The New Yorker

  • Pages: 192 pages
  • Helpful Resource: Check out DiAngelo’s free discussion guide on White Fragility for some practical and helpful tips when talking about race.
  • Tags: white fragility, systemic racism, diversity training, racial justice

For the High School Student

So You Want to Talk About Race? by Ijeoma Oluo (2018)

Written in the alternately sardonic and sincere tone Oluo cultivated as a writer at Jezebel and The Stranger, So You Want to Talk About Race is far more direct and disarming than most other “calls for dialogue” on racial issues in America

“Talk. Please talk and talk and talk some more. But also act. Act now, because people are dying now in this unjust system. How many lives have been ground up by racial prejudice and hate? How many opportunities have we already lost? […] We have to learn and fight at the same time. Because people have been waiting far too long for their chance to live as equals in this society.” (Read more quotes from So You Want to Talk About Race?)

What others say: “Dialogue is necessary, and yet this teaching is often unpaid and thankless work. Oluo's book — one that would be a highly productive book-in-common for high school seniors in America — can help.” - Erin Keane, Salon

  • Honors: New York Times Best Seller
  • Pages: 256
  • Helpful Resource: Check out this video made by the National Network of State Teachers of the Year on how to have courageous conversations about race in schools.
  • Tags: white supremacy, systemic racism, allyship, intersectionality

For the YA/Middle-Grade Reader

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi (2020)

A “remix” of Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped From the Beginning that is targeted at middle-grade readers.

“Segregationists are haters. Like real haters. People who hate you for not being like them. Assimilationists are people who like you, but only with quotation marks. Like…’like’ you. Meaning, they ‘like’ you because you’re like them. And then there are antiracists. They love you because you’re like you.” (Read more quotes from Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You)

What others say: An amazingly timely and stunningly accessible manifesto for young people....At times funny, at times somber but always packed with relevant information that is at once thoughtful and spot-on, Stamped is the book I wish I had as a young person and am so grateful my own children have now.” - Jacqueline Woodson, author of Brown Girl Dreaming

  • Honors: Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist for Nonfiction
  • Pages: 320
  • Helpful Resource: Find more antiracist titles for Young Adult and Middle Grade readers by visiting this great reading list from Napa Bookmine.
  • Tags: slavery, young adult, reconstruction, antiracism, middle grade

For the Educator

Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County by Kristen Green (2015)

Kristen Green chronicles one of the most shameful and shocking moments in civil rights history: In 1959, rather than integrate its schools, Virginia’s Prince Edward County opted to shut down its public school system to all students, White or Black. 

“Dr. Robert L. Green and a team of researchers from Michigan State University, funded by the US Office of Education, came to town, attempting to determine how black schoolchildren had been affected. They would soon learn that the illiteracy rate of black students ages five to twenty-two had jumped from 3 percent when the schools had closed to a staggering 23 percent.” (Read more quotes from Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County)

What others say: “In her travels, Green discovers the truth of William Faulkner’s old adage: the past isn’t even past.” - Joanna Scutts, The Guardian

For the Reader Who is Already Out in the Streets

White Rage by Carol Anderson (2016)

When Anderson looks at the Ferguson protests, she doesn’t see “Black rage”; she sees the “White rage” against racial progress that caused all of this unrest in the first place

“White rage doesn't have to wear sheets, burn crosses, or take to the streets. Working the halls of power, it can achieve its ends far more effectively, far more destructively.” (Read more quotes from White Rage)

What others say: “White Rage is a riveting and disturbing history that begins with Reconstruction and lays bare the efforts of whites in the South and North alike to prevent emancipated black people from achieving economic independence, civil and political rights, personal safety, and economic opportunity.” - Steven Hahn, The Nation

  • Honors: National Book Critics Circle Award
  • Pages: 248 pages
  • Helpful Resource: Find out more about Carol Anderson’s theory of white rage by reading the original Washington Post article on which her book is based
  • Tags: Ferguson, police brutality, Michael Brown, Black Lives Matter

For the Millennial Reader

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race edited by Jesmyn Ward (2016)

Inspired by James Baldwin, Ward passes the mantle to a new generation of 18 young writers who reflect on the “fire” currently raging in communities of color across America. 

“Sometimes I wonder which of us will be remembered if I die soon [...]. Will I be a vicious menace, like Trayvon Martin? An unhinged menace, like Tamir Rice? A monstrous menace, like Mike Brown? An unreasonable menace, like Sandra Bland? A sly menace, like Emmett Till?” (Read more quotes from The Fire This Time)

What others say: “This is no random assortment of writings. It is a composition made by someone who is as careful a reader as she is a writer. Ward is attuned to the spirit of this moment and she is its conductor, gifting insight to us all.” - Imani Perry, SFGate

For the Working Professional

I'm Still Here by Austin Channing Brown (2018)

A memoir exorcizing a lifetime of racist and sexist microaggressions that also functions as a how-to manual for Black women struggling to navigate professional environments dominated by White people, particularly White men.

“Whiteness wants enough Blackness to affirm the goodness of whiteness, the progressiveness of whiteness, the openheartedness of whiteness. Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled.” (Read more quotes from I’m Still Here)

What others say: “But lest readers think this book is about condemning white people, it’s about surviving in a world not made for a woman of color.” - Darcel Rockett, Chicago Tribune

  • Pages: 192
  • Helpful Resource: Listen to Brene Brown interview Austin Channing Brown about a host of topics, including what to do and what not to do when talking about race in the workplace. 
  • Tags: white fragility, white supremacy, microaggressions, racism in the workplace

For the Ally

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (2020)

A 28-day antiracist journaling challenge that asks White readers to confront their own complicity in White supremacy

“Dear Reader, How did you feel the first time you saw the title of this book? Were you surprised? Confused? Intrigued? Uncomfortable? Maybe all of the above? I want to begin by reassuring you that all those feelings and more are completely normal. This is a simple and straight-forward book, but it is not an easy one. Welcome to the work.” (Read more quotes from Me and White Supremacy)

What others say: “This groundbreaking book should be required reading for people ready to acknowledge their behaviors, whether intentional or not. It will make a strong addition to both public and university libraries where it will equip scholars, activists, and allies with real tools to promote systemic change.” - Emily Bowles, Library Journal

  • Pages: 256
  • Helpful Resource: Try completing the workbook that comes with Me and White Supremacy, which Saad has made available as a free PDF.
  • Tags: allyship, white supremacy, antiracism, how-to

For the Racial Justice Activist

When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrice Cullors (2018)

Written by one of the three cofounders of Black Lives Matter, When They Call You a Terrorist shows that law enforcement’s targeting of Black Lives Matter as a terrorist organization belongs to a long tradition of the U.S. government seeking to criminalize Civil Rights activism.

“There was a petition that was drafted and circulated all the way to the White House. It said we were terrorists. We, who in response to the killing of that child, said Black Lives Matter.” (Read more quotes from When They Call You a Terrorist)

What others say: “The remarkable book reveals what inspired Patrisse’s visionary and courageous activism and forces us to face the consequences of the choices our nation made when we criminalized a generation. This book is a must-read for all of us.” - Michelle Alexander, author of the New Jim Crow

  • Honors: Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Best Memoir & Autobiography
  • Pages: 272 pages
  • Helpful Resource: Learn more about how Black Lives Matter is responding to George Floyd’s death in this KCRW interview with Patrisse Cullors 
  • Tags: Black Lives Matter, activism, the War on Drugs, mass incarceration

For the Parent

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)

Taking a cue from the epistolary format of James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, Between the World and Me is structured as a series of letters to Coates’s teenage son about the dangers to his body and dignity he can expect to encounter as a Black man.

“In America, it is traditional to destroy the black body—it is heritage.” (Read more quotes from Between the World and Me)

What Others Say: “I’ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates.” - Toni Morrison, Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner

  • Honors: National Book Award
  • Pages: 176 pages
  • Helpful Resource: For Coates’ thoughts on the George Floyd protests, check out this Vox interview with the author. Despite the deep pessimism Coates expresses in this book, he tells Vox’s Ezra Klein that in 2020 he is more hopeful than ever.
  • Tags: police brutality, Black Lives Matter, systemic racism, white supremacy

For the History Buff

 Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (2016)

Kendi tracks the evolution of racist ideas through American history, starting with Colonial justifications for slavery in the New World all the way up to the War on Drugs

“An antiracist America can only be guaranteed if principled antiracists are in power, and then antiracist policies become the law of the land, and then antiracist ideas become the common sense of the people, and then the antiracist common sense of the people holds those antiracist leaders and policies accountable.” (Read more quotes from Stamped from the Beginning)

What others say: “Kendi has done something that’s damn near impossible: write a book about racism that breaks new ground, while being written in a way that’s accessible to the nonacademic. If you’ve ever been interested in how racist ideas spread throughout the United States, this is the book to read.” - Laurence Ross, The Root

  • Honors: National Book Award for Nonfiction
  • Pages: 582
  • Helpful Resource: To learn more about where racist ideas come from and how they spread, read this great interview with Kendi at The Root.
  • Tags: slavery, reconstruction, systemic racism, war on drugs

For the Political Junkie

“The Case for Reparations” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2014)

A longform essay that offers the most comprehensive, clearly-reasoned, and widely-read argument in favor of material reparations for centuries of racist policies and practices in America

“What I’m talking about is more than recompense for past injustices—more than a handout, a payoff, hush money, or a reluctant bribe. What I’m talking about is a national reckoning that would lead to spiritual renewal.” (Read more quotes from “The Case for Reparations”)

What others say: “Ta-Nehisi Coates has done something extraordinary. ‘Must read’ is nowhere near strong enough” - A.O. Scott, New York Times

  • Honors: “Top Work of Journalism of the Last Decade” - NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute
  • Pages: N/A
  • Helpful Resource: While Coates addresses the moral and civic imperatives behind reparations, to learn more about how reparations might actually work, read this fascinating and well-sourced article at CNN.
  • Tags: reparations, housing discrimination, Jim Crow, the great migration

We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017)

Years from now, if historians want to learn about the Obama era, and how it unwittingly ushered in the backlash-fueled Trump era, they need only look to the ten essays in We Were Eight Years in Power.

“Trump truly is something new—the first president whose entire political existence hinges on the fact of a black president. And so it will not suffice to say Trump is a white man like all the others who rose to become president. He must be called by his correct name and rightful honorific—America's first white president.” (Read more quotes from We Were Eight Years in Power)

What Others Say: “We Were Eight years in Power is a book written for black America, but it is not necessarily to black America. Coates’ essays are often transcripts of our long-held beliefs, but he verbalizes them with the gravitas of academic legitimacy and journalistic integrity.” - Michael Harriot, The Root

  • Honors: Goodreads Choice Award Finalist for Nonfiction
  • Pages: 400 pages
  • Helpful Resource: For an enlightening look at what it was like to cover race and politics during the Obama era, listen to WBUR’s Here and Now interview Ta-Nehisi Coates.
  • Tags: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, systemic racism, reparations

For the Reader Looking for the Big-Picture

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander (2010)

Alexander exposes one of the greatest conspiracies of the late 20th century, albeit one that lay hidden in plain sight: the effort to imprison and disenfranchise as many Black men as possible, as quickly as possible.

“Saying mass incarceration is an abysmal failure makes sense, though, only if one assumes that the criminal justice system is designed to prevent and control crime. But if mass incarceration is understood as a system of social control—specifically, racial control—then the system is a fantastic success.” (Read more quotes from The New Jim Crow)

What others say: “Now and then a book comes along that might in time touch the public and educate social commentators, policymakers, and politicians about a glaring wrong that we have been living with that we also somehow don’t know how to face. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander is such a work.” - Darryl Pinckney, New York Review of Books

  • Honors: NAACP Image Award, the Constitution Project’s Constitutional Commentary Award
  • Pages: 336
  • Helpful Resource: Discover more about the past, present, and future of mass incarceration at The Prison Policy Initiative, an amazing resource for up-to-date statistics and scholarship on the matter.
  • Tags: mass incarceration, war on drugs, systemic racism, criminal justice reform

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (2020)

Like The New Jim Crow author Michelle Alexander, journalist Isabel Wilkerson considers American racism as a function of a caste system. But what exactly makes something a “caste” system? That’s where Wilkerson comes in.

“In Germany, there is no death penalty. ‘We can’t be trusted to kill people after what happened in World War II,’ a German woman once told me. In America, the states that recorded the highest number of lynchings, among them the former Confederate States of America, all currently have the death penalty. In Germany, few people will proudly admit to having been related to Nazis or will openly defend the Nazi cause. ‘Not even members of Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany party,’ wrote Neiman, ‘would suggest glorifying that part of the past.” (Read more quotes from Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents)

What others say: “Caste is an instant American classic about our abiding sin.” - Dwight Garner, New York Times

For the Fan of Classic Literature

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin (1955)

Written by one of the most beloved authors of the 20th century, Notes of a Native Son shows Baldwin at the height of his intellectual prowess, establishing himself as a sharp observer of how racism plays out in the streets, in the media, and in the halls of power.

“People who shut their eyes to reality simply invite their own destruction, and anyone who insists on remaining in a state of innocence long after that innocence is dead turns himself into a monster.” (Read more quotes from Notes of a Native Son)

What others say: “That Baldwin's viewpoints are half American, half Afro-American, incompletely fused, is a hurdle which Baldwin himself realizes he still has to surmount. When he does, there will be a straight-from-the-shoulder writer, writing about the troubled problems of this troubled earth with an illuminating intensity that should influence for the better all who ponder on the things books say.” - Langston Hughes

  • Honors: Ranked 19th on The Modern Library’s list of the best nonfiction books of the 20th century
  • Pages: 165
  • Helpful Resource: Learn more about why James Baldwin is so important at Teaching Tolerance, which has prepared a great set of educational materials on Art, Sexuality, and Civil Rights in the author’s work.
  • Tags: civil rights, gay rights, racism, harlem

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois (1903)

Written in 1903, The Souls of Black Folk is a seminal work for those eager to understand the literary roots of the Civil Rights Movement

“Ill could they be content, born without and beyond the World. And their weak wings beat against their barriers, —barriers of caste, of youth, of life; at last, in dangerous moments, against everything that opposed even a whim.” (Read more quotes from The Souls of Black Folk)

What Others Have to Say: “Few books make history and fewer still become foundational texts for the movements and struggles of an entire people.” - Manning Marable, Columbia University historian

  • Pages: 174
  • Helpful Resource: On NPR, listen to, How to Be an Antiracist author Ibram X. Kendi explain what contemporary readers can learn from The Souls of Black Folk
  • Tags: W.E.B. DuBois, Freedman’s Bureau, Reconstruction, Jim Crow

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964)

Why We Can’t Wait is a powerful expression of King’s approach toward Civil Rights that complicates the narrative often espoused by mainstream media outlets every year on the third Monday of January.

“The ultimate tragedy of Birmingham was not the brutality of the bad people, but the silence of the good people.” (Read more quotes from Why We Can’t Wait)

What others say: “One of the most eloquent achievements of the year—indeed of any year.” - Lonnie Hudkins, Houston Post

  • Honors: Ranked #78 on the Modern Library’s top 100 nonfiction books of all time
  • Pages: 209
  • Helpful Resource: Learn more about how King was regarded in his own time by reading this Time Magazine article explaining how the activist’s contemporary enemies denounced him as an extremist
  • Tags: Martin Luther King, civil rights movement, Birmingham, 1963

For the Poetry-Lover

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (2014)

Blending poetry, photography, and other media, Citizen: An American Lyric is a book-length poem that seeks to reverse the process of rendering the Black experience invisible

“because white men can’t / police their imagination / black people are dying” (Read more quotes from Citizen: An American Lyric)

What others say: “Part protest lyric, part art book, Citizen is a dazzling expression of the painful double consciousness of black life in America.” - Michael Lindgren, Washington Post

  • Honors: National Book Critics Circle Award, NAACP Image Award, Los Angeles Times Book Prize
  • Pages: 160
  • Helpful Resource: Find more great poetry about racial justice through the Poetry Foundation’s magnificent compilation of poems that defined the Civil Rights Era.
  • Tags: poetry, racism, Serena Williams, police brutality

For Every American

One Person, No Vote by Carol Anderson (2018)

A searing look at contemporary voter suppression, one of the key mechanisms of oppression used against African Americans after the Civil War. 

“The story read like something straight out of Stalinist Russia. But this casualty list was in the United States in the twenty-first century. Virginia: 41,637 purged. Florida: 182,000 purged. Indiana: 481,235 purged. Georgia: 591,549 purged. Ohio: two million purged. With the flick of a bureaucratic wrist, millions of Americans—veterans, congressional representatives, judges, county officials, and most decidedly minorities—were erased.” (Read more quotes from One Person, No Vote)

What Others Say: “Carol Anderson brilliantly shows how African Americans have systematically lost their voting rights since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Today, as voter suppression disproportionately affect Black voters and our elections, One Person, No Vote is a necessary read that explains how disguised racism continues to impact our political institutions.” - Louis Moore, Black Perspectives

  • Honors: PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Fiction Finalist
  • Pages: 288 Pages
  • Helpful Resource: Learn more about how to protect your vote and the votes of others at the Center for Public Integrity, which exposes both new and age-old voter suppression tactics in the 2020 presidential election
  • Tags: voter suppression, election, voting rights, racism