Book in Common

How to Be an Antiracist: Reading Lists

Antiracist reading lists abound in 2020, but Lauren Michele Jackson offers an important reflection about the purpose and utility of antiracist reading lists. 

  • Layla F. Saad, author of Me and white supremacy, read and discussed by Chico State faculty and staff in Summer 2020, published "Do the work: an anti-racist reading list" in The Guardian (June 3, 2020)
  • Ibram X. Kendi, author of our Book in Common, published  “The Antiracist Reading List” in  The Atlantic (February 12, 2019) . 
  • U.C. Berkeley Library's "Anti-Racism Reader" is drawn from Kendi's recommended list published in The Atlantic.  Many other libraries, including Chicago Public Library, have similar lists.

For websites concerning antiracism, see the complete list of websites sited by Kendi in How to Be an Antiracist.

Chico State's Meriam Library has a large selection of antiracism books.  The following two lists, divided into books on the shelves and ebooks, is drawn from Meriam Library books with the Library of Congress "Anti-racism" subject, as well as recommendations from Chico State students, faculty, staff, and community.  If you have a recommendation to add to either list, please email bic@csuchico.edu. 

  • A Selection of Antiracism Books on the Shelves of Meriam Library
    Adleman, Jeanne and  Gloria M. Enguidanos-Clark.  Racism in the lives of women: testimony, theory and guides to antiracist practice (HQ1421 R33 1995)

    Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (HV9950 .A437)

    Alrick X. Cambridge, Alrick X. and Stephan Feuchtwang, eds.  Antiracist strategies (DA125 A1 A848 1990)

    Aptheker, Herbert. Anti-racism in U.S. history: the first two hundred years (E185.61 A62 1992)

    Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me (E185.615 .C6335 2015)

    Cooper, Brittney. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower (HQ1413.C67 C67 2018)

    Derman-Sparks, Louise.  Teaching/learning anti-racism: a developmental approach (HT 1506 D47 1997)

    Diangelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism (HT1521 .D486 2018) and online

    Dyson, Michael Eric. Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America (E185.615 .D97 2017)

    Benson, Devyn Spence. Antiracism in Cuba: The Unfinished Revolution (F1789.A1 B46 2016)

    Bowser, Benjamin, ed.  Racism and anti-racism in world perspective (HT1521 R325 1995)

    Kendi, Ibram X. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America (E185.61 .K358 2017)

    Milstein, Cindy, ed.  Taking sides: revolutionary solidarity and the poverty of liberalism (HM717 .T35 2015)

    Oluo, Ijeoma. So you want to talk about race (E184.A1 O454 2018)

    Ortiz, Paul. An African American and Latinx History of the United States (E184.S75 O79 2018)

    Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric (PS3568.A572 C58 2014)

    Saad, Layla F. Me and white supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor (HT1575.S23 M43 2020) 

    Silk, Catherine. Racism and anti-racism in American popular culture: portrayals of African-Americans in fiction and film (P94.5 A372 U57 1990)

    Sullivan, Shannon. Good white people: the problem with middle-class white anti-racism (E184.A1 S954 2014)

    Thompson, Becky. A promise and a way of life: white antiracist activism (E185.98 A1 T48 2001)

    Trainor, Jennifer S. Rethinking racism: emotion, persuasion, and literacy education in an all-white high school (LC212 .T73 2008)

    Ward, Jesmyn, ed. The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (E185.615 .F526 2016)

    Warren, Jonathan W. Racial revolutions: antiracism and Indian resurgence in Brazil (F2519.3 E83 W37 2001)

  • A Selection of Antiracism eBooks Available Through Meriam Library

    Bonnett, Alastair. Anti-racism

    Bonnett, Alastair. Radicalism, anti-racism, and representation

    Condon, Frankie. I Hope I Join the Band: Narrative, Affiliation, and Antiraciset Rhetoric

    Davis, Kimberly Chabot. Beyond the White Negro: Empathy and Anti-Racist Reading

    Denney, David. Racism and anti-racism in probation

    Dixon, Chris. Another politics: talking across today's transformative movements

    Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne. An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

    Goodyer, Ian. Crisis music: The cultural politics of Rock Against Racism

    Klau, Max. Race and social change: a quest, a study, a call to action

    Kyriakides, Christopher. Race defaced: paradigms of pessimism, politics of possibility

    Hughey, Matthew W. White bound: nationalists, antiracists, and the shared meanings of race

    Inoue, Asao B. Antiracist writing assessment ecologies: teaching and assessing writing for a socially just future

    Lentin, Alana. Racism and anti-racism in Europe

    Roman, Meredith L. Opposing Jim Crow: African Americans and the Soviet indictment of U.S. racism, 1928-1937

    Saad, Layla F. Me and white supremacy: combat racism, change the world, and become a good ancestor

    Samuel, Edith. Integrative antiracism: South Asians in Canadian academe

    Satgar, Vishwas.  Racism after apartheid: challenges for Marxism and anti-racism

    Sullivan, Shannon. Good white people: the problem with middle-class white anti-racism

    Tuck, Stephen G. N. The night Malcolm X spoke at the Oxford Union: a transatlantic story of antiracial protest 

    Werbner, Pnina. Debating Cultural Hybridity: Multicultural Identities and the Politics of Anti-Racism

    Wise, Tim J. Speaking treason fluently: anti-racist reflections from an angry white male

Resources to Suggest?
To add a reading list to this website, submit your recommended antiracism reading list (including thematic or discipline-specific reading lists) to bic@csuchico.edu.
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