Not everyone likes to read. I get that. Reading can be difficult and some have physical challenges that compromise reading proficiency. I hasten to add, however, that reading is life. It is good for the brain – literally. It exercises the muscles needed for logic and reason. Reading informs, stretches, provokes, stimulates and creates space for new thoughts. Without the help of reading we are left to our own opinions and viewpoints and this is ignorant at best, dangerous at worst.
For my birthday here are a few books I wish White people would read. The list below is not complete, nor do I claim it to be the best. You may have books to add. Some of these books you will disagree with the authors and opinions. Some of them may even make you angry. That is okay, because if it will help you better understand other voices then it has served a valuable purpose.
White people need to start somewhere and in my opinion reading is a good place to start. For the sake of the world and the love of our neighbor, let’s get to know one another. For my birthday I wish you to read some of these books.
Literature
The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Cane, by Jean Toomer
In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens, by Alice Walker
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
Religion
The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H. Cone
Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman
I Bring the Voices of My People, by Chanequa Walker-Barnes
Non-fiction
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo and Michael Eric Dyson
Why We Can’t Wait, by Martin Luther King
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? By Beverly Daniel Tatum
I’m waiting for my copies of White Fragility and Cafeteria. I ordered them last week! I will look into the others as well. Thanks for sharing.
Greg, Thank you so much for using your voice to encourage others to hear ours! Much love!❤️
Thank you Greg for this list. Miss you and Amy
Thank you Greg!
Spot on… yes, education when we don’t have empathy.
Books help us FEEL what others walk thru… just finished Long Walk to Water… (Sudan) makes you appreciate “so much“ (a drink of fresh water!) .. America has so very much…
Hope you & Amy are well
Hugs to you BOTH!!
Thanks for the summer assignments. Will definitely shop from your list for this year’s beach break. I just finished a fantastic biography on an amazing individual we never learned about in American nor Georgia History, Eugene Bullard. First black fighter pilot (WWI), international spy, jazz musician, entrepreneur, civil rights hero and friend/contemporary to a group of global literary, music, and political leaders. The list of his connections is long and impressive. Check out “All Blood Runs Red” by Phil Keith & Tom Clavin.
thanks Greg. I know I can count on you for a good reading list. Gail and I just watched “I am Not Your Negro”, the 2016 documentary based on the writings and life of James Baldwin. I was thinking I wanted to read his works now, so this is a good suggestion.
Thanks for sharing your list, Greg!
I am enjoying reading Stamped from the Beginning. It is an eye opener that explains how slavery began and the history of oppression. The book has changed my opinion of history’s “great” leaders.
Going to stock up on some books – your list is a great place to start.
There is no one in this world that we can understand unless we listen to them and even then, we cannot fully grasp their perspective on the world nor should we ever think that we can.
If we can all see each other from that limited point of perspective and not the assumed ones that we have had conditioned into us, we would live in greater harmony.
And if we lived out the belief that we are “ALL made in His image”, what a wonderful world it would be. When we assume God’s image is our own image, the devil has us where he wants us.
Thanks, Greg!
Excellent recommendations!
Happy Birthday!