Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by
From the #1 bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia, the landmark book that has revolutionized the way we understand leadership and decision making. In his breakthrough bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant--in the blink of an eye--that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work--in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"--filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger by
The inspiring true story of a nice Jewish boy who left the Church of Scientology to become the lovely lady she is today In the early 1970s, a boy from a Conservative Jewish family joined the Church of Scientology. In 1981, that boy officially left the movement and ultimately transitioned into a woman. A few years later, she stopped calling herself a woman--and became a famous gender outlaw. Gender theorist, performance artist, and author Kate Bornstein is set to change lives with her stunningly original memoir. Wickedly funny and disarmingly honest, this is Bornstein's most intimate book yet, encompassing her early childhood and adolescence, college at Brown, a life in the theater, three marriages and fatherhood, the Scientology hierarchy, transsexual life, LGBTQ politics, and life on the road as a sought-after speaker.
Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment by
During World War II a community called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese American internees. One of the first families to arrive was the Wakatsukis, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. For Jeanne Wakatsuki, a seven-year-old child, Manzanar became a way of life in which she struggled and adapted, observed and grew. For her father it was essentially the end of his life. At age thirty-seven, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was. She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and great resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Written with her husband, Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar. Farewell to Manzanar has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. Last year the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the twentieth century's 100 best nonfiction books from west of the Rockies.
From Beirut to Jerusalem by
Winner of the 1989 National Book Award for nonfiction, this extraordinary bestseller is still the most incisive, thought-provoking book ever written about the Middle East. Thomas L. Friedman, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and now the Foreign Affairs columnist on the op-ed page of theNew York Times, drew on his ten years in the Middle East to write a book thatThe Wall Street Journalcalled "a sparkling intellectual guidebook... an engrossing journey not to be missed." Now with a new chapter that brings the ever-changing history of the conflict in the Middle East up to date, this seminal historical work reaffirms both its timeliness and its timelessness. "If you're only going to read one book on the Middle East, this is it." -- Seymour Hersh."From Beirut To Jerusalemis the most intelligent and comprehensive account one is likely to read." --New York Times Book Review.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by
This updated and revised edition of the American Book Award-winner and national bestseller revitalizes the truth of America's history, explores how myths continue to be perpetrated, and includes a new chapter on 9/11 and the Iraq War. Americans have lost touch with their history, and in Lies My Teacher Told Me Professor James Loewen shows why. After surveying eighteen leading high school American history texts, he has concluded that not one does a decent job of making history interesting or memorable. Marred by an embarrassing combination of blind patriotism, mindless optimism, sheer misinformation, and outright lies, these books omit almost all the ambiguity, passion, conflict, and drama from our past. In this revised edition, packed with updated material, Loewen explores how historical myths continue to be perpetuated in today's climate and adds an eye-opening chapter on the lies surrounding 9/11 and the Iraq War. From the truth about Columbus's historic voyages to an honest evaluation of our national leaders, Loewen revives our history, restoring the vitality and relevance it truly possesses. Thought provoking, nonpartisan, and often shocking, Loewen unveils the real America in this iconoclastic classic beloved by high school teachers, history buffs, and enlightened citizens across the country.
A People's History of the United States by
THE CLASSIC NATIONAL BESTSELLER "A wonderful, splendid book--a book that should be read by every American, student or otherwise, who wants to understand his country, its true history, and its hope for the future." -Howard Fast Historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States chronicles American history from the bottom up, throwing out the official narrative taught in schools--with its emphasis on great men in high places--to focus on the street, the home, and the workplace. Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, it is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of--and in the words of--America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers. As Zinn shows, many of our country's greatest battles--the fights for a fair wage, an eight-hour workday, child-labor laws, health and safety standards, universal suffrage, women's rights, racial equality--were carried out at the grassroots level, against bloody resistance. Covering Christopher Columbus's arrival through President Clinton's first term, A People's History of the United States features insightful analysis of the most important events in our history. This edition also includes an introduction by Anthony Arnove, who wrote, directed, and produced The People Speak with Zinn and who coauthored, with Zinn, Voices of a People's History of the United States.
How to Be an Antiracist by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning comes a "groundbreaking" (Time) approach to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society--and in ourselves. "The most courageous book to date on the problem of race in the Western mind."--The New York Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * Time * NPR * The Washington Post * Shelf Awareness * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly * Kirkus Reviews Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism--and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas--from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities--that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society. Praise for How to Be an Antiracist "Ibram X. Kendi's new book, How to Be an Antiracist, couldn't come at a better time. . . . Kendi has gifted us with a book that is not only an essential instruction manual but also a memoir of the author's own path from anti-black racism to anti-white racism and, finally, to antiracism. . . . How to Be an Antiracist gives us a clear and compelling way to approach, as Kendi puts it in his introduction, 'the basic struggle we're all in, the struggle to be fully human and to see that others are fully human.' "--NPR "Kendi dissects why in a society where so few people consider themselves to be racist the divisions and inequalities of racism remain so prevalent. How to Be an Antiracist punctures the myths of a post-racial America, examining what racism really is--and what we should do about it."--Time
Yell-Oh Girls!: Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American by
"In this fine book, Asian American girls speak up and speak out. They speak for themselves, to each other, and to the world. This honest, engaging anthology is important. It allows new voices to be heard and new stories to become part of our great American story." -- Mary Pipher, Ph.D, author of Reviving Opehlia "A must-read for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider looking in." --Teen People In this groundbreaking collection of personal writings, young Asian American girls come together for the first time and engage in a dynamic converstions about the unique challenges they face in their lives. Promoted by a variety of pressing questions from editor Vickie Nam and culled from hundreds of submission from all over the country, these revelatory essays, poems, and stories tackle such complex issues as dual identities, culture clashes, family matters, body image, and the need to find one's voice. With a foreword by Phoebe Eng, as well as contributions from accomplished Asian American women mentors Janice Mirikitani, Helen Zia, Nora Okja Keller, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, Elaine Kim, Patsy Mink, and Wendy Mink, Yell-Oh Girls! is an inspiring and much-needed resource for young Asian American girls.
The Fire Next Time by
A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation, gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement--and still lights the way to understanding race in America today. "Basically the finest essay I've ever read. . . . Baldwin refused to hold anyone's hand. He was both direct and beautiful all at once. He did not seem to write to convince you. He wrote beyond you." --Ta-Nehisi Coates At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document from the iconic author of If Beale Street Could Talk and Go Tell It on the Mountain. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of literature.
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by
A groundbreaking work that exposes the twisted origins of affirmative action. When Affirmative Action Was White demonstrates that all the key programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were created in a deeply discriminatory manner. This was no accident. With the United States still in an era of legal segregation, the powerful southern wing of the Democratic Party provided the framework for Social Security, the GI Bill, and landmark labor laws that helped create the foundations of the modern middle class. Through mechanisms that specifically excluded maids and farmworkers and through laws that kept administration in local hands, the gap between blacks and whites actually widened despite postwar prosperity. The publication of this deeply disturbing work promises to create a national debate on the meaning of affirmative action and the responsibility of government.
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America by
New York Times Bestseller * Notable Book of the Year * Editors' Choice Selection One of Bill Gates' "Amazing Books" of the Year Longlisted for the National Book Award This "powerful and disturbing history" exposes how American governments deliberately imposed racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide (New York Times Book Review). Widely heralded as a "masterful" (Washington Post) and "essential" (Slate) history of the modern American metropolis, Richard Rothstein's The Color of Law offers "the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to and reinforced neighborhood segregation" (William Julius Wilson). Exploding the myth of de facto segregation arising from private prejudice or the unintended consequences of economic forces, Rothstein describes how the American government systematically imposed residential segregation: with undisguised racial zoning; public housing that purposefully segregated previously mixed communities; subsidies for builders to create whites-only suburbs; tax exemptions for institutions that enforced segregation; and support for violent resistance to African Americans in white neighborhoods. A groundbreaking, "virtually indispensable" study that has already transformed our understanding of twentieth-century urban history (Chicago Daily Observer), The Color of Law forces us to face the obligation to remedy our unconstitutional past.
Killers of the Dream by
Published to wide controversy, it became the source (acknowledged or unacknowledged) of much of our thinking about race relations and was for many a catalyst for the civil rights movement. It remains the most courageous, insightful, and eloquent critique of the pre-1960s South. "I began to see racism and its rituals of segregation as a symptom of a grave illness," Smith wrote. "When people think more of their skin color than of their souls, something has happened to them." Today, readers are rediscovering in Smith's writings a forceful analysis of the dynamics of racism, as well as her prophetic understanding of the connections between racial and sexual oppression.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by
A phenomenal #1 bestseller that has appeared on theNew York Timesbestseller list for nearly three years, this memoir traces Maya Angelou's childhood in a small, rural community during the 1930s. Filled with images and recollections that point to the dignity and courage of black men and women, Angelou paints a sometimes disquieting, but always affecting picture of the people—and the times—that touched her life.
Between the World and Me by
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST * ONE OF OPRAH'S "BOOKS THAT HELP ME THROUGH" * NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SPECIAL EVENT Hailed by Toni Morrison as "required reading," a bold and personal literary exploration of America's racial history by "the most important essayist in a generation and a writer who changed the national political conversation about race" (Rolling Stone) NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY CNN * NAMED ONE OF PASTE'S BEST MEMOIRS OF THE DECADE * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review * O: The Oprah Magazine * The Washington Post * People * Entertainment Weekly * Vogue * Los Angeles Times * San Francisco Chronicle * Chicago Tribune * New York * Newsday * Library Journal * Publishers Weekly In a profound work that pivots from the biggest questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for understanding our nation's history and current crisis. Americans have built an empire on the idea of "race," a falsehood that damages us all but falls most heavily on the bodies of black women and men--bodies exploited through slavery and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden? Between the World and Me is Ta-Nehisi Coates's attempt to answer these questions in a letter to his adolescent son. Coates shares with his son--and readers--the story of his awakening to the truth about his place in the world through a series of revelatory experiences, from Howard University to Civil War battlefields, from the South Side of Chicago to Paris, from his childhood home to the living rooms of mothers whose children's lives were taken as American plunder. Beautifully woven from personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally charged reportage, Between the World and Me clearly illuminates the past, bracingly confronts our present, and offers a transcendent vision for a way forward.
The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by
The New York Times bestseller, these groundbreaking essays and poems about race--collected by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation--are "thoughtful, searing, and at times, hopeful. The Fire This Time is vivid proof that words are important, because of their power to both cleanse and to clarify" (USA TODAY). In light of recent tragedies and widespread protests across the nation, The Progressive magazine republished one of its most famous pieces: James Baldwin's 1962 "Letter to My Nephew," which was later published in his landmark book, The Fire Next Time. Addressing his fifteen-year-old namesake on the one hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, Baldwin wrote: "You know and I know, that the country is celebrating one hundred years of freedom one hundred years too soon." Award-winning author Jesmyn Ward knows that Baldwin's words ring as true as ever today. In response, she has gathered short essays, memoir, and a few essential poems to engage the question of race in the United States. And she has turned to some of her generation's most original thinkers and writers to give voice to their concerns. The Fire This Time is divided into three parts that shine a light on the darkest corners of our history, wrestle with our current predicament, and envision a better future. Of the eighteen pieces, ten were written specifically for this volume. In the fifty-odd years since Baldwin's essay was published, entire generations have dared everything and made significant progress. But the idea that we are living in the post-Civil Rights era, that we are a "post-racial" society is an inaccurate and harmful reflection of a truth the country must confront. Baldwin's "fire next time" is now upon us, and it needs to be talked about. Contributors include Carol Anderson, Jericho Brown, Garnette Cadogan, Edwidge Danticat, Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Mitchell S. Jackson, Honoree Jeffers, Kima Jones, Kiese Laymon, Daniel Jose Older, Emily Raboteau, Claudia Rankine, Clint Smith, Natasha Trethewey, Wendy S. Walters, Isabel Wilkerson, and Kevin Young.
Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal by
Andrew Hacker is a professor of political science at Queens College in New York City. He is a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, Time, and Fortune, among other periodicals. Mr. Hacker lives in New York City
Black and White Styles in Conflict by
"Goes a long way toward showing a lay audience the value, integrity, and aesthetic sensibility of black culture, and moreover the conflicts which arise when its values are treated as deviant version of majority ones."-Marjorie Harness Goodwin, American Ethnologist
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 by
Eyes on the Prize traces the movement from the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education case in 1954 to the march on Selma and the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. This is a companion volume to the first part of the acclaimed PBS series.
Black Rage by
This acclaimed work by two black psychiatrists has established itself as the classic statement of the desperation, conflicts, and anger of black life in America.
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez by
The original hardcover edition of the autobiography of Richard Rodriguez.
The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things by
There has never been another era in modern history, even during wartime or the Great Depression, when so many people have feared so much. Three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today then they did twenty years ago. The Culture of Fear describes the high costs of living in a fear-ridden environment where realism has become rarer than doors without deadbolts.Why do we have so many fears these days? Are we living in exceptionally dangerous times? To watch the news, you’d certainly think so, but Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. The Culture of Fear is an expose of the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV newsmagazines that monger a new scare every week to garner ratings.Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears.
Homophobia: A Weapon of Sexism by 
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by
Now with an updated epilogue celebrating the 30th anniversary of this groundbreaking and increasingly relevant book. "May be the most significant work published in all our lifetimes." - LA Weekly The Chalice and the Blade tells a new story of our cultural origins. It shows that warfare and the war of the sexes are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible--and is in fact firmly rooted in the haunting dramas of what happened in our past.
The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women by 
Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by
NOW A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An Emma Watson "Our Shared Shelf" Selection for November/December 2018 * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2018/ MENTIONED BY: The New York Public Library * Mashable * The Atlantic * Bustle * The Root * Politico Magazine ("What the 2020 Candidates Are Reading This Summer") * NPR * Fast Company ("10 Best Books for Battling Your Sexist Workplace") * The Guardian ("Top 10 Books About Angry Women") Rebecca Solnit, The New Republic: "Funny, wrenching, pithy, and pointed." Roxane Gay: "I encourage you to check out Eloquent Rage out now." Joy Reid, Cosmopolitan: "A dissertation on black women's pain and possibility." America Ferrera: "Razor sharp and hilarious. There is so much about her analysis that I relate to and grapple with on a daily basis as a Latina feminist." Damon Young: "Like watching the world's best Baptist preacher but with sermons about intersectionality and Beyoncé instead of Ecclesiastes." Melissa Harris Perry: "I was waiting for an author who wouldn't forget, ignore, or erase us black girls...I was waiting and she has come in Brittney Cooper." Michael Eric Dyson: "Cooper may be the boldest young feminist writing today...and she will make you laugh out loud." So what if it's true that Black women are mad as hell? They have the right to be. In the Black feminist tradition of Audre Lorde, Brittney Cooper reminds us that anger is a powerful source of energy that can give us the strength to keep on fighting. Far too often, Black women's anger has been caricatured into an ugly and destructive force that threatens the civility and social fabric of American democracy. But Cooper shows us that there is more to the story than that. Black women's eloquent rage is what makes Serena Williams such a powerful tennis player. It's what makes Beyoncé's girl power anthems resonate so hard. It's what makes Michelle Obama an icon. Eloquent rage keeps us all honest and accountable. It reminds women that they don't have to settle for less. When Cooper learned of her grandmother's eloquent rage about love, sex, and marriage in an epic and hilarious front-porch confrontation, her life was changed. And it took another intervention, this time staged by one of her homegirls, to turn Brittney into the fierce feminist she is today. In Brittney Cooper's world, neither mean girls nor fuckboys ever win. But homegirls emerge as heroes. This book argues that ultimately feminism, friendship, and faith in one's own superpowers are all we really need to turn things right side up again. A BEST/MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF 2018 BY: Glamour * Chicago Reader * Bustle * Autostraddle
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by
The New York Times best-selling book exploring the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality. In this "vital, necessary, and beautiful book" (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and "allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to 'bad people' (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by
Despite the triumphant dismantling of the Jim Crow Laws, the system that once forced African Americans into a segregated second-class citizenship still haunts America, the US criminal justice system still unfairly targets black men and an entire segment of the population is deprived of their basic rights. Outside of prisons, a web of laws and regulations discriminates against these wrongly convicted ex-offenders in voting, housing, employment and education. Alexander here offers an urgent call for justice.
Don't Think of an Elephant!: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate by 
The Intimacies of Four Continents by
In this uniquely interdisciplinary work, Lisa Lowe examines the relationships between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth- centuries, exploring the links between colonialism, slavery, imperial trades and Western liberalism. Reading across archives, canons, and continents, Lowe connects the liberal narrative of freedom overcoming slavery to the expansion of Anglo-American empire, observing that abstract promises of freedom often obscure their embeddedness within colonial conditions. Race and social difference, Lowe contends, are enduring remainders of colonial processes through which "the human" is universalized and "freed" by liberal forms, while the peoples who create the conditions of possibility for that freedom are assimilated or forgotten. Analyzing the archive of liberalism alongside the colonial state archives from which it has been separated, Lowe offers new methods for interpreting the past, examining events well documented in archives, and those matters absent, whether actively suppressed or merely deemed insignificant. Lowe invents a mode of reading intimately, which defies accepted national boundaries and disrupts given chronologies, complicating our conceptions of history, politics, economics, and culture, and ultimately, knowledge itself.
A Class Divided: Then and Now by 
The Handmaid's Tale by
A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Margaret Atwood is "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times). Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules. Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.
This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color by
Updated and expanded edition of the foundational text of women of color feminism.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by
A novel about black Americans in Florida that centers on the life of Janie and her 3 marriages. First published in 1937.
Black Boy: A Record of Childhood and Youth by
A special 75th anniversary edition of Richard Wright's powerful and unforgettable memoir, with a new foreword by John Edgar Wideman and an afterword by Malcolm Wright, the author's grandson. When it exploded onto the literary scene in 1945, Black Boy was both praised and condemned. Orville Prescott of the New York Times wrote that "if enough such books are written, if enough millions of people read them maybe, someday, in the fullness of time, there will be a greater understanding and a more true democracy." Yet from 1975 to 1978, Black Boy was banned in schools throughout the United States for "obscenity" and "instigating hatred between the races." Wright's once controversial, now celebrated autobiography measures the raw brutality of the Jim Crow South against the sheer desperate will it took to survive as a black boy. Enduring poverty, hunger, fear, abuse, and hatred while growing up in the woods of Mississippi, Wright lied, stole, and raged at those around him--whites indifferent, pitying, or cruel and blacks resentful of anyone trying to rise above their circumstances. Desperate for a different way of life, he may his way north, eventually arriving in Chicago, where he forged a new path and began his career as a writer. At the end of Black Boy, Wright sits poised with pencil in hand, determined to "hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo." Seventy-five year later, his words continue to reverberate. "To read Black Boy is to stare into the heart of darkness," John Edgar Wideman writes in his foreword. "Not the dark heart Conrad searched for in Congo jungles but the beating heart I bear." One of the great American memoirs, Wright's account is a poignant record of struggle and endurance--a seminal literary work that illuminates our own time.
Eat a Bowl of Tea by
A compelling story of life in the Chinese-American community of New York City. The pages of this novel come alive with the maneuvers of the Tong leaders, the colorful visitors to the Money Come mah-jongg clubhouse, and the complex gossip of closely knit Chinatown. Only a Chinese American could have written a novel of such vigor and authenticity. In 1989 it was made into a feature film by the highly respected director Wayne Wang.
Beloved: A Novel by
Artwork copyright Touchstone Pictures At the center of Toni Morrison's fifth novel, which earned her the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, is an almost unspeakable act of horror and heroism: a woman brutally kills her infant daughter rather than allow her to be enslaved. The woman is Sethe, and the novel traces her journey from slavery to freedom during and immediately following the Civil War.Woven into this circular, mesmerizing narrative are the horrible truths of Sethe's past: the incredible cruelties she endured as a slave, and the hardships she suffered in her journey north to freedom. Just as Sethe finds the past too painful to remember, and the future just "a matter of keeping the past at bay," her story is almost too painful to read. Yet Morrison manages to imbue the wreckage of her characters' lives with compassion, humanity, and humor. Part ghost story, part history lesson, part folk tale, Beloved finds beauty in the unbearable, and lets us all see the enduring promise of hope that lies in anyone's future.
The Bluest Eye by
The Bluest Eye (1970) is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment.
Citizen by
* Finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry * * Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry * Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism * Winner of the NAACP Image Award * Winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize * Winner of the PEN Open Book Award * ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker,Boston Globe,The Atlantic,BuzzFeed, NPR.Los Angeles Times, Publishers Weekly,Slate,Time Out New York,Vulture,Refinery 29, and many more . . . A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking bookDon't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting racial aggressions in ongoing encounters in twenty-first-century daily life and in the media. Some of these encounters are slights, seeming slips of the tongue, and some are intentional offensives in the classroom, at the supermarket, at home, on the tennis court with Serena Williams and the soccer field with Zinedine Zidane, online, on TV-everywhere, all the time. The accumulative stresses come to bear on a person's ability to speak, perform, and stay alive. Our addressability is tied to the state of our belonging, Rankine argues, as are our assumptions and expectations of citizenship. In essay, image, and poetry,Citizen is a powerful testament to the individual and collective effects of racism in our contemporary, often named "post-race" society.
The Color Purple by
For better readers, the candid memoirs of Celie, her abuse, and eventual triumph.
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by
A revealing look at how negative biases against women of color are embedded in search engine results and algorithms Run a Google search for "black girls"--what will you find? "Big Booty" and other sexually explicit terms are likely to come up as top search terms. But, if you type in "white girls," the results are radically different. The suggested porn sites and un-moderated discussions about "why black women are so sassy" or "why black women are so angry" presents a disturbing portrait of black womanhood in modern society. In Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble challenges the idea that search engines like Google offer an equal playing field for all forms of ideas, identities, and activities. Data discrimination is a real social problem; Noble argues that the combination of private interests in promoting certain sites, along with the monopoly status of a relatively small number of Internet search engines, leads to a biased set of search algorithms that privilege whiteness and discriminate against people of color, specifically women of color. Through an analysis of textual and media searches as well as extensive research on paid online advertising, Noble exposes a culture of racism and sexism in the way discoverability is created online. As search engines and their related companies grow in importance--operating as a source for email, a major vehicle for primary and secondary school learning, and beyond--understanding and reversing these disquieting trends and discriminatory practices is of utmost importance. An original, surprising and, at times, disturbing account of bias on the internet, Algorithms of Oppression contributes to our understanding of how racism is created, maintained, and disseminated in the 21st century.
God Is Red: A Native View of Religion by
First published in 1972, Vine Deloria Jr.'s God Is Red remains the seminal work on Native religious views, asking new questions about our species and our ultimate fate. Celebrating three decades in publication with a special 30th-anniversary edition.
Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by 
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by 
So You Want to Talk about Race by
In this New York Times bestseller, Ijeoma Oluo offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America Widespread reporting on aspects of white supremacy -- from police brutality to the mass incarceration of Black Americans -- has put a media spotlight on racism in our society. Still, it is a difficult subject to talk about. How do you tell your roommate her jokes are racist? Why did your sister-in-law take umbrage when you asked to touch her hair -- and how do you make it right? How do you explain white privilege to your white, privileged friend? In So You Want to Talk About Race, Ijeoma Oluo guides readers of all races through subjects ranging from intersectionality and affirmative action to "model minorities" in an attempt to make the seemingly impossible possible: honest conversations about race and racism, and how they infect almost every aspect of American life. "Oluo gives us -- both white people and people of color -- that language to engage in clear, constructive, and confident dialogue with each other about how to deal with racial prejudices and biases." -- National Book Review "Generous and empathetic, yet usefully blunt . . . it's for anyone who wants to be smarter and more empathetic about matters of race and engage in more productive anti-racist action." -- Salon (Required Reading)
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by
'Every voice raised against racism chips away at its power. We can't afford to stay silent. This book is an attempt to speak'The book that sparked a national conversation. Exploring everything from eradicated black history to the inextricable link between class and race, Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race is the essential handbook for anyone who wants to understand race relations in Britain today. THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWINNER OF THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS NON-FICTION NARRATIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018FOYLES NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARBLACKWELL'S NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARWINNER OF THE JHALAK PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONLONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZESHORTLISTED FOR A BOOKS ARE MY BAG READERS AWARD
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment by
In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.
Heavy: An American Memoir by
*Named a Best Book of 2018 by the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, NPR, Broadly, Buzzfeed (Nonfiction), The Undefeated, Library Journal (Biography/Memoirs), The Washington Post (Nonfiction), Southern Living (Southern), Entertainment Weekly, and The New York Times Critics* In this powerful, provocative, and universally lauded memoir--winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal and finalist for the Kirkus Prize--genre-bending essayist and novelist Kiese Laymon "provocatively meditates on his trauma growing up as a black man, and in turn crafts an essential polemic against American moral rot" (Entertainment Weekly). In Heavy, Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about growing up a hard-headed black son to a complicated and brilliant black mother in Jackson, Mississippi. From his early experiences of sexual violence, to his suspension from college, to time in New York as a college professor, Laymon charts his complex relationship with his mother, grandmother, anorexia, obesity, sex, writing, and ultimately gambling. Heavy is a "gorgeous, gutting...generous" (The New York Times) memoir that combines personal stories with piercing intellect to reflect both on the strife of American society and on Laymon's experiences with abuse. By attempting to name secrets and lies he and his mother spent a lifetime avoiding, he asks us to confront the terrifying possibility that few in this nation actually know how to responsibly love, and even fewer want to live under the weight of actually becoming free. "A book for people who appreciated Roxane Gay's memoir Hunger" (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Heavy is defiant yet vulnerable, an insightful, often comical exploration of weight, identity, art, friendship, and family through years of haunting implosions and long reverberations. "You won't be able to put [this memoir] down...It is packed with reminders of how black dreams get skewed and deferred, yet are also pregnant with the possibility that a kind of redemption may lie in intimate grappling with black realities" (The Atlantic).
Raising Our Hands: How White Women Can Stop Avoiding Hard Conversations, Start Accepting Responsibility, and Find Our Place on the New Frontlines by 
Sister Outsider by
Presenting the essential writings of black lesbian poet and feminist writer Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider celebrates an influential voice in twentieth-century literature. "[Lorde's] works will be important to those truly interested in growing up sensitive, intelligent, and aware."--The New York Times In this charged collection of fifteen essays and speeches, Lorde takes on sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and class, and propounds social difference as a vehicle for action and change. Her prose is incisive, unflinching, and lyrical, reflecting struggle but ultimately offering messages of hope. This commemorative edition includes a new foreword by Lorde-scholar and poet Cheryl Clarke, who celebrates the ways in which Lorde's philosophies resonate more than twenty years after they were first published. These landmark writings are, in Lorde's own words, a call to "never close our eyes to the terror, to the chaos which is Black which is creative which is female which is dark which is rejected which is messy which is . . . "
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by 
Seeing Race Again: Countering Colorblindness Across the Disciplines by
Every academic discipline has an origin story complicit with white supremacy. Racial hierarchy and colonialism structured the very foundations of most disciplines' research and teaching paradigms. In the early twentieth century, the academy faced rising opposition and correction, evident in the intervention of scholars including W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, Carter G. Woodson, and others. By the mid-twentieth century, education itself became a center in the struggle for social justice. Scholars mounted insurgent efforts to discredit some of the most odious intellectual defenses of white supremacy in academia, but the disciplines and their keepers remained unwilling to interrogate many of the racist foundations of their fields, instead embracing a framework of racial colorblindness as their default position. This book challenges scholars and students to see race again. Examining the racial histories and colorblindness in fields as diverse as social psychology, the law, musicology, literary studies, sociology, and gender studies, Seeing Race Again documents the profoundly contradictory role of the academy in constructing, naturalizing, and reproducing racial hierarchy. It shows how colorblindness compromises the capacity of disciplines to effectively respond to the wide set of contemporary political, economic, and social crises marking public life today.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations.” The Atlantic 313, no. 5 (2014): 54–71.
“A Definitive Guide to White Privilege.” Thought Catalog. April 29, 2013.
Hutcherson, Lori Lakin. “What I Said When My White Friend Asked for My Black Opinion on White Privilege.” Good Black News. July 14, 2016.
DiAngelo, Robin. “White Fragility.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 3, no. 3 (2011): 54-70.
DiAngelo, Robin. “Why It’s So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism.” HuffPost. April 30, 2016. Updated December 6, 2017.
Dwyer, Dustin. “You Asked for It: An Extended Interview on the Theory of White Fragility.” State of Opportunity. March 30, 2015.
Gray, Aysa. “The Bias of ‘Professionalism’ Standards.” Stanford Social Innovation Review. June 4, 2019.
Irving, Dionne. “Living With Racial Battle Fatigue: Why Fighting Microagressions can Feel Like Treading Water.” Literary Hub. July 22, 2016.
Kegler, Anna. “The Sugarcoated Language Of White Fragility.” HuffPost. July 22, 2016. Updated December 6, 2017.
Marable, Manning. "Structural Racism and American Democracy: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives." Souls 3, no. 1 (2001): 6-24.
McIntosh, Peggy. "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." Peace and Freedom Magazine, a publication of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Philadelphia, PA. July/August 1989.
Miller, Joyce. “Product Review: The Invisible Backpack of White Privilege from L.L. Bean.” McSweeney’s. December 18, 2014.
Nigatu, Heben. “21 Racial Microaggressions You Hear On A Daily Basis.” BuzzFeed. December 9, 2013.
Shroyer, Amelia. “White Fragility Is Racial Violence.” HuffPost. September 18, 2015. Updated September 18, 2016.
Sobo, Elisa J., Michael Lambert, and Valerie Lambert. “Analysis: How Well-Meaning Land Acknowledgements Can Erase Indigenous People and Sanitize History.” PBS NewsHour. October 10, 2022.
Tognotti, Chris. “How To Argue White Privilege Exists.” Bustle. March 4, 2015.
Treuer, David. "Return the National Parks to the Tribes." The Atlantic. April / May 2021.
Van Valkenburg, Kevin. “Dear Fellow White People.” The Undefeated. August 23, 2016.
Watts, Sarah. “White Fragility is Real: 4 Questions White People Should Ask Themselves during Discussions about Race.” Salon. July 19, 2016.
Brown, Jennifer, Jennifer A. Ferretti, Sofia Leung, and Marisa Méndez-Brady. "Moving Beyond Race 101: Speculative Futuring for Equity." Originally presented at the 2019 Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference.
April 12, 2019.
“The Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture.” Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ). Updated Spring 2021.
Henny, Ally (@thearmchaircom). 2018. “White Fragility* Self-Test.” Twitter, October 4, 2018, 9:02 PM.
IAAB (@IAABsays). 2020. "Iranians for Black Lives: A Guide for Dismantling Anti-Blackness in the Iranian-American Community." Twitter, June 1, 2020, 5:58 PM.
White Supremacy Culture [a website conceived and designed by Tema Okun]
Blog Posts + Other Informal Writings
Blain, Cicely. "10 Habits of Someone Who Doesn't Know They're Anti-Black." Stratagem. May 31, 2020.
Chalmers, Michelle. “Liabilities of White Privilege: How White Privilege Hurts White People.” MyHumanity (blog). January 2, 2016.
Emmanuel, Adeshina. “Common Words and Phrases That Have Seriously Racist Roots.” ATTN: April 10, 2016.
Gilio-Whitaker, Dina. “Settler Fragility: Why Settler Privilege Is So Hard to Talk About.” Beacon Broadside (website and blog). November 14, 2018.
Gorski, Paul. “White Privilege and Native American.” Race, Racism and the Law (website and blog). August 26, 2011.
Larbalestier, Justine. “On White Fragility.” Reading While White (blog). August 18, 2016.
Liu, Anni. “No, You’re Not Imagining It: 3 Ways Racial Microaggressions Sneak into Our Lives.” Everyday Feminism. February 25, 2015.
Ramsey, Franchesca. “What If White People Had to Deal with Racist Microaggressions?” Everyday Feminism. August 23, 2015.
Films, Videos, Webinars, + Podcasts
Abdel-Magied, Yassmin. "What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?" TED Talk, TEDxSouthBank, 13:53. December 2014.
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. "The Danger of a Single Story." TED Talk, TEDGlobal 2009, 18:33. July 2009.
As/Is. “If Native Americans Said The Stuff White People Say.” YouTube video, 1:53. November 23, 2015.
Eberhardt, Jennifer L. "How Racial Bias Works — and How to Disrupt It." TED Talk, TED2020, June 2020.
General Commission on Religion and Race (GCORR). “Deconstructing White Privilege with Dr. Robin Di Angelo.” Vimeo video, 22:06.
Harper, A. Breeze. “Uprooting White Fragility: Intersectional Anti-Racism in the ‘Post-Racial’ Ethical Foodscape.” YouTube video, 1:11:35. April 20, 2016.
Kendi, Ibram X. "The Difference Between Being 'Not Racist' and Antiracist." TED Talk, TED2020, 51:05. May 2020.
Myers, Vernā. "How to Overcome our Biases? Walk Boldy Toward Them." TED Talk, TEDxBeaconStreet, 17:40. November 2014.
Nagle, Rebcecca, host. This Land (podcast). Crooked Media. June 3, 2019 – present.
Thurston, Baratunde. "How to Deconstruct Racism, One Headline at a Time." TED Talk, TED2019, 16:42. April 2019.
Organizations + Initiatives
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) Action
Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles (BLMLA)
Decolonizing the Imagination [Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)]
Dignity & Power Now (DPN)
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL)
National Bail Fund Network [Community Justice Exchange]
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)
Student Identity Project [CalArts]
White People 4 Black Lives [Aware-LA]
Reading + Resource Lists
Anti-Oppression: Anti-Racism [Simmons University Library]
Anti-Racism and Black Liberation [Duke University Libraries]
Anti-Racism Guide: Resources for Education and Action [The Library, University of California, San Diego]
Anti-Racism Resources for All Ages [Dr. Nicole A. Cooke, University of South Carolina]
Bibliography — Jane Elliott [janeelliott.com]
#BlackLivesMatter Library, Teaching, Activism, and Community Resource List
Celebrating Black History 2020 [CalArts Library]
Celebrating Black History 2021 [CalArts Library]
Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List [Libraries, University of Wisconsin-Madison]
Diversity Readings [John M. Flaxman Library, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)]
Feminist Periodicals [Libraries, University of Wisconsin–Madison]
Kendi, Ibram X. “The Anti-Racist Reading List.” The Atlantic. February 12, 2019.
Kendi, Ibram X. “Ibram X. Kendi’s Antiracist Reading List.” The New York Times. May 29, 2019.
Laxtinx Art, Culture, and History [CalArts Library]
Martini, Beatrice. “Decolonizing technology: A reading list.” Beatrice Martini – blog: On tech and tools for justice and rights. May 10, 2017.
Reading List [Radical Pedagogy Research & Reading Group]
A Resource Guide For Anti-Racism + Being An Educated Ally For BIPOC [Glitter Guide]
Resources [Center for Social Equity & Inclusion (SEI), Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)]
Resources [National Women's Studies Association (NWSA)]
Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library]
