Books for Holiday Giving or Winter Reading

Whether you want a book for a gift or you want something to read yourself, there are literally hundreds of books about racism to choose from. Here are a few suggestions.

If you have a white friend who is a little touchy about race and doesn’t want to talk to you about it, there is a book about that. It is by Robin DiAngelo called “White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.” DiAngelo helps us understand our touchy friends and suggests ways to approach them. Reading it, I also learned some things about myself. (Recommended by Ken Bedell and Brenda Girton-Mitchell.)

Another way to engage a friend with a gift that doesn’t shout, “I think there is something wrong with you and this book will fix your racism,” is to give them a novel. There is scientific evidence that novels can help us develop empathy. And without empathy for people we don’t know, it is difficult to overcome prejudices about them. Richard Wright’s “Native Son” opened my eyes when I read it in the 1960s. Even though the novel is set in the 1930s in Chicago, it is impossible not to be drawn into the desperate and tragic life of the main character, Bigger Thomas, and in the process to empathize with him. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.)

“The Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead is based on a true story of horrors at a now-defunct reform school/camp in Tallahassee, Florida, in the 1960s. The story puts the main character, Elwood, in the context of a society defined by racism. (Recommended by Forest Preston III, friend of Ending Racism USA.)

I haven’t read them all, but any of Toni Morrison’s 11 novels would make a good gift and generate plenty of discussion. I recommend “Tar Baby” because of the interconnected relationship she creates that illustrates the complex penetration of racism in American society. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.) Forest Preston suggests the novel that follows “Tar Baby.” He writes, “If you have not yet read the landmark novel “Beloved,” what are you waiting for?”

Racism in America is not just directed toward Black people. We sometimes have friends and relatives who surprise us with their antisemitism or Islamophobia. First person books written by Jews and Muslims are a way to open discussions and learn things about ourselves. I love the book written by Jewish author and teacher Ruth Broyde Sharone, “Minefields & Miracles: Why God and Allah Need to Talk.” In chapters about her own journey, she reveals the shared humanity of Jews, Muslims, and all people. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.)

“Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America” by Ranya Tabari Idliby is a sometimes funny and sometimes sobering book by a Muslim American. Idliby opens a window into the daily life of a mother who is addressing the challenges of being Muslim in America after 9/11. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.)

There are also first person books written by Black authors. Two books are reviewed on this website. Both of them are honest and profound reports on being Black in America today. Full disclosure: Will Jawando, the author of “My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole,” is a friend from when we worked together in the Obama administration. He tells a compelling personal story that also illustrates the sources of his commitment to participating in ending racism. “On Juneteenth” is a little book by Annette Gordon-Reed. She uses experiences from her life combined with her extensive knowledge about Texas and history to change the way we think about racism, history, Texas, and Juneteenth. (Recommended by Ken Bedell and Brenda Girton-Mitchell.)

What about a gift for someone who says, or you believe, they are overcoming their white fragility. Maybe they have even said to you, “I’d like to understand more about how racism works.” When it comes to explaining how racism functions and ways to approach dismantling it, Ibram X. Kendi’s book “How to Be an Antiracist” explains it all. He tells stories from his life while presenting the science of racism. Since it was published in 2019 it has become a classic. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.)

Ta-Nehisi Coates is another author who explains racism. His book, “We Were Eight Years in Power,” is a series of essays that examine the political scene as it has affected African Americans from the eight years of Reconstruction after the Civil War up to the present. (Recommended by Forest Preston.)

For those who want to learn about racism from a broad historical and global perspective, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson is the book for you, your friends, and your family. This book, published in February of 2023, shows how American racism can be understood as the ranking of human beings. Racism is not uniquely American. The book provides a window through which to understand racism as the caste system. (Recommended by Ken Bedell.)

Four more books are reviewed on this website. “Breaking Free From Rigid Boxes: From the Outside Looking In” by Diana Koppen and Pam Doocy-Curry, is the story of their aunt Marion Helland’s 91 years of civil rights activism. (Reviewed and recommended by Carolyn Butterworth, a friend of Diana Koppen.)

“Little Brother: Love, Tragedy, and My Search for the Truth” is written by a white man, Ben Westhoff, who volunteered with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. He was assigned a Black youth, Jorell, from Ferguson, Missouri, as his little brother. When Jorell is shot at 19, Ben commits to learning what happened and, in the process, learns things about Jorell’s life that were never shared with his white big brother. (Reviewed and recommended by Sarah Cook, a classmate of Ben Westhoff in college.)

There are also reviews of two books about the Constitution. Both books expose the racism that is baked into the Constitution. They are “Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution” by Elie Mystal and “The Cult of the Constitution” by Mary Anne Franks. (Reviewed and recommended by Ken Bedell.)