16 best books about race: what to read to learn about the Black Lives Matter movement and racial injustice
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Although Black Lives Matter started as a political movement within the United States, it has been adopted in the UK by those who see a need to address systemic racism and structural inequality that is just as urgent here as it is abroad.
The Black Lives Matter Founders: How did the movement start?
Black Lives Matter, the Black-centred political movement and ‘will-building project’, was created in 2013 in the States by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi, in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the police officer accused of murdering Trayvon Martin.
Reading about the movement
One of the key precepts of the BLM movement is educating oneself. Regardless of race, age, or gender, it calls for people to learn more about both Black history and how racism currently manifests within society. Systemic racism is endemic in the UK as it is in America, hence people more and more people in the UK recognising the need to learn more about Black history .
Books to help you become an ally, and understand the movement better
We’ve curated a list of excellently written and researched books, from both the UK and the US, that discuss the complexities of racism while capturing the lived experiences of people of colour.
We all learn in different ways - some of us are more responsive to narrative stories, developing our empathy by placing ourselves in someone else’s shoes for a while, while others among us respond to the direct address of a powerful essay or polemic. As such, we’ve included essays, historical novels, fiction, and children’s books in our round-up, so that you can find an eye-opening story to suit your reading preferences.
Written with bracing, righteous anger, in This is Why I Resist activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu’s tracks the root causes of racism in the UK and US, then demonstrates how they manifest in modern life on both a micro and macroscopic level.
Examining complex issues such as racial gatekeeping, the ingratitude of the privileged white, the twee nature of performative allyship, and abuse of the Black trans community, Mos-Shogbamimu calls white people to account for their complacency and challenges them to address their behaviour where it reinforces racism.
Meticulously researched and well argued, it’s informative and powerful.
Brimming with sharp humour and wit, Don’t Touch My Hair is academic and TV host Emma Dabiri’s look at the deeply personal, and deeply political issue of black hair.
Mixed race, (the daughter of a white Trinidadian mother and black Nigerian father) growing up in Ireland Dabiri was terribly ashamed of her curly hair, which immediately marked her out as ‘other’ despite her paler skin.
Interweaving her personal experiences, Dabiri looks at black hair history, both in terms of her Nigerian ancestry and within the UK and US. She seeks to over-turn the received narrative that black hair is a time-consuming, labour intensive burden, showing how colonialism has robbed black people of both time (through hair maintenance by trying to make hair appear more ‘white’) and pride in their hair. An insightful read.
gal-dem is a award-winning online and print magazine created by and for women and non-binary people of colour.
I Will Not Be Erased is a collection of letters the gal-dem authors wrote to their younger selves, describing how it feels to stand out as the ‘other’ in a crowd of white, cis, and straight people, while also having your opinions and validity ignored.
The letters are by turns funny, sad, angry, and unique. Compulsively readable, and great for younger readers too.
Ibram Kendi’s book is a call to action for us all: the American professor and author convincingly asserts that it’s not ok to be neutral in situations of injustice. In order to combat racism, he asserts, we have to be actively anti-racist.
A rigorously researched and argued book, Kendi provides clear advice on how to be actively anti-racist, so readers know what they need to do in future to be an effective ally.
Candice Brathwaite is the founder of Make Motherhood Diverse, an award-winning social platform designed at combating the singularly white image that motherhood has within British media. Her frank and funny first novel argues that Black mothers need to be represented in societal representations of motherhood, from maternity adverts, to Mumsnet, to pick-ups at school gates. An eye-opening read - but fun, too, as Brathwaite is a terrific raconteur.
