by Clint Smith (2020)
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company.

Audience: Literally everyone 9th grade and up.

Clint Smith’s wonderfully written book explores the many artifacts, monuments, and commemorative acts that tie to the stories of American slavery. Smith listens with an open ear and mind as he learns directly to voices who tell us stories from our past. Through Smith’s recounting of these riveting conversations, we as a reader get to witness others experiencing a change during a tour of Monticello. We are welcomed into Smith’s personal journey through the “door of no return.” We also witness people whose convictions, however different from ours, remind us of their humanity. This book deserves all the accolades it will continue to receive.

by Frederick Joseph (2020)

Audience: White people of all ages, but the target audience is white teenagers to white twentysomethings.

We need this book, and white people really need to read it. Frederick Joseph shares his life journey, which includes growing up where he had to fit into white spaces to then attending college and becoming an activist for Black causes. His journey evolved into realization that his history was one which called him to help white readers understand what it means to grow up black in spaces that were made for white people. Like a friend, he does this by sharing his music, his culture, and his story of both the outcast and the popular kid. This book and its contents are a gift; Joseph acknowledges that Black people really don’t have the energy nor the obligation to teach white people about their lived experiences, but he does so anyway, like a friend would. At the end of the book is a fairly complete glossary of terms to use when discussing race.

by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)
Publisher: One World

Audience: People of all races; academia (this book reads like a textbook).

One of the amazing gifts this book gives is that it breaks down the language and categories of racism and antiracism, so that one can identify with specific actions, systems or ways of thinking that are racist with the goal of applying that language to a new way of thinking. As the reader explores these categories, Kendi posits that humans are complex and therefore rather than labeling someone as racist, we explore the specific actions or thoughts that are racists, call them out, and hopefully correct them. For example, Kendi argues that a person can be behaviorally racist but economically anti-racist; or one can be gender anti-racist but also colorist. The breaking down of these categories allows one to see where they may fall short and do better. One controversial point that this book explores is that it challenges the prevailing definition of racism (see Chapter 10: anti-white racism).