Reading Resources

"In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist; we must be anti-racist." -Angela Davis, Author/Activist

The College of Social Science is dedicated to creating an inclusive, supportive environment for all of our students, staff, faculty, alumni and friends. We stand in unwavering solidarity with the Black community, and accept our responsbility to advance anti-racist education.

Anti-racism means combatting racism at an individual, community and systemic level. To get started, College and University leadership on diversity, equity and inclusion as well as social science students have compiled a list of reading material for those wanting to further understand American race relations and practice active anti-racism.

The following books have been recommended:

The Autobiography of Malcom X by Malcom X and Alex Haley
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Biased by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman
Blackhood Against the Police Power by Tryon P. Woods
Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition by Cedric J. Robinson
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
Campus Counterspaces by Micere Keels
Campus Uprisings by Ty-Ron M.O. Douglas, Kmt G. Shockley, Ivory Toldson
Can We Talk About Race? by Beverly Daniel Tatum
The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America by Khalil Gibran Muhammad
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
Critical Race Theory by Kimberle Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller, Kendall Thomas
Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland by Johnathan M. Metzl
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Everyday Bias by Howard Ross
Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century by Dorothy Roberts
Female Monarchs and Merchant Queens in Africa by Nwando Achebe
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Go Tell It on The Mountain by James Baldwin
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanaga-Yamahtta Taylor
Killing the Black Body by Dorothy Roberts
Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman Jr.
Making All Black Lives Matter by Barbara Ransby
Microaggressions and Marginality by Derald Wing Sue
My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Race Matters by Cornel West
Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More by Janet Mock
Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde
The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison
Stamped from the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
This is Not a Riot! by Tyesha Maddox, Dan Joslyn, Joan Flores-Villalobos and Kelly Goucher
Toxic Ivory Towers by Ruth Enid Zambrana
Waiting ‘til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in America by Peniel E. Joseph
We Cast A Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
Well-Read Black Girl: Finding Our Stories, Discovering Ourselves by Glory Edim
West Indian Immigrants: A Black Success Story? By Suzanne Model
We Want to Do More Than Survive: Aboilitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom by Bettina Love
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
White Working Class by Joan Williams
Why Are the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge