The Beast Side: Living (and Dying) While Black in America

We Gon' Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation

Jeff Chang · 200 pages

"In his most recent book, Who We Be, Jeff Chang looked at how art and culture effected massive social changes in American society. Since the book was published, the country has been gripped by waves of racial discord, most notably the protests in Ferguson, Missouri. In these highly relevant, powerful essays, Chang examines some of the most contentious issues in the current discussion of race and i

Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man's Education

Mychal Denzel Smith · 240 pages

"A prominent journalist and contributing writer to The Nation magazine describes his education and the experiences of black masculinity against a backdrop of the Obama administration, the death of Trayvon Martin, the career of LeBron James and other pivotal influences that have shaped race relations in today's America,"--NoveList. How do you learn to be a black man in America? For young black men

Bad Feminist

Roxane Gay · 360 pages

A collection of essays spanning politics, criticism, and feminism from one of the most-watched young cultural observers of her generation, Roxane Gay. "Pink is my favorite color. I used to say my favorite color was black to be cool, but it is pink, all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink. I read Vogue, and I'm not doing it ironically, though it might seem that way. I once l

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement

Angela Y. Davis · 176 pages

>In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar **Angela Y. Davis** illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People about Race

Reni Eddo-Lodge · 272 pages

In 2014, award-winning journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge wrote on her blog about her frustration with the way that discussions of race and racism in Britain were being led by those who weren't affected by it. Her words hit a nerve. The post went viral and comments flooded in from others desperate to speak up about their own experiences. Galvanised, she decided to dig into the source of these feelings. Ex

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race

Clint Smith · 240 pages

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

Michael Eric Dyson · 228 pages

Fifty years ago, when a white woman asked Malcolm X what she could do for the cause, he told her "Nothing." Now, Michael Eric Dyson believes he was wrong and responds that if society is to make real racial progress, people must face difficult truths-- including being honest about how black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.

Between the World and Me

Ta-Nehisi Coates · 155 pages

An Amazon Best Book of July 2015: Readers of his work in The Atlantic and elsewhere know Ta-Nehisi Coates for his thoughtful and influential writing on race in America. Written as a series of letters to his teenaged son, his new memoir, Between the World and Me, walks us through the course of his life, from the tough neighborhoods of Baltimore in his youth, to Howard University—which Coates dubs “

But Some Of Us Are Brave: All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men: Black Women's Studies

Akasha Gloria Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, Barbara Smith · 418 pages

Winner of the Outstanding Women of Colour Award, and the Women Educator's Curriculum Material Award. This ground-breaking collection provides a wealth of materials needed to develop course units on black women, from political theory to literary essays on major writers to work on black women's contributions to the blues. Bibliographies and a collection of syllabi provide readers with essential clas

The Other Side of the River: A Story of Two Towns, a Death, and America's Dilemma

Alex Kotlowitz · 322 pages

In The Other Side of the River, Kotlowitz brings readers to two Michigan towns, St. Joseph and Benton Harbor. Separated by the St. Joseph River, they are geographically close, yet worlds apart: St. Joseph is a 95 percent white, prosperous lakeshore community, while Benton Harbor is impoverished and 92 percent black. When the body of a black teenage boy from Benton Harbor is found in the river, un

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream

Barack Obama · 384 pages

Senator Obama calls for a different brand of politics--a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the "endless clash of armies" we see in Congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of our democracy. He explores those forces--from the fear of losing, to the perpetual need to raise money, to the power

Negroland

Margo Jefferson · 256 pages

Born in upper-crust black Chicago—her father was for years head of pediatrics at Provident, at the time the nation’s oldest black hospital; her mother was a socialite—Margo Jefferson has spent most of her life among (call them what you will) the colored aristocracy, the colored elite, the blue-vein society. Since the nineteenth century they have stood apart, these inhabitants of Negroland, “a smal

Under Our Skin: Getting Real about Race–And Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations That Divide Us

Benjamin Watson · 240 pages

Just Mercy a story of justice and redemption By Bryan Stevenson & So You Want to Talk About Race By Ijeoma Oluo 2 Books Collection Set

Bryan Stevenson, Ijeoma Oluo

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner · 320 pages

*A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything* Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But

Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics

bell hooks · 248 pages

"For bell hooks, the best cultural criticism sees no need to separate politics from the pleasure of reading. Yearning collects together some of hooks's classic and early pieces of cultural criticism from the '80s. Addressing topics like pedagogy, postmodernism, and politics, hooks examines a variety of cultural artifacts, from Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing and Wim Wenders's film Wings of Des

The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America

Tamara Winfrey Harris · 147 pages

"Everyone seems to have an opinion about American black women--they need to get married, change their hair, act like 'ladies,' and so on. Celebrated writer Tamara Winfrey Harris writes a searing account of being a black woman in America and explains why it's time for black women to speak for themselves"--Provided by publisher.

Spoilt Rotten: The Toxic Cult of Sentimentality

Theodore Dalrymple

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools

Monique Morris · 277 pages

"Fifteen-year-old Diamond stopped going to school the day she was expelled for lashing out at peers who constantly harassed and teased her for something everyone on the staff had missed: she was being trafficked for sex. After months on the run, she was arrested and sent to a detention center for violating a court order to attend school. Black girls represent 16 percent of female students but almo

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era

Shelby Steele · 181 pages

In 1955 the killers of Emmett Till, a black Mississippi youth, were acquitted because they were white. Forty years later, despite the strong DNA evidence against him, accused murderer O. J. Simpson went free after his attorney portrayed him as a victim of racism. The age of white supremacy has given way to an age of white guilt—and neither has been good for African Americans.Through articulate ana

Talking To My Country

Stan Grant · 230 pages

An extraordinarily powerful and personal meditation on race, culture and national identity. In July 2015, as the debate over Adam Goodes being booed at AFL games raged and got ever more heated and ugly, Stan Grant wrote a short but powerful piece for The Guardian that went viral, not only in Australia but right around the world, shared over 100,000 times on social media. His was a personal, passio

A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota

Sun Yung Shin · 240 pages

Sixteen of the state's best writers answer the question "What is it like to live as a person of color in Minnesota?"

The Souls of Black Folk

W.E.B. Du Bois · 192 pages

Du Bois' 1903 collection of essays is a thoughtful, articulate exploration of the moral and intellectual issues surrounding the perception of blacks within American society.

The Good Immigrant

Nikesh Shukla · 336 pages