Resources for
Restorative Reading
from
A Memoir of Friendship Across Race and Class
by
Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
James Baldwin, Notes of a Native Son
Katie G. Cannon, Black Womanist Ethics
Alice Childress, Like One of the Family: Conversations from a Domestic’s Life
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me
Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Case for Reparations” in We Were Eight Years in Power
Combahee River Collective, The Combahee River Collective Statement
Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
Terrance Hayes, “Antebellum House Party” in How to Be Drawn
Debby Irving, Waking Up White, and Finding Myself in the Story of Race
Barbara Jensen, Reading Classes: On Culture and Classism in America
Audre Lorde, “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action,” “Scratching the Surface: Some Notes on Barriers to Women and Loving,” “An Open Letter to Mary Daly,” “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House,” and “Learning from the 60s” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
Peggy McIntosh, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” in On Privilege, Fraudulence, and Teaching as Learning: Selected Essays 1981–2019
Claudia Rankine, Just Us: An American Conversation
Adrienne Rich, The Dream of a Common Language: Poems 1974–1977
Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution
Adrienne Rich, Women and Honor: Some Notes on Lying
Dorothy Roberts, Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare
Judith Rollins, Between Women: Domestics and Their Employers
Kate Rushin, “The Bridge Poem” in This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color
Deborah Willis, Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present
Jacqueline Woodson, Brown Girl Dreaming
ADDITIONAL GUIDES FOR CONTINUING THE WORK
Michael Eric Dyson, Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America
Heather McGhee, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk about Race
Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric
Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You
Layla F. Saad, Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption
Becky Thompson, A Promise and a Way of Life: White Antiracist Activism
Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration
“What a joyful list to make!”