Books on dismantling racism and whiteness
Nonfiction
Expert recommendations, picks from the best-sellers lists and more:
"White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism" by Robin DiAngelo
"How to Be an Antiracist" by Ibram X. Kendi
"Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do" by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
"Raising White Kids" by Jennifer Harvey
"So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo
“The Black and the Blue: A Cop Reveals the Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America's Law Enforcement" by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris
"Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption" by Bryan Stevenson
"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin
"Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race" by Reni Eddo-Lodge
"They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, And A New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement" by Wesley Lowery
"Hood Feminism: Notes From The Women That The Movement Forgot" by Mikki Kendall
"Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism" by bell hooks
"Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People" by Ben Crump
"From Slavery To Freedom: A History of African Americans" by John Hope Franklin
"The Third Reconstruction: How a Moral Movement Is Overcoming the Politics of Division and Fear" by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and William Barber II
"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
"Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You" by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” by Michelle Alexander
Impactful fiction from black authors
Real-world issues are the basis for these best-selling stories:
"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" by Ntozake Shange
"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead
"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
"Passing" by Nella Larsen
"The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison
"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker
"White Teeth" by Zadie Smith
"An American Marriage" by Tayari Jones
"The Mothers" by Brit Bennett
"Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe
Children's books
Best-selling stories to help younger kids:
"The Colors of Us" by Karen Katz
"Let’s Talk About Race" by Julius Lester
"The Skin I’m In: A First Look at Racism" by Pat Thomas
Sesame Street's "We're Different, We're the Same" by Bobbi Jane Kates
"Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story about Racial Injustice" by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard
"I Am Enough" by Grace Byers
"Happy in Our Skin" by Fran Manushkin and Lauren Tobia
"Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: The Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement" by Carole Boston Weatherford and Ekua Holmes
"Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America" by Jennifer Harvey
"Daddy Why Am I Brown?: A healthy conversation about skin color and family" by Bedford F. Palmer
"A Terrible Thing Happened" by Margaret Holmes
“Antiracist Baby" by Ibram X. Kendi