Systemic racism, and specifically anti-Black racism, is institutionalized in every part of society, from education to health care to food systems. Understanding where we are—and how we got here—is an important place to start in the ongoing fight for Black lives.
Compiled by Patrice Lockert Anthony, Groundswell’s Interim Executive Director, this reading list covers a number of racial justice issues, including food justice, the school to prison pipeline, environmental racism, Black feminism, white allyship, & more. Groundswell firmly believes that a conversation about food justice is inherently also a conversation about racial equity.
We would also like to acknowledge that this isn’t an exhaustive list but a collection of recommended resources. If you’re looking to get ahold of these books, skip Amazon and check out this list and this list of Black-owned bookstores organized by state.
1. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo
2. Stamped From the Beginning, Ibram X. Kendi
3. How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi
4. So You Want to Talk About Race, by Ijeoma Oluo
5. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
6. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, by Carol Anderson
7. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
8. Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein
9. Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race, by Reni Eddo-Lodge
10. When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, by Asha Bandele and Patrisse Cullors
11. Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do, by Jennifer L. Eberhardt
12. Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, by Brittney Cooper
13. What Does It Mean to Be White?: Developing White Racial Literacy, by Robin DiAngelo
14. The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race, Edited by Jesmyn Ward
15. White Privilege: Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism, by Paula Rothenberg
16. Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland, by Jonathan Metzl
17. Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, by Lean Penniman
18. Black Farmers in America, by John Francis Ficara
19. Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, by Monica M. White
20. Black, White, and Green: Farmers Markets, Race, and the Green Economy, by Alison Hope Alkon
21. Homecoming: The Story of African-American Farmers, by Charlene Gilbert and Quinn Eli
