Suggested Readings

Selected Readings on Racism in the United States
(Suggested by the Southeastern Iowa Synod – Anti-racism Team)

And don’t call me a racist!; A treasury of quotes on the past, present, and future of the color line in America. Mazel, Ella, Selector & Arranger.

Broken Spears, The. Leon-Portilla, Miguel, ed.

Jacqueline Battalora, Birth of a White Nation:The Invention of White People and Its Relevance Today, 154 pages.
A very well written examination of the invention of “white people” in America and by extension the world. It provides a good understanding of how American history created the category of white.  Battalora says she was born a female and became a white woman. It can help individuals struggling to understand the insanity of racism/classism. Questions for discussion are included at the end of each of the five chapters.

Cose, Ellis. The Rage of a Privileged Class: Why Do Prosperous Blacks Still Have the Blues?

Family Properties: How the Struggle Over Race and Real Estate Transformed Chicago and Urban America. For further information on the Web: http://www.semcoop.com/book/9780805091427

Abby L. Ferber, White Man Falling:  Race, Gender, and White Supremacy, 192 pages
“A must for those championing social justice. . . . Abby Ferber explores the anxiety over interracial sexuality that prevails in white supremacy discourse to reveal how it is grounded in a binary vision of race and gender―and how that perspective frames a definition of white male identity. She reveals the ‘logic’ that is behind violence efforts to maintain gender and racial boundaries and challenges our interpretation of such views as ‘fringe.’ “(Elizabeth Higginbotham, University of Delaware)

Johnson, Allan G. The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy and Privilege, Power, and Difference.

Ferris, Susan & Sandoval, Ricardo. The Fight in the Fields.

McCall, Nathan. Makes Me Wanna’ Holler: A Young Black Man in America.

Page, Clarence. Showing My Color: Impolite Essays on Race and Identity.

Robinson, Randall. Quitting America: The Departure of a Black Man from His Native Land.
State of Native America, The: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance. M. Annette Jaimes, Ed.

Tatum, Beverly Daniels. Why are all the Black Kids sitting together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race.

Wise, Tim. Colorblind: The Rise of Post Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equality.
Zia, Helen. Asian-American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People.

Debby Irving, Waking up White:  and Finding Myself in the Story of Race, 288 pages 
This is a thought-provoking book that has questions at the end of each chapter for personal reflection, and then can be used for group discussion. 

Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, 729 pages
This history has details that are skipped over by most historians. It is a history from the viewpoint of the powerless who are viewed as the losers from the standpoint of the winners (i.e the one’s who write history).  Many regard it as an eye-opener.