Hi! I am a member of a race education group in my school (11 to 18) and we are creating a reading list for the library. Our library isn’t very diverse right now (most books are written by white people about the West) and we need books on race education (privilege, discrimination, etc.) and on the history (precolonial, colonial and postcolonial, could be on neocolonialism too) and culture of underrepresented people.
Please keep in mind that these books should be acceptable by the school and approachable by students who would be unlikely to accept or read very progressive material, so themes that strongly (just strongly) contradict Western narratives should be avoided.
For example, a book on the colonisation of Palestine that exposes the oppressive nature of Zionism is mostly fine, but a book presenting Hamas as a liberation group would not be accepted (and actually illegal in my country).
You can reply with books or other reading lists that we could then review and add. I’ll finish this post with some examples of books on the reading list (keep in mind that it was for Black History Month, so all of the examples are on black people):
African Empires by Lyndon, Dan
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation In America by Carmichael, Stokely; Hamilton, Charles V
I Heard What You Said by Boakye, Jeffrey
The Assassination of Lumumba by Witte, Ludo de.
White privilege: the myth of a post-racial society by Bhopal, Kalwant
Thanks in advance!
If fiction are fine (these are also probably on the higher end of your age range)
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe- Classic Nigerian Book, about how colonialism affects a Tribal leader
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad- novella which explored the differences between the colonizer and the colonized, notibly hated by Chinua Achebe above
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison- an African American comes to terms with white society and the burgeoning black nationalist movement
Passing by Nella Larson- tragedy about two light skinned African-American women, one of whom attempts to pass as white in an upper class environment
Fiction is perfectly fine and admittedly there should be more of it, too. We can account for the different age range too as the books are already sorted into “Junior” and “Advanced” categories.
Not sure what to make of an author notably critiquing another author’s book on colonialism, but I will add them both as they seem like really interesting books to read.
We actually already have this book on the reading list, although your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your contributions!
Joseph Conrad was a Polish emigree who served in the British merchant marine, he writes from the western perspective but is notably against social darwinism. When contrasted to contemporary works (Like “White Man’s Burden”) it is sympathetic to the indigenous, but Chinua’s problem is that the narrator (and presumably Conrad) are still fairly prejudiced, also the book is from 1899 so product of it’s time and all that
Yeah, most of our books are on very recent topics and we could use some books from older times. Some people have the tendency to completely shun older media for aspects that have become unacceptable (eg. revolutionaries with bigoted views of LGBTQ+ people) and while those books should probably not be the main focus, they should still be included as a way to educate ourselves on history, reflect on our mistakes and learn to do better!
And being able to not only appreciate but also critique an author and their works for their outdated ways of thinking is a great way to get people to critically think about race.