Learning About Racism Reading List

In the spring of 2020 I finally figured out that I could not just feel bad about racism any longer and I started reading:

The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander

The Color of Compromise, by Jemar Tisby discusses the American Christian church's complicity in racism and suggests ways to combat it.

All American Boys, by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely is a novel written from the perspective of two high school boys, one white and one black, and their experiences with police violence.

Becoming, by Michelle Obama

They Called Us Enemy, by George Takie and friends is a graphic novel about George's experience as a child in the Japanese internment camps during World War II.

How to be an Anti-Racist, by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped: Racism, Anti-racism and You, by Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds, is "not" a history book about racism in America.

White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo, is about how many white people see racism as the horrific things bad people do and unintentionally perpetuate racism through our fear of the word.

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents, by Octavia Buttler, novels set in a dystopian society with a young black woman as the main protagonist.

And listening:

Code Switch with Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby, NPR

How to Citizen with Baratunde

To Read:

Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn E Singleton, specifically written with educators in mind

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson "Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction."

Ike

 This story is as I remember my dad telling it to me on a bench by the Weber River walking path, summer 2019.  There were piles of cottonwood fluff everywhere.  Dad mentioned that it was super flammable.  I hadn't known that before.  My family was in Utah for a visit and some of my kids and I were walking with dad.  He had brain cancer but was doing pretty good, considering.  He walked slowly and needed to rest occasionally.  When we sat to rest I asked him to tell my kids about his dog, Ike.

My grandmother's aunt, Eva Willes Wangsgard, lived around the corner from where my dad grew up.  She was a poet with several published volumes and her name is listed among Utah poets of her time.  Eva also enjoyed entering contests.  In the 1950s and 60s it was common for newspapers and magazines to invite readers to submit entries for photo captions, jingles, poems, all sorts of things.  Prizes ranged from a basketball to large amounts of cash.  There was one common rule, only one entry per person.  This did not get in the way for Aunt Eva.  She would enter the contest as many times as she had nieces and nephews whose names she could borrow.  The family rule was that if the entry with your name on it won you could keep any prizes, but you had to split the money with Aunt Eva.

In the spring of 1955 "dad" submitted the winning entry to name a cartoon dog, he was 7.  The name Aunt Eva had submitted with dad's name on it was Bernard MuttSadden.  (This was a play on the name of Bernarr McFadden, a publisher and influencer in the areas of health and physical fitness.)  The prize was cash and a beagle. Dad had to go up on stage to receive the award.  He recalled his mother coaching him on what to say and "helping him remember" how he came up with the clever name.  

Dad liked Ike, but he wasn't too keen on taking care of him.  All the neighborhood kids liked to come over and play with Ike and apparently he was a good natured dog, but one day dad noticed that he was gone.  He figured he had run away and no-one ever said otherwise.

In October of 1999 my grandma passed away.  The family gathered in her home after the funeral and told the stories that reminded us of her.  Aunt Janet, my dad's older sister, mentioned Ike.  She looked a little nervous, but said that now that grandma was gone it was probably safe to finally tell dad the truth.  Grandma had gotten tired of taking care of Ike when dad didn't seem to care at all.  She found him a new home and gave him away.  About a week later dad noticed that Ike was gone and grandma told him he had run away.  Grandma had sworn Janet to secrecy for fear that dad would be angry and she carried that secret for over 40 years.  It might seam wrong to laugh that hard the day of your grandma's funeral but it was just what we all needed.  It was so like her, so funny, such a perfect finale.  

I sure miss grandma, and dad.  I wish I'd had a chance to know my great, great aunt Eva.

And remember, never give a pet to a child as a gift or a prize.