As protests for racial justice and equality are happening worldwide, we are all looking for ways to do better and be better.  One very important thing you can do is educate yourself, your family, and friends about racism, white privilege, and their impacts.  We know it can be hard to figure out where to start when there’s so much worthy literature out there, so we created a list of 9 books to help you get started.

From the Civil War to our combustible present, White Rage reframes our continuing conversation about race, chronicling the powerful forces opposed to black progress in America.  How to Be an Antiracist is an essential ‘manual’ to understanding and uprooting racism and inequality in our society and in ourselves. Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism.  White Fragility explores the counterproductive reactions white people have when their assumptions about race are challenged, and how these reactions maintain racial inequality.

The New Jim Crow has been described as “one of the most influential books of the past 20 years” – and for good reason. This book takes a deep dive into mass incarceration and the truth about the United States’ thriving racial caste system.  Stamped from the Beginning discusses how racist ideas were created, spread, and deeply rooted in American society. Kendi shows racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. They were created to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation’s racial inequities.  So You Want to Talk About Race offers a hard-hitting but user-friendly examination of race in America. Oluo guides readers of all races and answers questions about confronting friends and family members while providing an education on this country’s racist heritage.

Me and White Supremacy takes readers on a 28-day journey of how to dismantle the privilege within themselves so that they can stop (often unconsciously) inflicting damage on people of color, and in turn, help other white people do better, too.  How to Be Less Stupid about Race is a guide to breaking through the half-truths and ridiculous misconceptions that have thoroughly corrupted the way race is represented in the classroom, pop culture, media, and politics. In White Privilege, Kalwant Bhopal draws on social science research and political and economic analysis to show how people from black and minority backgrounds are continually positioned as outsiders in public discourse and interpersonal interaction.