this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2024
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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!

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[–] pixelmeow@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

These are probably too progressive for your school but I highly recommend them to anyone outside of school.

Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped From The Beginning and How To Be An Antiracist are incredible books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stamped_from_the_Beginning

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Be_an_Antiracist

[–] temp_acc@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the suggestions! Can you clarify the potential issues with the books? Looking at their Wikipedia page (and despite Stamped from the Beginning being censored), I doubt the books would be rejected from the reading list.

[–] pixelmeow@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Dr. Kendi is at the forefront of antiracism and many (if not most) American conservatives see antiracism as actual racism and propaganda to make white people feel bad. Having read these I can definitely say that’s not what Dr. Kendi is about. Your students are old enough to learn the truth about this and I’m so happy you are able to teach them about this subject. There are a couple of other books he has written and contributed to for younger people, too.

These are books that would be banned from many schools in conservative America. I’m so glad you may be able to offer them to your students!

[–] temp_acc@lemmy.world 2 points 8 months ago

In that case, it won't be a problem (the school is not in America) as we already have books on antiracism, white privilege and other topics that would be controversial in conservative America. (see the example books on the original post for reference)

I am definitely grateful that we are able to share such books without strong backlash and flawed criticisms being directed towards the reading list and hopefully the group can educate others to think more critically on these underrepresented topics!