What We're Reading

In The Sum of Us, policy expert Heather McGhee traces the high price of a “whites-only” worldview—from the 1950s towns that drained public pools rather than integrate, to today’s housing, healthcare, and climate fights where exclusion still costs everyone. Through vivid storytelling and accessible economic data, McGhee shows how zero-sum thinking convinces white Americans that progress for people of color requires their loss, even when the evidence proves the opposite.

McGhee spotlights communities that reject scarcity logic and win what she calls “solidarity dividends”: higher wages at multiracial union tables, cleaner air after cross-racial environmental campaigns, and tuition-free college. Her interviews reveal that when people organize across race, they gain not just policy victories but a deeper sense of shared power and possibility. Essential reading for anyone ready to replace division with collective prosperity and re-imagine what America can afford when everybody is in.

A guide for white people to uncover implicit bias, confront racism, and build anti-racist futures.

In *Me and White Supremacy*, Layla F. Saad draws on personal journal entries, historical analysis, and guided prompts to lead readers through a 28-day journey of self-reflection. She examines how behaviors like white fragility, race shame, and silence uphold systemic injustice, inviting participants to answer probing questions, chart progress, and commit to tangible anti-racist actions. Saad’s clear, compassionate style makes the discomfort of confronting privilege both accessible and transformative.

Saad challenges white readers to take responsibility for their roles in perpetuating racism, to seek out repair and reconciliation, and to sustain meaningful change beyond the page. With daily exercises, accountability partnerships, and concrete strategies for dismantling bias, *Me and White Supremacy* demonstrates that true equity requires individual courage and collective accountability. **Essential reading for anyone ready to do the work, change habits, and become a good ancestor.**

Smart, sharp, and unfiltered—this book dismantles racial myths with clarity, wit, and lived truth.

In How to Be Less Stupid About Race, sociologist and truth-teller Dr. Crystal Fleming takes aim at the lies America tells itself—from colorblind delusions to post-racial fantasies. With biting humor and academic rigor, she exposes how ignorance around race is not just tolerated but cultivated, especially among white Americans. The book unpacks structural racism, media bias, and historical amnesia, making it accessible without dumbing anything down.

Fleming also invites readers into the work of self-examination. This isn’t about guilt—it’s about growth. She arms us with the language, history, and perspective to do better, offering tools to unlearn our biases and build anti-racist consciousness. Perfect for readers tired of surface-level conversations and ready to challenge the real roots of racial injustice.

When good intentions mask harm, white progressives must confront their complicity—not just their comfort.

In Nice Racism, Robin DiAngelo expands on the themes of 'White Fragility', turning her lens on the ways that well-meaning white liberals uphold systemic racism. She explores how behaviors like avoiding discomfort, over-identifying with people of color, or weaponizing guilt allow white progressives to feel “anti-racist” without actually changing racist outcomes. The result is a culture of harm cloaked in politeness and self-congratulation.

DiAngelo challenges readers to move beyond intention and into impact. Rather than clinging to niceness or defensive denial, she offers pathways for white people to engage with accountability, humility, and sustained action. This is a vital read for anyone who believes they’re “one of the good ones” and is brave enough to ask—what if I’m still causing harm?

Truth-telling memoir of a trans woman of color reclaiming identity, dignity, and the right to exist fully.

In Redefining Realness, Janet Mock shares the intimate, unfiltered story of her journey as a multiracial, trans woman growing up in Hawaii. With powerful honesty, she details childhood poverty, gender discovery, sex work, and the deep cost of living in a world that polices authenticity. Rather than simplifying her story to fit a single narrative, Mock insists on complexity—offering readers a multidimensional portrait of survival, self-love, and fierce transformation.

Mock speaks directly to cis readers, inviting them to confront how white supremacy, transphobia, and misogyny shape public perception and personal bias. For white women especially, this memoir opens necessary space to examine assumptions about gender, visibility, and allyship. It is a moving call to see trans women of color not as metaphors or martyrs—but as full, sovereign people whose stories demand our attention and respect.

Incisive essays urging readers to confront interlocking oppressions, wielding difference as a catalyst for liberation.

Across fifteen essays and speeches from 1976 to 1984, Audre Lorde weaves memoir and critique, recounting life as a Black lesbian poet and mother while exposing sexism, racism, homophobia, and classism as entwined systems of power. She shows that naming our many identities sparks real coalition and that difference, properly honored, generates radical, creative energy for lasting change and justice.

Written for white women as much as her communities, *Sister Outsider* demands honest self-examination. Lorde exposes how well-intended feminism can recycle racial hierarchy, urging readers to swap fragility for accountable solidarity. Reflection guides punctuate each essay: whose voices are missing, which privileges remain unchallenged, and what “master’s tools” still structure our classrooms, workplaces, and politics in everyday and national life today.

Reimagining the Divine through Black girl brilliance—and confronting the church’s blind spots along the way.

In Womanish Theology, pastor‑educator Khristi Lauren Adams braids memoir, interviews, and womanist scholarship to show how Black girls’ questions, humor, and holy impatience disrupt patriarchy and white‑centered theology. From playground to pulpit, she reveals how respectability culture mutes their prophetic insight—and how listening reshapes what we call sacred.

Adams calls readers, especially white Christians, to repent of “saintly” silences, honor Black girls as theologians, and build communities where every story bears God’s image. Essential reading for anyone ready to trade inherited doctrine for a faith as wide and wild as liberation itself.

Resisting erasure, busting the “model minority” myth, and building true cross‑racial solidarity.

In Louder Than the Lies, Taiwanese‑American educator Ellie Yang Camp lays bare how stereotypes—from yellowface caricatures to “polite” professionalism—silence Asian Americans. Drawing on history and lived stories, she shows how white supremacy uses Asian identities as buffers against Black and Brown liberation while pressuring individuals to stay small and grateful.

Yang Camp shows racism is systemic—urging readers to reject respectability politics, confront anti‑Blackness, and choose collective power over proximity to whiteness; she calls white women to drop the savior pose and join the struggle. Louder Than the Lies is essential reading for anyone ready to trade comfort for courageous, coalitional action.

Racialized beauty ideals, fat‑phobia, and the fight to reclaim every body.

In *Fearing the Black Body*, sociologist Sabrina Strings uncovers how anti‑fat bias was engineered to uphold white supremacy and patriarchy. Tracing histories from colonial Europe to twentieth‑century America, she reveals how thinness became a moral mandate—a way to mark whiteness, control women’s bodies, and devalue Blackness.

Strings reveals diet culture and body shame as systemic tools that uphold white supremacy—not individual shortcomings. She calls white women to confront racist beauty ideals, dismantle the myth that thinness equals virtue or health, and break free from body‑and‑emotion policing. ***Fearing the Black Body*** is indispensable reading.

White fragility, complicity, and the urgent call for change.

In *White Women*, activists Regina Jackson and Saira Rao deliver an unflinching message: white women’s niceness often masks deep-seated racism. With sharp insight and bold honesty, they dismantle the performative allyship, defensiveness, and harm that white women perpetuate—even with good intentions.

Jackson and Rao challenge readers to move beyond guilt and denial toward real accountability and transformative action. This book isn’t about comfort—it’s about courage, humility, and doing the hard work to build authentic solidarity.

If you’re serious about confronting how whiteness shows up in your life, *White Women* is essential reading.

Mass incarceration, racial caste, and the illusion of progress.

In *The New Jim Crow*, civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander makes a searing case: mass incarceration in the United States functions as a modern-day racial caste system. Through detailed research and powerful analysis, she reveals how the War on Drugs and discriminatory policing have devastated Black communities—stripping millions of the right to vote, work, and live freely.

Alexander dismantles the myth of colorblindness in America’s legal system and calls on all of us—especially white allies—to reckon with the structures of systemic racism that still thrive today. This book is not just a history lesson; it’s a wake-up call.

If you want to understand how white supremacy adapts and endures, *The New Jim Crow* is essential reading.

Unpacking white feminism to build real solidarity.

In *What’s Up with White Women?*, authors Ilsa Govan and Tilman Smith take a bold look at how white women often show up in racial justice spaces—sometimes with the best of intentions, but not always with the awareness or accountability needed for true solidarity.

Blending real-life stories, critical theory, and decades of antiracist work, this book unpacks how white women's socialization around sexism and white privilege can create barriers rather than bridges in multiracial movements.

Govan and Smith challenge readers to move beyond fragility, saviorism, and performative allyship—and toward sustained, courageous, and culturally aware action. They invite white women to examine the roles they’ve been taught to play—and to rewrite the script in partnership with communities on the margins.

This isn’t about shame—it’s about growth. For white women ready to do the work, *What’s Up with White Women?* is a must-read guide to showing up better.

In *The Body Is Not an Apology*, Sonya Renee Taylor challenges us to unlearn body shame and embrace radical self-love. This isn’t a feel-good self-help book—it’s a call to dismantle the systems that thrive on our insecurities. Our bodies are not problems to be fixed—they’re powerful tools for change.

Taylor connects personal healing to collective liberation, showing how racism, sexism, ableism, and fatphobia are rooted in body-based oppression. Through truth-telling and reflection, she invites readers—especially those with privilege—to stop weaponizing body standards and start building a world where every body is valued, seen, and celebrated.

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo explores how white people defensively react to race discussions. DiAngelo examines the concept of "white fragility," where emotions like anger, guilt, or denial uphold systemic racism. The book offers insights and practical steps for engaging in race conversations with awareness and accountability, making it a must-read for those seeking to confront their biases and create change.

This powerful book challenges mainstream feminism by exploring the intersections of race, class, and gender, calling for a more inclusive movement that addresses the struggles of marginalized women. Kendall’s critique urges us to rethink how we define empowerment and recognize the experiences of those at society’s margins. A must-read for anyone committed to a more equitable feminist future.

This powerful memoir explores what it means to navigate a world shaped by whiteness while maintaining Black dignity. Brown’s candid reflections on racism, identity, and resilience are essential for understanding how we can all work toward a more inclusive future.

A must-read for anyone looking to understand race dynamics, tackle white gatekeeping, and engage in honest conversations about privilege and systemic oppression. Ready to listen, learn, and grow? We’re all in this together.

A beautiful and thought-provoking exploration of Indigenous wisdom and scientific knowledge. Kimmerer weaves personal stories and teachings from her Potawatomi heritage to remind us of our deep, reciprocal relationship with nature. We love how this book challenges us to rethink our connection to the earth and promotes healing, gratitude, and sustainability. A must-read for anyone wanting to embrace a more respectful, earth-centered perspective that values all life.