Illustration by Mitali Khanna Sharma
Long-term investment in the fight to end systemic racism and oppression requires non-Black allies to actively and openly interact with the works of revolutionary Black activists and artists in order to better understand and incorporate anti-racism work into daily life. In light of other organizations’ similar actions, the Quarto staff put together some of the works and resources that have helped us educate ourselves on the history of systemic racism, and may perhaps become a resource for you as well. We understand, however, that such a list is only a starting point for becoming actively involved in anti-racist work, and encourage you to seek out and share other works dedicated to helping illuminate and educate allies on how to dismantle anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and systemic violence. We then encourage you to put that thought and education into direct action.
Books:
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison*
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison*
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah*
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Passing by Nella Larsen*
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson**
From Slavery to Freedom by John Hope Franklin
Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch
New People by Danzy Senna*
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry**
Fences by August Wilson**
Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Y. Davis
* = fiction
** = Adapted into a film
Documentaries:
I Am Not Your Negro
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Jackson
13th
Films:
The Hate U Give
Get Out
Moonlight
Malcolm X
Sorry to Bother You
Dear White People (also a show)
Fruitvale Station
Selma
Do the Right Thing
Poetry:
Zong! by M. NourbeSe Philip
Citizen by Claudia Rankine
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” by Gil Scott-Heron
“Comment #1” by Gil Scott-Heron
Essays:
“On Violence” from The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
“Poetry is Not a Luxury” by Audre Lorde
“The Ballot or the Bullet” by Malcolm X
“What to a Slave is the Fourth of July” by Frederick Douglass
Black Looks: Race and Representation by bell hooks
“Letter from Birmingham Jail” byMartin Luther King Jr.
“The New Black Aesthetic” by Trey Ellis
“Stranger in the Village” by James Baldwin
“Malcolm and Martin” by James Baldwin
“Lonely in America” by Wendy S. Walters
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay