Say you’re basic. It’s okay. I’m not really basic, but I’ve got
issues. Right now, with the nation a big huge mess, I’ve seen this lovely
anti-racist book bingo list going around:
I love this list, but say Ya Basic. Say this list looks a
tad too intimidating. I hear you. I mean, I’m a reader—and that list looks, um, hard.
I’d like to humbly suggest that reading great novels (and
listening to awesome music) by African-Americans and People of Color can
seriously work to help defeat racism! I believe this. I believe in my
not-really-basic-but-problematic-heart that reading diversely humanizes “the
other.” So here’s my own literary bingo attempt if ya basic or just pretty white. (Some writers wrote two books on my list, and I just like them so much. This is
very—like completely—subjective. Some are nonfiction. Some are very much about
racism; others are just about people doing people-things. I’ve got movies and
music for basic people too. Later.)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: Americanah
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James Baldwin: Another Country
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Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
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Ta-Nehisi
Coates: We Were in Power Eight Years
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Esi Edugyan: Washington Black
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love
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Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing
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James Baldwin: Go Tell it On the Mountain
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Zora Neale Hurston: Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Spike Lee: Do the Right Thing
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Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” (it’s a short story.)
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John Lewis, Andrew Aydin,
and Nate Powell: March, Books 1-3
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Toni Morrison: Beloved
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Malcolm X: The Autobiography of Malcolm X
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Bryan Stevenson: Just Mercy
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Nelson Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
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Toni Morrison: The Bluest Eye
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James McBride: The Color of Water
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Alice Walker: The Color Purple
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Trevor
Noah: Born a Crime
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Colson Whitehead: The Underground Railroad
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Solomon Northup: Twelve Years A Slave
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Jaqueline Woodson: Brown Girl Dreaming
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James McBride: The
Good Lord Bird
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Colson Whitehead: Zone One
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Just read good books!
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