Ya Basic

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	James Baldwin: Another Country	Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings	Ta-Nehisi Coates: We Were in Power Eight Years	Esi Edugyan: Washington Black
Martin Luther King, Jr. Strength to Love	Yaa Gyasi: Homegoing	James Baldwin:  Go Tell it On the Mountain	Zora Neale Hurston:  Their Eyes Were Watching God	Spike Lee:  Do the Right Thing
Jamaica Kincaid: “Girl” (it’s a short story.)	John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell: March, Books 1-3	Toni Morrison:  Beloved	Malcolm X:  The Autobiography of Malcolm X	Bryan Stevenson: Just Mercy
Nelson Mandela:  Long Walk to Freedom	Toni Morrison:  The Bluest Eye	James McBride:  The Color of Water	Alice Walker: The Color Purple	Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
Colson Whitehead: The Underground Railroad	Solomon Northup: Twelve Years A Slave	Jaqueline Woodson: Brown Girl Dreaming	James McBride:  The Good Lord Bird	Colson Whitehead: Zone One

Just read good books!