A Book List for Precedented Times

What I'll be reading now that we've arrived.

Shortly after the election I posted on Instagram that now was the time to start honing our critical thinking skills and returning to books. A few people asked me for a reading list and because I love a request I was more than happy to do it. I’m a big fan of reading complex things at length. It’s good for the brain to read things you barely understand (I once read a sentence of the introduction to the introduction of Black Marxism five times)—to push the boundaries of your critical thinking skills and create the scaffolding required to understand the various systems underwriting our society. We’re lucky that there are people who have dedicated their lives to not only preserving our collective history but analyzing it, and that we have access to hundreds of thousands—millions!—of books. In calling for everyone to read more I’ve decided to also deepen my own reading practice by incorporating more nonfiction and asking friends to read with me. I think complicated texts are best worked out over drinks with friends and it helps if everyone is on the literal same page. I promise this is not me soft-launching a criticism-text focused book club, though I will be hosting a read-along of Black Marxism that kicks off at the end of this month.

In putting together this list I considered a few things—what were the threads of this moment that I wanted to braid together? What questions was I still asking? What pieces did I feel were missing? And of the pieces I did have, what still felt nebulous or required deeper thought? It can be easy to parrot one-liners of theory or rely on my own understanding of the world and then circumscribe this particular moment within that, but I am always aspiring towards rigor, to asking more questions and having the courage to seek out the answer.

This list is in no way exhaustive. You won’t find books about abolition or practical guides for survival. Those lists exist and are very good, but they don’t satisfy my curiosity about how we got here and where we’re going or the people who did it before us. You won’t find books about global struggles for freedom or books about historical moments, though the parallels are clear, because I’m thinking deeply about Black futures and the ways my community has endured and overcome. This is my starting point, which I hope is helpful for anyone else wondering the same. Okay, onto the post!

My TBR

A list of books I’m planning to read in the immediate future because I believe they’ll sharpen my understanding in one way or another.

The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America by Aaron Robertson

I’m a little over halfway through this, which is both about the construction a Black utopia and radical Black social experiments and the lives and ideologies of the people who did it. It mostly centers on Albert Cleage Jr., who preached socialist ideals and believed in Black self-determination. I’m still at the part of the book where he’s a good, principled person, so if anyone knows how his story ends, please spare me while things still feel alright. What I’ve learned from reading so far is that you can be ordinary and have impact and that at some point your values will be tested by people who believe everything is for sale. Whether you decide to sell is up to you. I think it’s helpful for thinking through this moment because it outlines the many different actors in the fight for something equitable and disrupts the notion of monolithic Black thought, particularly within the church.

Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson

I bought this book nearly a year ago and haven’t read more than a couple pages because I’ve been intimidated, but it’s essential, especially as we think about the foundations of radical Black thought. It outlines the history of Black resistance and posits that Marxist theory alone isn’t sufficient to explain Black radicalism. As someone who checked out a graphic novel about Marxism from the library when I was in fifth grade, this feels like an appropriate next step. I soft-launched it in the subscriber chat, but this will be my next In Theory book and as I said above I’ll be doing a chapter-by-chapter analysis here for anyone who wants to read along.

Afropessimism by Frank B. Wilderson III

In Afropessimism, Frank B. Wilderson III posits that anti-Black violence powers our society and that the legacy of slavery is pervasive. This pervasiveness results in a subject that is considered non-human with no path to overcome that. To overcome it would mean unravelling society altogether. I’m interested in Afro-pessimism as a world ethos because it’s both fatalistic and freeing—there’s something powerful about finding joy in the shadows and recognizing the limits of a system that relies on your subjugation.

They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South by Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers

In thinking through white women’s investment in the status quo and maintaining it, I think They Were Her Property will be particularly helpful. It discusses the role of white women in slavery and how it was a primary source of wealth for Southern white women who often inherited slaves instead of land. That kind of ownership is personal, social, and relational. The thought alone is already making my brain buzz.

Yearning by bell hooks

Yearning is a book of critical essays. I’ve already started this one and have to read with a pen in hand. In the opening bell hooks make the case for Black female critics and the need for Black people to critique Black art. She eloquently makes the case for this and while I wholeheartedly agree, it’s easier said than done. I’m reading this to become a better writer and thinker, especially in the way I think about and discuss popular media.

Civll Wars by June Jordan

In Civil Wars, June Jordan examines the intersections of public and private life, melding personal reflection with political analysis. Another instance of me trying to become a better writer by sitting with one of the best to do it.

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

When we think about the institution as violent, it’s often hard to pinpoint exactly how that’s achieved. In The Color of Law Richard Rothstein outlines the systemic segregation of American cities and how governments collaborated to invent and maintain these systems. This will help me stay vigilant and mindful as we move into a moment when the government will likely undergo a more naked shift toward institutionalized discrimination.

The Sisterhood: How a Network of Black Women Writers Changed American Culture by Courtney Thorsson

Black writers have always been in community, but I’m obsessed with The Sisterhood, which comprised many of the great Black women writers whose work we venerate and still read: Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ntozake Shange, Audre Lorde, Paule Marshall, Margo Jefferson…the list goes on. This book documents their community and will hopefully be a blueprint for Black women writers (me) working today.

Soul City: Race, Equality, and the Lost Dream of An American Utopia

I’ve been thinking a lot about intentional, Black-only spaces and the wider cultural reaction to the existence of them. Soul City was an all-Black town in North Carolina that was very nearly successful before North Carolina senator Jesse Helms vowed to stop any government funding to the project. What happened next was unsubstantiated claims of fraud in the construction and the eventual destruction of the project. The industrial plant that promised economic freedom was eventually converted into a prison. It’s the utopia that never was, and I’m curious about this town’s history.

The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism Within US Slave Culture

Nat Turner’s execution is my Roman Empire. I think about it often, because not only was he killed, his remains were made into souvenirs. His skin was turned into coin purses and his flesh used to make grease. His bones were given away as heirlooms. It’s supervillain-level dark, but not uncommon, The Delectable Negro investigates both literal cannibalism while also expanding this to think about social consumption and the homoerotic undercurrents around consuming Black men. Riveting, spooky stuff.

Reconstruction

It’s hard for me to think about the Reconstruction era because I slip into despair for my ancestors that witnessed the beginnings of equality only for it to be dismantled and replaced with segregation and Jim Crow, a system that has shaped the lives of practically everyone I know. My grandmother was born in Jim Crow Georgia. My grandma is not that old. It’s an important time frame to study though, because it shows us what was possible, as well as what comes next when a white supremacist government believes we’ve gone too far, too fast. Unfortunately, we’ve found ourselves in similar circumstances. It’s true that we have a lot to lose but we also have a lot to fight for and so these are books I’ll be looking to to better understand this time period:

• Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880 by W.E.B. DuBois

• Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution by Eric Foner

• Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

More Essential Reading

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin

Your Silence Will Not Protect You by Audre Lorde (linking Am*zon because I can’t find it anywhere else but please order from your local indie or check it out at the library)

Some of Us Did Not Die by June Jordan* (a little hard to find online but worth the search IRL)

In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens by Alice Walker

Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom

How We Get Free by Keeanga Yamahtta Taylor

Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement for Black Land Ownership by Brea Baker

Race for Profit by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

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What are y’all reading to better understand this moment? I want to know.