Want to be anti-racist? Check your white fragility
Unexpected book sales an encouraging sign that America is finally paying attention to race
You know that something is different when the hottest beach read of the season is a 2-year-old work of nonfiction by an academic who spent more than 20 years running diversity training for American companies and corporations.
“White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” by Robin DiAngelo amazingly displaced the new “Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” atop last week’s USA Today’s best-selling books list.
It was also No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction list and the Amazon chart of most-sold nonfiction.
Books on systemic racism, white supremacy, mass incarceration, racial injustice and race relations are suddenly dominating all three lists.
As much as we might think this should be a summer of escapism, Americans seem to be taking things seriously. And that’s a good thing. We could all use a hopeful sign right now. It’s not the answer, but it’s a start.
Whether people are looking for information to puncture their own prejudices or buying “that perfect gift” for a “colorblind” friend or relative who is adamant that “all lives matter,” books have been known to change hearts as well as minds.
As Oscar Wilde said, “It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.”
The recent police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the vigilante ambush of Ahmaud Arbery have apparently sparked a moment of national introspection. If you have been curious about what all these protests are about, these books can be a good place to start.
And none of the books is expected to make readers feel comfortable, especially if you are white and have never considered what that means in a multiracial society dominated by people who look like you.
Along with “White Fragility,” the lists include “How to be an Antiracist,” “So You Want to Talk About Race,” “Me and White Supremacy” and “The New Jim Crow,” none of which is new, and all of which are designed to challenge your view of yourself, the people around you and even the history you thought you were living in.
Books can do that.
Six of the top 10 books on the USA Today combined fiction nonfiction list deal with race, as do eight of the 10 on the Amazon nonfiction chart and nine of the 10 in the New York Times nonfiction rankings.
Houston area booksellers confirm that the same thing is happening locally. Many of the books are on order as publishers rush to reprint titles.
“It’s encouraging that so many people want to read these books right now,” Brazos Bookstore operations manager Mark Haber told the editorial board. “But it’s frustrating that we don’t have them.”
If you’re in a hurry, book dealers are happy to recommend available titles such as “The Fire Next Time” by James Baldwin, “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison or “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. There also are dozens of books written for children and young adults that can help parents start conversations.
This would be a good time to help our local bookstores reopen while educating ourselves on what could be the most important issue of our time.
And it doesn’t have to stop there. Streaming websites like Amazon Prime and Netflix have curated lists of movies and documentaries that deal frankly with racial topics and issues.
How better to spend a summer when a crowded beach is maybe not where we want to be? Opening a book is not the solution, but it could be the opening chapter.