So as it turns out, you can’t solve racism by reading books.
For the past few years, well-meaning white liberal people like me have been told to read this book and read that book to better understand racism, internal bias, etc. And dutifully, we read the books. We learn about the history of racism. We learn about the current state of racism. We learn the most up-to-date language to use. We learn a bit of theory. We hopefully internalize all of this, improve our own behavior, help educate others around us.
But racism remains a huge problem in our world, and specifically in the United States where I live.
So you read the books and you do the internal work and then you ask yourself… now what? What steps do I take to more actively and effectively tackle racism and its intersections with sexism, trans- and homophobia, poverty, labor, policing ableism, and more? It’s all so overwhelming.
Be a Revolution by Ijeoma Oluo is the book we’ve all been waiting for, the book that shows many different ways that regular people can take on racism and related issues. It’s a book that knows how despairing it can be to learn how pervasive these issues are, so it gives you a glimmer of hope. “Look,” the author seems to be saying, “all of these people are doing great work and there’s so many ways you can help.”
What I really like about Be a Revolution is it feels like a book that respects the reader’s time. It’s broken into clear sections themed around different issues, and then each section alternates a bit of information about the issue, a feature on a movement worker or group of workers tackling that issue; after a handful of these alternating sections, there’s a “Be a Revolution” list of actions you can take. It’s really easy to sit down and read this in just 10 or 15 minute chunks when you have time, and feel like you got a little nugget of information, rather than wading through dense theory and having to leave off mid-chapter.
You could certainly read this cover-to-cover like I did, but if you’re a busy person who doesn’t read a lot, you could just skip to the section you’re most interested in at the moment. Let’s say you’re a parent getting involved in your kid’s school, and you want to know more about racism in school and steps you can take to make your school more equitable. You turn to the school section, read a bit, and get some solid ideas of what to do without having to read 300 pages of history and theory first.
The thing is, it feels like every time something happens, like say Trump getting re-elected, there’s all these posts that say “Here are ten books you need to read to understand…” As a person who’s sitting at 141 books read so far for the year, even I get overwhelmed by having ten books I HAVE to read. How do I prioritize them? How do I work them into my reading list alongside the books on other topics I care about?
In the meantime, the generally accepted statistic is that the average American adult reads twelve books a year. So these ten-book lists would be almost the entire year’s reading for the average adult. Imagine you’re someone who reads at most a book a month, maybe as a fun indulgence or to participate in a book club with your friends, and suddenly you have to read ten dense, theory-laden books. You thought you were done with homework at this stage in your life!
In some ways, it feels intentional. If we’re told we need to understand racism, and to understand racism we need to read these ten books, and we don’t have time to read these ten books, well then I guess we’ll never understand racism and we can’t join the fight against it so we’ll just leave it to the scholars who have the time and inclination to read THOUSANDS OF PAGES about a single issue.
Don’t get me wrong. I love reading. I love learning. I think that reading books about the major issues in the world makes me a more well-rounded person and helps foster my sense of empathy. But I’m also a little contrary at heart, and being told I NEED to read any book, or list of books, gets my dander up.
Be a Revolution doesn’t feel like it’s telling you what you NEED to do. It feels like it’s inviting you in. It feels like it’s saying “Hey, there’s a lot of work to do. How much time do you have? What are you good at? What are you passionate about? Here are some different ways you can get involved. We’re glad you’re here.”
As one would expect given the author’s past work, Be a Revolution is pretty focused on race, and so the suggestions are largely focused specifically on how each issue impacts BIPOC people and communities. But the ideas here could also be extrapolated to any sort of cause you care about. If you’re more interested in animal welfare, or if your big focus is Palestinian liberation, you can look at the suggestions and see the ways that you can make sure you’re keeping your own privilege in mind, amplifying BIPOC voices in any movement you’re in, and identifying the areas where your time, effort, or money can do the most good.
Going forward, I’ll be recommending Be a Revolution as the perfect starting point for people looking to read about anti-racism and activism. I believe with any topic, it’s ideal to start with a book that feels approachable and gives you things in easy-to-digest chunks. Then when you’re passionate, you can dig deeper into the history and theory.
CWs and TWs: Contains discussions of racism, police violence, incarceration, gender-based violence, homophobia, transphobia, and ableism.
Format and Source: I own a signed hardback copy of this but I can’t remember where I bought it; probably Third Place Books.
Book Bingo Prompts
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): Changing the World. It can be easy to get overwhelmed by all the big problems in the world. It’s hard for any one person to do something that truly changes the world. But by working together, we can make change at different scales, whether in our town, our state, our country, our hobby community, our industry, etc. If enough of us make these small to medium scale changes, together we’ll change the world.
Book Bingo Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 25 out of 25 prompts complete. BLACKOUT!
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 22 out of 25 prompts complete. 6 bingos.