Decolonizing Your Bookshelves
Today is Juneteenth, which is a great time to discuss the topic I’ve been mulling over this week – or rather, the task I’ve been working on: decolonizing my bookshelves.
As many of us have considered how we can be more than just “not actively racist” but actively anti-racist, one area we can think about is our reading material. It’s terrific that so many books addressing racism, white privilege, and social justice have been circulated and soared to the top of bestseller lists, among them Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility, Ijeoma Oluo’s So You Want to Talk About Race, and Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist. There have also been lists of children’s books that include some of my favorite authors, such as Jason Reynolds, Jacqueline Woodson, and so many others (one example from PW: https://bit.ly/2YRWhsF).
What is decolonizing your bookshelves? And why do it?
It is looking at your bookshelves (and e-book library) and seeing just how many Black authors you have. Of course, you may have read books from the library as well, which won’t be on your shelves. But actually buying a book says something (if you have the means, of course): it signals what writers you support. In a time when publishing is reckoning with its lack of diversity on all levels, and after decades of Black authors receiving notably smaller advances based on the assumption that “Black people don’t read” or “No one reads books by Black authors” (to cite two comments made on a Twitter thread I followed a week or so ago), white readers need to think about why these ideas persist.
If you look at your shelves and are dismayed by the percentage of white authors you see, don’t fall into the guilt trap. People buy books because those books speak to them in some way, and I’d venture to guess most #bookshelvessowhite people didn’t end up with shelves full of white authors on purpose. Take a closer look, too: how many nonwhite authors overall? How many gay or lesbian authors? How many non-U.S. authors? How many authors representing any kind of diversity? This isn’t an exercise in shaming, but in eye-opening to the possibilities out there. It’s an invitation to be more purposeful about choosing which books to read and how your world can be expanded by consciously choosing to read a selection of diverse authors (and at this point in U.S. history, Black authors in particular).
It doesn’t have to be all books explicitly on anti-racism, either. Black authors write science fiction and fantasy, commercial and literary fiction, mysteries, romances, YA, MG, picture books, poetry… pretty much any type of literature you can think of. Especially for whites who fear “making a mistake” or who don’t know what to say when confronted with the Black experience in person, reading is an easy way to get into the mind of a particular author and begin to see things from their perspective. Read widely enough, and it reminds us that Black writers (or people writing from any diverse perspective) are not a single monolithic entity, but individuals with different experiences and points of view. Fiction or nonfiction, they can tell us stories of lives we have never imagined, pushing us to think more deeply about our own lives and our world.
So, you may be wondering, how did I do? Like many people, I’ve got some work to do in decolonizing my reading. I may have a slight head start from some because of my intercultural relations background, but again, it’s about being more purposeful going forward, actively seeking out diverse authors, to remind myself that my world is not The World, and that there is always more I can do to understand and learn.
Some of the books on my shelves, for those interested in checking them out:
Nonfiction:
Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
Bad Feminist – Roxane Gay
How to Be an Antiracist – Ibram X. Kendi
Becoming – Michelle Obama
Writing the Other – Nisi Shawl
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – Beverly Daniel Tatum
Fiction:
The Inheritance Trilogy – N.K. Jemison
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
Scarlet Odyssey – C.T. Rwizi
Kindred – Octavia Butler
Dhalgren – Samuel R. Delaney
Long Way Down and All American Boys – Jason Reynolds
I’m pretty sure there are others at my university office but I haven’t been in there in three months! Still, it’s not a huge amount for someone who has as many books as I have.
I’m noticing that these are all pretty popular authors/titles, so I’m going to challenge myself to seek out new authors, or ones less well known. Now is the perfect time for this! Plus, there is the initiative this week to initiative this week to “blackout” the bestseller list (#blackoutbestsellerlist). Not that I don’t have a long list of/pile of books that I own but haven’t read yet...
Do you have any books to recommend to me? Please let me know in the comments!
P..S. Check out this fascinating article recently in the Washington Post: “The Black Women Who Launched the Original Anti-Racist Reading List”: https://wapo.st/2YScVIU.
