Reading in Color

Checking my white privilege by reading books by people of color. With reading lists. [NOTE: In response to the murder by police of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN, I’m updating this post. 5/27/20]

NegorI grew up in a predominantly white, middle-class town. There were a handful of black people in my high school class.. I remember the first Latinos moving into our neighborhood: three sisters wearing flannel shirts and black eyeliner. We had one Chinese restaurant downtown. I knew one Jewish kid. We had some neighbors from India. My parents grew up during the depression; there wasn’t overt racism in our home, rather race didn’t really exist.

Moving to LA exposed me to a larger world but the arts aren’t very diverse, it turns out. And NYC, bastion of multiculturalism, is pretty segregated. In the summer of 2016, in response to the increased, no, more exposed, racial violence in the U.S., I created a bit of arts activism for myself. I’d exclusively read books by people of color for one year: to broaden my awareness, deepen my understanding, cultivate empathy, learn stories by people from backgrounds different than mine.

I am essentially an autodidact. Though I had some college I never graduated. I knew I wanted to act at an early age and sort of just started doing that in my teens and then into my twenties and at some point I started to be a professional actor. But I always read. My folks were both great readers, my mom still is--and, though I have had some great teachers (Bruce Smith, my theater teacher at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, Mrs. Mouring, my high school theater teacher and countless friends, colleagues and strangers who have taught me profound lessons) it is through books that I have been educated.

There have been periods in my life where I DEVOURED books. Some of these have been the most difficult times of my life. Literature allowed me an escape from the pain of whatever I was dealing with AND to learn ways of coping. Empathy. Curiosity. Expansiveness. I'm in my 50s now and I'm a pretty consistent reader. I tend to read fiction but enjoy the occasional non fiction.

Last year, in response to the increased (?), more visible (?), continued racial unrest here in the US, I decided I would use my reading practice as a way to engage with issues of race and racism. Did I get woke? I don't know. But, being a middle class white person in America, I decided to check my privilege by exposing myself to stories of people not of my color. (I had read lots of great writers of color before--but not in an organized or strategic way. You'll see my additional list at the bottom.)

As leader of The Secret City, a community arts organization, I have come to see my participation in art making and art consuming with greater responsibility and urgency. It's a time of urgency. However, In case you haven't noticed, it's also an incredible time in the arts--films, music, literature--there's an explosion of culture that is thrilling. Whenever you feel down about the current state of affairs, I encourage you to turn to the arts--amazing people are making amazing things. RIGHT NOW. They are lighting the way.

I share my reading lists here. By the way, this isn't an original idea--I had seen at least one other person doing this and it struck me as a great idea.

BOOKS I'VE READ IN THE LAST YEAR:
With a few exceptions, these are all US authors.

The Absolutely True Story of a Part Time Indian--Sherman Alexie
Americannah--Chimamanda Ngosi Adache
Bad Feminist--Roxane Gay
Between the World and Me--Ta Nahesi Coates
Citizen--Claudine Rankine
The Cooking Gene--Michael W. Twitty
Gorilla My Love--Toni Cade Bambara
Homegoing--Yaa Gyasi
Hunger--Roxane Gay
Kindred--Octavia Butler
Little Fires Everywhere--Celeste Ng
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven---Sherman Alexie
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness--Arundhati Roy
My Year of Meats--Ruth Ozeki
Negroland--Margo Jefferson
Queen of the Night--Alexander Chee
The Sellout--Paul Beatty
Swing Time--Zadie Smith
The Sympathizer--Viet Thanh Nguyen
A Tale for the Time Being--Ruth Ozeki
The Turner House--Angela Fluornoy
The Underground Railroad--Colson Whitehead
We Love You Charlie Freeman--Kaitlyn Greenidge
White Teeth--Zadie Smith
You Don't Have to Say You Love Me--Sherman Alexie

STILL TO COME:
At some point along the way, I shared about my project on facebook and got a TON of great recommendations. I wasn't able to read all of them in the past year, but here's the list. I draw from it regularly:

Almanac of the Dead--Leslie Marmon Silko
Ancestor Stones--Aminatta Forna
Bad Feminist--Roxane Gay
Balm in Gilead: Journey of a Healer--Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Blue Boy--Rakesh Satyal
The Bone People -- Kerri Hulme
Book of Salt--Monique Truong
Breath, Eyes, Memory--Edwidge Dandicat
A Brief History Of Seven Killings--Marlon James
Bright Lines--Tanwi Nandini Islam
Cane--Jean Toomer
Castle Cross the Magnet Carter--Kia Corthron
Caucasia--Danzy Senna
Ceremony-- Leslie Marmon Silko.
Collected Plays--August Wilson
The Cooking Gene--Michael Twitty
The Count of Monte Cristo--Alexander Dumas
Days of Obligation--Richard Rodriguez
Delicious Foods--James Hanniham
Erasure--Percival Everett
Famished Road--Ben Okri
A Fine Balance--Rohinton Mistry
Fledgling--Octavia Butler
Hired Man--Aminatta Forna
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms--N. K. Jemisin
If He Hollers Let Him Go--Chester Himes
Johnny Would You Love Me if My Dick Were Bigger?--Brontez Purnell
Just Mercy--Bryan Stevens
Kafka Was All the Rage--Anatole Broyard
Krazy Kat--George Harriman
Krik? Krak!--Edwidge Dandicat
Lady Sings the Blues--Billie Holiday and William Dufty
The Light of the World--Elizabeth Alexander
Love Bones and Water--Adam Zameenzad
The Lowland--Jumpa Lahiri
Memory of Love--Aminatta Forna
My Bondage and My Freedom--Frederick Douglas
Native Son--Richard Wright
Negroland--Margo Jefferson [read]
The New Jim Crow--Michelle Alexander [read]
Olio--Tyehimba Jess
One-Bedroom Solo--Sheila Maldonado
Out--Natsuo Kirino
Parable of the Sower--Octavia Butler
Push--Sapphire
Radiance of Tomorrow-- Ishmael Beah
The Star Side of Bird Hill--Naomi Jackson
Times Square Red, Times Square Blue--Samuel R. Delany
Topdog Underdog--Suzan Lori Parks
Venus--Suzan Lori Parks
Walkin' the Dog--Walter Mosely
The Warmth of Other Suns--Isabel Wilkerson
Wild Swans--Jung Chang
Woman Warrior--Maxine Hong Kingston

BOOKS I'VE READ ALONG THE WAY:
A selection of books by authors of color which I read prior to this year's project:

Another Country--James Baldwin
At the Bottom of the River--Jamaica Kincaid
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Barbarian Nurseries--Hector Tobar
Beloved--Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye--Toni Morrison
Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao--Junot Diaz
The Color Purple--Alice Walker
The Fire Next Time--James Baldwin
Giovanni's Room--James Baldwin
The God of Small Things--Arundhati Roy
House of the Spirits--Isabel Allende
House on Mango Street--Sandra Cisneros
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings--Maya Angelou
Interpreter of Maladies--Jumpha Lahiri
Invisible Man--Ralph Ellison
Jazz--Toni Morrison
Joy Luck Club--Amy Tan
Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse--Louise Erdrich
A Little Life--Hanya Yanagihara
Love in the Time of Cholera--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Love Medicine--Louise Erdrich
On Beauty--Zadie Smith
One Hundred Years of Solitude--Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Plague of Doves--Louise Erdrich
The Roundhouse--Louise Erdrich
Sula--Toni Morrison
Tears We Cannot Stop--Michael Eric Dyson
Their Eyes Were Watching God--Zora Neale Hurston

Are there books you’d like to add to these lists and/or recommend? Add them in the comments.

Additional sources:

10 Books I Wish My White Teachers Had Read--Crystal Paul
Inside Junot Díaz’s class at MIT: What the writer wants his students to read
salon.com|By Prachi Gupta
'The Fire This Time': A New Generation Of Writers On Race In America