Reading Up On Racism

Many thanks to Ayisha Elliott for her enlightening article “Choose Kindness” (EW 5/20) and her definition of real kindness. Three books I would recommend as especially useful in learning about my role as a white person in the white supremacist culture we all live in are Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad, So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo and My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem.

These brilliant and generous authors offer many tools for gaining insight. It helps to share the work together in book groups or learning circles. Changing the ways we see ourselves and our culture is deep and uncomfortable work, but we must engage with it if we truly want to create a kind and just society for everyone.

Mia Coltrane

Eugene