The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander (The New Press, 2020)
This book discusses how the criminal justice system is a controlled form of racism. It challenges people to examine the criminal justice system as the starting point for racial justice. (USC Libraries)
White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide by Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury, 2016)
In this multiple award-winning book, the author presents an honest conservation of racism in the country and the various factors that have impeded the progress of black Americans. (USC Libraries)
How Does it Feel to Be a Problem? Being Young and Arab in America by Moustafa Bayoumi (Penguin Press, 2008)
The author explores the lives of seven young Arab and Muslim American men and women. This chronicles the lives of these people living in Brooklyn, New York after the terrorist attacks, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. (USC Libraries)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau, 2015)
A well-written letter from father to son that attempts to answer some questions about American and voices a father's concern for this black adolescent son. The author addresses questions such as "what is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live within it? How can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and free ourselves from its burden?" (USC Libraries)
Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties by Mike Davis, Jon Weiner (Verso Books, 2020)
These authors tell the history of Los Angeles during the 1960s. They describe L.A. through the lens of social and political change. (USC Libraries)
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press, 2018)
This anti-racist educator explores what "white fragility" is, how it manifests itself when Whites are confronted racially, and how it protects racial inequality. The book offers possible solutions. (USC Libraries)
Minor Feelings; An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Pak Hong (One World, 2020)
The author reveals through the story of her life, the struggle of being Asian American. She discusses how she is not white enough and not black enough and the myths associated with Asian Americans. (USC Libraries)
On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2021)
"This book provides a historian's view of the country's long road to Juneteenth, recounting both its origins in Texas and the enormous hardships that African-Americans have endured in the century since, from Reconstruction through Jim Crow and beyond." Publisher's website (LexisNexis Digital Library) Access Limited to USC Law users.
Killing Rage: Ending Racism by Bell Hooks (Holt Paperbacks, 1996)
A collection of essays on topics ranging relating to race and racism in the United States. The title essay explores finding healing in love from the rage of encountering everyday racism. (USC Libraries)
How to Be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi (One World, 2019)
A book that gives a personal narrative of the journey of the writer. It gives the steps to going beyond being aware to being active in social justice. (USC Libraries)
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (Nation Books, 2016)
This is a well-researched book that chronicles the history of anti-black racist ideas. It explores the power of these ideas of racism and how they shaped the course of American history. (USC Libraries)
This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism by Don Lemon (Little, Brown and Company 2021)
CNN host Don Lemon reflects on the dialogue of race in America by exploring the history and legacy of sources of systemic injustice such as slavery and segregation. Lemon writes on resistance and reflects on how to end racism by discussing the role of race in his reporting, family history, and personal experiences.
The Sum of Us: How Racism Costs Us All and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee (One World, 2021)
In this book, the author explores how racism harms all people, risks democracy, and negatively affects various areas of people’s lives from employment to healthcare. She sets forth the theory of “solidarity dividend” in order to move forward together to overcome racism challenges. (EBSCOhost)
Making All Black Lives Matter by Barbara Ransby (University of California Press, 2018)
The author presents a personal and historical account of the Black Lives Matter Movement. (USC Libraries)
Bearing Witness While Black : African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism by Allissa V. Richardson (Oxford University Press, 2020)
The story of the Black Lives Matter movement documented by 15 activists. This book documents the use of journalism and storytelling the atrocities "over three overlapping eras of domestic terror against African-American people" evolved and continues to evolve into moral and social change (Goodreads, 2020). (USC Libraries)
Reproducing Racism: How Everyday Choices Lock in White Advantage by Daria Roithmayr (NYU Press, 2014)
The author argues that racial inequality continues because of white advantage, and self-reinforcing white monopolies. (USC Law Library)
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (Liveright, 2017)
This book explores how the American cities became segregated through laws and policies enacted by the government. The research begins in the 1920's and also includes the history of police and prosecutor brutality. (USC Libraries)
The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America by Nikesh Shukla & Chimene Suleyman, editors (Back Bay Books, 2019)
This book is a series of stories from non-white immigrants living in America. It features first- and second-generation immigrants from various countries, foreign cultures, and religions. This US edition follows the popular UK edition of "The Good Immigrant". (USC Libraries)
White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele (Harper Perennial, 2006)
The book about race relations in the United States is divided into four parts: The story of White Guilt, An Expanding Guilt, The ways of blindness, and Dissociation and Culture. (USC Libraries)
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Haymarket Books, 2016)
Many call this book an "eye-opener," providing insights into race relations history, civil rights and social movements, and the illusions created by the presidency of Barack Obama. (USC Libraries)
The Complexities of Race: Identity, Power, and Justice in an Evolving America by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe, Editor (NYU Press, 2021)
In this collection of essays, scholars examine contemporary and critical events through the lenses of race and racism. (EBSCOhost)